Clockwork Aquario is an arcade platformer from Wonder Boy's Ryuichi Nishizawa. Originally developed in the early 90s, it was rejected after a poor response from location testing, and sat on the shelf until ININ Games started working with the guy to do a bunch of Wonder Boy rereleases in the 2010s. Preservationists may applaud them for finishing and releasing the game, but it's easy to see why it was originally denied release. It's not very interesting, and it's about ten minutes long.
It's still a really good-looking game, and the soundtrack is great. Bright and energetic presentation. It's the kind of thing I can imagine CVG printing three screenshots of, and me becoming obsessed with for decades afterwards. It compares pretty well against flashy 2D Saturn platformers like Super Tempo and Tryrush Deppy, in that regard. But like those games, it's not actually much fun to play.
You can bounce on enemies, pick them up, and throw them. Sustaining bounces or lining up a few enemies in a row will increase your score. It's fine. The level designs rarely do anything ambitious or interesting, and you're sent off to the end of level boss before you've had the chance to take anything in.
ININ have attempted to give it a premium release, and even produced an elaborate "Ultra Collector's Edition" which still hasn't sold through, years later, but it's hard to imagine anyone who would care that much about the title if not for its "lost game" status. I'm a little annoyed for anyone who spent more than a tenner on this.
This modern release features a gallery of concept art and notes from the developers. It's easy to sympathise with them, especially for the great work they put into the art and soundtrack, but every veteran developer is sitting on a graveyard of amazing rejected pitches and promising projects that were canned before announcement. Publishers are constantly chewing out games that don't seem commercially viable, and it's easy to see why that decision was taken with Clockwork Aquario. It's really not very special, and anyone who would convince you otherwise is naive to the nature of the industry.
It's currently on sale for about two quid on digital storefronts, and I had enough Gold Points on my eShop account to get it for free. If you're really into peppy 90s spritework and high energy synth soundtracks, you might get something out of it, but it's unlikely to make much of an impact. This was only ever going to be a game that got passing curiosity from arcade visitors until the queue for Virtua Fighter died down.
It's still a really good-looking game, and the soundtrack is great. Bright and energetic presentation. It's the kind of thing I can imagine CVG printing three screenshots of, and me becoming obsessed with for decades afterwards. It compares pretty well against flashy 2D Saturn platformers like Super Tempo and Tryrush Deppy, in that regard. But like those games, it's not actually much fun to play.
You can bounce on enemies, pick them up, and throw them. Sustaining bounces or lining up a few enemies in a row will increase your score. It's fine. The level designs rarely do anything ambitious or interesting, and you're sent off to the end of level boss before you've had the chance to take anything in.
ININ have attempted to give it a premium release, and even produced an elaborate "Ultra Collector's Edition" which still hasn't sold through, years later, but it's hard to imagine anyone who would care that much about the title if not for its "lost game" status. I'm a little annoyed for anyone who spent more than a tenner on this.
This modern release features a gallery of concept art and notes from the developers. It's easy to sympathise with them, especially for the great work they put into the art and soundtrack, but every veteran developer is sitting on a graveyard of amazing rejected pitches and promising projects that were canned before announcement. Publishers are constantly chewing out games that don't seem commercially viable, and it's easy to see why that decision was taken with Clockwork Aquario. It's really not very special, and anyone who would convince you otherwise is naive to the nature of the industry.
It's currently on sale for about two quid on digital storefronts, and I had enough Gold Points on my eShop account to get it for free. If you're really into peppy 90s spritework and high energy synth soundtracks, you might get something out of it, but it's unlikely to make much of an impact. This was only ever going to be a game that got passing curiosity from arcade visitors until the queue for Virtua Fighter died down.