''Claymates'' is a

platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...

for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is one of Interplay's

clay animation Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay. Tra ...

titles which also included the ''

ClayFighter ''ClayFighter'' is a fighting/beat 'em up series of video games. The series is noted for having character sprites rendered from clay-animated figures, and for having humorous parodies of other fighting games such as ''Street Fighter'' and ''M ...

'' series.

Overview

The protagonist of the game is a boy named Clayton, whose scientist father has developed a serum that can transform people into animals when it's combined with clay. Suddenly, Jobo the

witch doctor A witch doctor (also spelled witch-doctor) was originally a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. The term is now more commonly used to refer to healers, particularly in regions which use traditional healing ...

appears and demands the formula for the serum. The father refuses, to which Jobo replies by changing Clayton into a ball of clay and stealing away both his father and the serum. Clayton vows to save his father in spite of his new form and embarks on a journey through his backyard, the Pacific, Japan, Africa, and finally outer space. The player uses samples of serum lying around in these levels to transform into one of five different animals (Muckster the Cat, Doh-Doh the Duck, Oozy the Mouse, Goopy the Guppy, and Globmeister the Gopher) to best fit with the environment and make it to the end of the level. Special abilities that are in a clay ball transform Clayton into helpful animals as he races the clock to collect as much as possible and still make it to the end, jumping over obstacles and attacking with the animal in use. Clayton must also be careful not to be hit while a blob or he'll die.

Development and release

''Claymates'' was developed by

Visual Concepts Visual Concepts Entertainment is an American video game developer based in Novato, California. Founded in May 1988, the company is best known for developing sports games in the ''2K'' franchise, most recently ''NBA 2K'' and '' WWE 2K'', and pr ...

and published by

Interplay Productions Interplay Entertainment Corp. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by developers Brian Fargo, Jay Patel, Troy Worrell, and Rebecca ...

. Interplay entered into a distribution contract with

studio Cineplay Interactive, a subsidiary of

Will Vinton William Gale Vinton (November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018) was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for his Claymation work, alongside creating iconic characters such as The California Raisins. He won an Oscar for his wor ...

Productions which also included the fighting game ''

'' and the chess game ''

Battle Chess 4000 A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

''. ''Claymates'' was produced by Interplay veteran Michael Quarles, designed by Gregory A. Thomas of Visual Concepts, and animated by A-OK Animation, the last of which was responsible for mascots such as

Gumby ''Gumby'' is an American clay animation franchise, centered on the titular green clay humanoid character created and modeled by Art Clokey. Gumby stars in two television series, the feature-length '' Gumby: The Movie'', and other media. He im ...

and the

Pillsbury Doughboy Poppin' Fresh, more widely known as the Pillsbury Doughboy, is an advertising mascot for the Pillsbury Company, appearing in many of their commercials. Many commercials from 1965 until 2005 (together with some for GEICO between 2009 and 2017) en ...

. Thomas conceived ''Claymates'' under the working title "''Animal Connection''" for the Nintendo Entertainment System before production moved to the

SNES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in E ...

. Quarles stated the game's clay characters were made in an attempt "to have the consistency of something like ''

Flintstones ''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighbor ...

'' in character and story" while Thomas claimed was designed to have "the speed of '' Sonic'', the maps of ''

Mario is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his cre ...

'', and colors that have never been done before". For the game's audio, Interplay employed the Advanced Real-time Dynamic Interplay (ARDI) Sound System. This proprietary

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and ...

tool allowed composers to play music and sound effects directly from SNES

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

files to save on memory by only occupying 18

kilobyte The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The International System of Units (SI) defines the prefix '' kilo'' as 1000 (103); per this definition, one kilobyte is 1000 bytes.International Standard IEC 80000-13 Quant ...

s of space. Characters from ''Claymates'' would also appear in the pre-fight introductions of ''ClayFighter'', which was released around the same time. The line "Blaze Processing" featured on the box art and in the manual of ''Claymates'' is a reference to Sega's claims of "Blast Processing" in some its US Sega Genesis advertisements. A Genesis version of ''Claymates'' was planned but never released. In July 2021, ''Claymates'' was added to the

Nintendo Switch Online Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) is an online subscription service for the Nintendo Switch video game console. Nintendo Switch Online features include online multiplayer, cloud saving, voice chat via a smartphone app, access to a library of Nint ...

classic games service.

Reception

''Claymates'' received mostly positive reviews.

Notes

References

External links

* {{ClayFighter 1993 video games Cancelled Nintendo Entertainment System games Cancelled Sega Genesis games Clay animation video games Interplay Entertainment games Nintendo Switch Online SNES games Platform games Single-player video games Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Super Nintendo Entertainment System-only games Video games about shapeshifting Video games scored by Charles Deenen Video games set in Africa Video games set in Japan Video games set in outer space Video games set in the United States Video games with digitized sprites Video games with underwater settings Video games developed in the United States