Format: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Developer: Zynga Inc
Claymation to me seems like some kind of long lost art from. It is deemed far too time-consuming for movies and TV these days, and the last video game that I can remember off the top of my head that used claymation was Clayfighter on the Nintendo 64. So as soon as I saw this game a big goofy grin came right across my face. Trying to describe just what kind of genre Clay Jam falls into is quite tough, but I think action game with a few god sim-type elements is a good way to get the basic idea of what the game is about.
Wow is all you can really say to describe the amazing visuals of Clay Jam. Everything in this game is made from clay and it looks tremendous. It looks like no other game on the iOS right now. Heck you could easily say that it looks like no game on any of the major game consoles either. The art style in this game is really a breath of fresh air and every time I play this I think how long it must have taken the guys behind this game to pull it off.
Clay Jam actually has quite the interesting story behind it. You see years and years ago there was a place that was made out of clay and everyone there got along fine and dandy, until one day a rag tag bunch of Bully Beasts attacked and destroyed everything and everyone. When you stumble across this land many years later, you encounter a little clay fellow simply known as Fat Pebble. Who along with your help will rid his home of the Bully Beasts and bring back all his clay buddies.
There are two main goals in each level of Clay Jam that you will be trying to help Fat Pebble complete. First one is to rebuild the land and bring back all the clay folks. In order to repopulate the clay world, you will need to roll over pieces of clay – and the more pieces you roll over the bigger you become – and you can use this clay to rebuild the world.
The second part of the game is to get rid of the Bully Beasts that are taking over the clay world. This is quite a different game play mechanic from rebuilding the land. Each level has a Bully Beast at the bottom of the hill and you need to roll Fat Pebble down there to beat him. You need to roll over smaller clay monsters in order to make Fat Pebble big and strong enough to defeat the Bully Beast. Fat Pebble is always rolling forward along a clay path, and you will need to swipe the clay in front of him to make him change direction so he can run over smaller monsters or avoid hazards. The bigger you make Fat Pebble, the further away the Bully Beast will fly when you crash into him, and thus earning you more points.
There is far more to the game than just these two main games however. To really beat each part of the game you will need to do a number of quests. A couple of examples of quests that you can expect to do are things like squash 20 monsters and squash only monsters that are blue. These quests do a good job of extending the game without ever making it feel like they were added just for the purpose of making the game longer.
In all I can hand on heart say that Clay Jam is one of the most wonderful games that I have played on the iOS this year! I cannot recommend it enough. It ticks all the right boxes – it is great to look at, fun to play and a nice little challenge as well.