Now Playing: Clay Fighter 63 1/3 (1997)
Topic: Nintendo 64
I am a big fan of the Clay Fighter series - the original SNES game is a classic fighting game with a slew of wacky characters, and it was a game that seemed to deliberately be different from the bigger, more popular fighting games of the day like Street Fighter II and the Mortal Kombat franchise. Clay Fighter, I feel, has a unique place in gaming history as the alternative to the fighting game giants, and to its own credit, it was not only different, but a darn good game. Two sequels would follow on the SNES, and eventually a fourth game in the franchise would arrive on the Nintendo 64. In 1997, game company Interplay (who made all the Clay Fighter titles) released Clay Fighter 63 1/3, and let me say right off the bat that the title is great! In typical Clay Fighter humor, it pokes fun at the fact that it seemed every N64 game had the suffix "64" attached to it. For instance - Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Pilotwings 64, Wave Race 64, Doom 64, and Starfox 64 to name a few, you get it. So, naming a game "63 1/3" - I like it!
Unfortunately, that is where the appeal ends for this game. I remember being very excited to get this game. I didn't get it back in 1997 when it came out, though I remember all the articles about it in Nintendo Power - and it looked awesome! However, many games back then cost an astronomical 70 dollars, so you had to be particularly selective, so I ultimately passed on it. 70 dollars! Games today don't even cost that! Anyway, I eventually got Clay Fighter 63 1/3 about ten years later used at a Gamestop for about 5 bucks - I thought, what a deal! Alright, so I popped it in my system and with such anticipation, I turned it on...and there in lies my disappointment. Maybe if I never turned the game on, I would have never felt so disgusted and downright appalled. If I only remembered 63 1/3 as a concept rather than an actual game, it would be remembered more fondly.
In a nutshell, 63 1/3 is sloppy. Aside from the games title, the game itself lacked the sort of fun and charm that was ever so present in the earlier iterations in the franchise. The graphics in this game were very blurry, and just completely unappealing to the eye. Couple the hideous visuals with some slow and sluggish gameplay, and you have a bad game. It often looked like a game that was half finished, as many of the stages had such vapid, under developed looking backgrounds. And maybe if the game developers took more time to at least polish the controls, it might be playable. But don't have a game that not only looks bad, but plays just as bad! It's a shame! This game could have been another classic take on the franchise, but it ended up being a forgtten relic of gamings past. Simply put, stick with the SNES games.
In 1998, Clay Fighter: Sculptor's Cut was released, and is apparently an upgraded version of 63 1/3. There shouldn't have been an upgrade, because the original should have been good enough!
Well, this game was just a big disappointment in my book. I hate to give a Clay Fighter game such a low score of 1.6, but, sadly, it deserves it. In fact, this game is so awful, I ended up returning it to the Gamestop store I bought it in, getting my 5 dollars back, and you know what I swapped it for? For the same price, I got a used copy of Metroid Prime for Gamecube! Now talk about an upgrade!
-Kurt L.
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Updated: Sunday, 31 January 2010 10:00 AM EST
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