The Neverhood
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The Neverhood is a 1996 PC CD-ROM claymation video game created by animator Doug TenNapel and released by Dreamworks Studios. It is an adventure game. Each clay animation is painstakingly captured frame-by-frame.
Due to the quirky and wacky animation, silly characters and unusual music by composer Terry Scott Taylor, this award winning game has a cult following to this day, in spite of the fact that it has been out of print and largely unavailable for years. As of 2006, there are numerous fansites devoted to The Neverhood. Its soundtrack, , also continues to sell well.
Despite an appearance which can be considered silly and childish, the game itself is extremely difficult, requiring lots of note-taking of symbols, colors and sequences (The game does not provide an in-game notebook). The Neverhood is considered to be one of the most difficult adventure games even by contemporary standards. Although it was popular with younger audiences, the game itself was intended for ages 17 and up.
The Neverhood received good reviews, but was not a commercial hit. By the mid-1990s adventure games had begun to decline in popularity. Several other adventure games made in this period such as Grim Fandango also received critical acclaim, but failed to sell well. The Neverhood was put in the official Microsoft list of underrated games. [[Citing sources citation needed]]
A sequel to The Neverhood was released in 1997-98 for Sony's PlayStation video game console entitled Skullmonkeys. It was not an adventure game like the first installment, but rather a platformer.
Characters
Klaymen is the protagonist of the story. You lead him on his adventures through The Neverhood, solving puzzles and getting out of tough scrapes. He is a curious, cheerful klay being and a friend of Willie Trombone. Klaymen is the hero of the Neverhood, and also to Planet Idznak. He saves the creator of the Neverhood, Hoborg, from his long, solid sleep and ruins evil Klogg's plan. After some time, Klaymen is called to the Planet Idznak by a Skullmonkey, Jerry-O. He soon finds out that Klogg went to Planet Idznak to fufill his plan of revenge against the Neverhood. Klaymen frees the skull monkeys from Klogg's evil reign and destroys the Evil Engine No.9.Klogg is a klay creature created by Hoborg for companionship. Although originally just greedy, after stealing Hoborg's crown Klogg became downright sinister. He will stop at nothing to keep you from completing your quest.
Hoborg is the creator of The Neverhood. He also gave life to Klaymen and the Evil Klogg. Hoborg means 'Big Heart.' He, with Willie Trombone and Big Robot Bil's help, went through a harsh journey and got the finest klay (or clay, if you prefer) in the universe. This klay could last for ever, and was perfect to make the Neverhood. The first son he made was Klogg, but Klogg wanted to be the ruler and took Hoborg's crown. Without the crown, Hoborg went into a deep sleep, lifeless. Luckily, one life seed escaped Klogg's attention. Willie took this seed, which grew into Klaymen, the hero who would save the Neverhood from Klogg's evil reign. Later, Klaymen got the crown back and returned it to Hoborg's head. Hoborg was pleased and made many more sons with the remaining life seeds.
Willie Trombone is Klaymen's dimwitted friend and informant throughout the game. Willie is afraid of Klogg and really wants to help Klaymen, but his bumbling antics will get him into trouble so be ready to help him when he calls.
Big Robot Bil is Willie's pal. He is humongous, metal, very squeaky, and just wants to hold his teddy bear. He was one of the robots that Ottoborg created. There were three of them, Appie, Togor and Bil. Bil was good at building. When Ottoborg's world broke apart, Bil met Willie Trombone. Then they met Hoborg, and helped him to find the finest klay in the universe. In gratitude, Hoborg gave Bil a Blue Teddy bear. Bil loved it. Willie and Bil stayed in Hoborg's world called The Neverhood, after Hoborg finished it. But Klogg took over Neverhood and he trapped Bil in a sort of prison. He also turned Bil bad, by pushing a lever from 'good' to 'bad' inside Bil's body. Soon Klaymen came to rescue. Bil's good nature was restored and Bil got his Teddy back. But Klogg was watching, he sent the Clockwork Beast to stop Klaymen. Bil defeated the beast with Klaymen's help. But Teddy was broken by the beast with its Bear Retrieval Units. Klogg wasn't satisfied yet, he fired the cannon and blew a hole on Bil's body, soon he fell out of the Neverhood along with Willie. Willie appeared in Skullmonkeys, the second game of Neverhood, and Bil was left on The Neverhood to protect it until Klaymen got back.
Bear Retrieval Unit Or the crit units, are sent out by the clockwork beast to retrieve Bil's blue bear. They are eyeless, beaked, skinny creatures who wear red hats and drive in a roofless car with a harpoon gun.
Clockwork Beast A machine beast created by Klogg to protect his castle. It's about the size of Big Robot Bil, and looks similar to the crit units, expect for its two cyborg eyes and other mechinized features. It was released once to try and stop Big Robot Bil from entering Klogg's castle. It knocked down Bil and ripped off his blue bear's head. Bil got angry and defeated the beast by knocking it out of The Neverhood.
The Neverhood Hall of Records
The Neverhood Hall of Records is a 38-screen long wall filled with The Neverhood Chronicles, Bible-esque lore of the universe in which the Neverhood exists. The Hall of Records was made up of a self-carving, history recording klay wall. This wall once belonged to Quater, the creation of Father. Quater, as Father commanded, recorded history with these walls. There were seven of these klay walls, given to Quater's seven sons. One of them could be found in the Neverhood, in the Hall of Records. The wall stopped recording when Klogg took the throne of Hoborg. In unofficial russian translation of the game writings on the wall were replaced with humorous stories.Trivia
- A PlayStation port of the PC game dubbed "Klaymen Klaymen" was made and released to Japanese audiences only. The Japanese release of Skullmonkeys in turn, received the apropriate name "Klaymen Klaymen 2". Following the sequel, another Japanese PlayStation Neverhood game called "Klaymen Gun-Hockey" was made. This game is a variation of the parlor game Air Hockey, only played with guns instead of paddles. It was not made by "The Neverhood" and does not feature Claymation.
- Klaymen is featured as a secret fighter for the PlayStation game "Boombots" made by "The Neverhood"
External links
- [The Neverhood] at MobyGames
- [The Neverhood official site archive]
- [The Neverhood Fanlisting]
- [Doo's Neverhood FanPage]
- [The Neverhood TV]
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