Overview
Clockwork Knight, known in-game as Clockwork Knight: Pepperouchau's Adventure and in Japan as Clockwork Knight: Pepperouchau no Daibouken - Joukan, is a 2.5D comedic fantasy platformer developed and published by Sega for the Sega Saturn in Japan on December 9, 1994, with its overseas release as launch titles (May 11, 1995 in North America and July 8, 1995 in Europe).
Themed on living toys, Clockwork Knight puts players in the role of the clumsy wind-up toy soldier Sir Tongara de Pepperouchau III as he sets out to rescue the Clockwork Fairy Princess Chelsea (who wakes up the toys from her clock when the house owners are asleep) from a hypnotized army of toys. The game is known for its cartoonish 3D art style, its use of pre-rendered 3D sprites (similar to Donkey Kong Country) with fully-rendered 3D environments, and for its use of currency (Imperial Crowns) both for its shell game gambling mini-game and for continuing.
It is the first of a two-part story, with the sequel (Clockwork Knight 2, or Clockwork Knight: Pepperouchau no Daibouken - Gekan) released soon after. A Japan-exclusive compilation disc (Clockwork Knight: Pepperouchau no Fukubukuro) was then released. The North American version of the game's sequel turned out to be the compilation disc with the original game missing from the menu, with the original game's boss fights and cutscenes playable in bonus modes, and a cheat code to unlock the original game was found nearly 30 years later.
Gameplay
Clockwork Knight plays very similar to many other 16-bit platform titles. Pepperouchau's main attack involves using a key as a sword; a quick tap of the attack button makes him thrust quickly, but holding the button down makes him hold the key outward and twist it, which does more damage to energy but also makes Pepperouchau stand still. In addition to this Pepperouchau can throw stunned enemies as well as various objects that are scattered around the levels.
The objective of each level is to simply get to the end before the timer runs out. The game has thirteen levels, with every third level being a boss battle. After each boss battle the player is given a chance to play a roulette mini-game to obtain extra lives or crowns, the game's main collectible item. There is no save game function in Clockwork Knight.
Areas
- Betsy's Room
- Kevin's Room
- Kitchen
- Attic
Players then fight the final boss, "Crazy T.V."
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