Game Review: Neverhood

My video game history started when my uncle brought me to one of the various video arcade in Hong Kong, I think the one I first went to was more like a Chuck E Cheese's. I was allowed to walk around and watch but not touch. I've been to friend's house to play their Nintendo Famicom or Sega Master System and it had got me so jealous that one day in 1990 I tricked my grandma into emptying out my savings account and went to the biggest department store and bought the SMS. Not knowing by that time a newer faster more popular system was already out and I could have saved a bundle if I have just gone to the hoodlum mall to get it. Within a year, the machine was worthless and I sold it for a song, it's not until I've got my first summer job that I bought a Playstation. It was for mostly for the game Resident Evil (We call it Biohazard in Asia). For a small fee you can have your console unlocked in the hoodlum mall and after it is unlocked you can play all the copied game to your heart's content without paying full price. Of course, the Playstation became my most treasured possession and it was the first item that I know I'd bring over here to the United States when I was attending college.

When I was in school, I'd still ask my friends to mail me new games and one of the most memorable games I played was a claymation adventure puzzle game called Neverhood created by the DreamWorks Studio. The animation was fluid and high quality in Playstation standard, the whole thing was stylish and imaginative. The storyline followed Klayman, a naturally curious clay-made man comes into self-realization, saving its creator, fighting and avoiding monsters through completing tasks and puzzles. The game is now selling from Ebay at the range of $50~$200, it's probably too slow and simple to actually be played again, but it was good in memory.



Other than the fun puzzles and the colorful clay world, the other great selling point of the game is its wonderful and whimsical music of Terry Scott Taylor. It's jazzy, country, gothic and anything under the sun. It sounds like it'd be in Beetlejuice or A Nightmare Before Christmas with a hint of Cirque du Soleil. Heck, just the story alone is the conversation between God and John from Quidam. I have hunted the CD down online a few years back and still listen to some of it from time to time, it's crazily cheerful.


"Intro" - It'll also give you a sense of the claymation.


"Skat Radio"


"Potatoes, Tomatoes, Gravy and Peas" - My favorite goof ball song.