Review: Clive ‘N’ Wrench is a ’90s tribute that’s sadly more Aqua than Oasis
Playing Clive ‘N’ Wrench makes us feel like a high school teacher trying to make a school bully turn his life around.
“I keep sticking up for you in the staff room,” they say. “I know deep down you’re a good kid, but you keep letting me down.”
As every hour passes with this game we can tell that, at its core, it’s a passionate, well-intentioned love letter to the ‘90s era of platform games.
However, as every hour passes we also find ourselves becoming more and more infuriated at the countless issues that are presented to us with unacceptable regularity.
The game is the creation of Dinosaur Bytes, which is actually a one-man operation. Developer Rob Wass has spent around 12 years making this game single-handedly from scratch, and his accomplishment in that sense can’t be denied.
Clive ‘N’ Wrench is a heartfelt tribute to the way 3D platformers were in the PS1, PS2 and N64 era, right down to the presence of cheery animal mascot protagonists.
Clive (a rabbit) and Wrench (a monkey) have to travel through time and space in an attempt to stop the evil Dr Daucus from finding the Ancient Stones that will give him the power he needs for complete domination.
Players have to make their way through 11 different worlds from a variety of time periods, collecting these Ancient Stones along the way.
The whole thing’s very Super Mario 64 in nature, as the Ancient Stones essentially act like that game’s Stars. Each world has a selection of Ancient Stones, and players have to collect a certain number of them to unlock access to the next boss fight (and then reach the next world by defeating them).
It’s clear that a great deal of attention to detail has been put into some of these worlds, most notably those early on in the game. Indeed, the first
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