"It's strange...
Sometimes I can't remember my dreams,
Though I'm sure I saw them.
Where do these dreams go?
But I remember this one dream,
As clearly as if it were reflected in a mirror..." - Klonoa
Klonoa is the name of a
dog/
cat-
hybrid-like character who stars in a number of
video games developed by
Namco. He has
long ears, and a
blue hat, with the image of
Pac-Man on it. He also has a very large belt-type
collar. He lives in
Breezegale, the
Wind Village. He's
friendly, and
peace-loving, and enjoys nothing more than
running around the fields of
Phantomile, with his childhood
friend,
Huepow. His
dreams usually end up becoming massive
adventures, with himself as the
hero. His
trademark saying? "
Wahoo!"
There are a number of Klonoa-based games on various formats, the first being released in
1997:
Following the success of the Klonoa series, the development team who created Klonoa have become a
subsidary of
Namco, and are known as
Klonoa Works.
Klonoa has also featured in other Namco games:
Also, it seems Namco have created some kind of Klonoa
comic, most likely to fulfil the needs of all the Klonoa fans in
Japan.
I love Klonoa.
As a
character, he is
cute,
lovable,
well designed,
different, and he has
Pac-Man on his hat. Surely a sign of
good taste (or ingenious advertising, pick whichever, they're both cool). He is easily on par with
Sonic and
Mario, in my book.
As a
game, Klonoa is
fun,
playable,
beautiful,
original, and shows that the
Japanese can't be beaten at
what they do best.
(Saying that, I played the game on rental and finished it in a few days. However, a few months later, I wanted to play it again. I went back to Blockbuster and they didn't have it anymore. I went to my local games shop, and they didn't have it in stock! I was gutted. It became my life's aim to find at least the CD so I could play it again. A few months ago, I got a second hand copy from EB. Annoyingly, it was badly scratched, and made all the lovely FMV jump.
Thankfully, after finding it listed on Software First, I ordered, they took a few weeks to get a copy in stock, and then sent it to me. A brand new copy of Klonoa. I am very lucky.)