File:Kaze no Klonoa Moonlight Museum Game Sample 1 2 - WonderSwan

Description
Kaze no Klonoa: Moonlight Museum [風のクロノア ムーンライトミュージアム] is a Japan-only title within the "Klonoa of the Wind" series developed for Bandai's WonderSwan handheld in 1999, and is a prequel to "Klonoa: Door to Phantomile" and the second title in the series. It is notable for being the first handheld Klonoa game as well as the first fully two-dimensional game, and served as the basis for some of the later GBA Klonoa games. However, it also quickly shows that this is his first handheld outing due to the game's overly simple interface and overall lack of polish, ultimately being a rather dull game. It is mainly recommended to collectors.

The game stars Klonoa and Huepow who are wandering the land when they come across a young crying girl. Desiring to help the girl, they ask her what's wrong and learn that the moon was somehow broken into fragments and stolen by a mysterious group of eccentric artists who reside in the nearby "Moonlight Museum", believing that people's dreams are art. Klonoa and Huepow enter the museum and are greeted by a painter named Picoo who soon trap the duo inside of his latest painting. Now the two have to find a way out of the painting by overcoming its power and travel around the museum (being placed into different realms by different artists) until they find who, or what, is ultimately responsible for the moon's captivity.

Before I say anything else, I should say that one of the most interesting aspects of the Klonoa games, Boss Battles, are completely absent. Yes, you read that right; there are NO boss battles. The game is more puzzle and less action. There are five worlds with six visions each and a bevy of obstacles, most that will be pretty familiar if you've played a Klonoa game before. On each stage, there are 30 Dream Stones that a player can collect (and if you collect all 180 in a world, you get to add a picture to your gallery) which are optional and three stars which MUST be found before you can exit a level. Generally speaking however, the game is incredibly easy (and the series isn't particularly known for its challenge factor) and the stages aren't too complex. It should be noted that some levels are vertical and the handheld must be held differently to play them, though the game doesn't make much good use of this and it seemed like just an unnecessary addition to the game and an excuse to use the unit's vertical-tilting feature.

The audio / visuals of the game are not particularly good. Even for a B&W WS title, the game is not very detailed and is only serviceable at best. The game has okay background layering and a few decent effects like lazy cloud scrolling and moving platforms, but it could've clearly looked better given the hardware. The audio is also okay and the familiar tunes sound respectable enough given the hardware, but the level themes get a little monotonous as you listen to one repetitive tune throughout each world. The voice samples are actually pretty nice though. There isn't much in the way of unlockables, but you can play a few (more) challenging EX stages upon completing the game for fun.

Overall, while I like most games in the Klonoa series, this game just comes off as a completely playable but dull and a somewhat uninspired game. Still, Namco had to start somewhere with his portable exploits, right? These vids go through the first world. Enjoy.