![]() But something about the tone of the trailers made me slightly suspicious that Ayo might not turn out to be the sweet, adorable mascot he was made out to be. Of course, I was given little reason to believe that Ayo would be evil, beyond the fact that he is a clown. If a gamer enjoys side scrolling platformers and does not suffer a fear of clowns, this is an easy recommendation.I’ve had a lot of fun with Ayo the Clown leading up to the game’s release, writing a continuing series of little articles attempting to discern whether Ayo is a cute, happy clown or a creepy, murderous clown. There are even 3 difficulty settings so that the experience can be a bit more fine-tuned depending on the audience. It is a respectable length for a low price that can be enjoyed by all ages. The key word when it comes to Ayo the Clown is fun. The saving grace is that since the run time is about 8 hours and there is such a variety, if there are some that you do not enjoy, they usually don’t last long enough to really hurt your experience. The controls beyond the wall jump are fine by the way. Perhaps by removing the needless fishing mini game there could have been extra time to tighten up the controls on the wall jumps, which are awful, perhaps some of the worst I can recall. When you spread yourself so thin, it’s not surprising to make little mistakes. There are auto scrolling levels, levels where you fly a helicopter almost like a shooter, and even levels where you drive around in a tank where you have to manually aim the cannon. The bit of tripping up that the game does that was referred to earlier comes from all of the different mechanics in it. The only odd choice was making the basic jump be something that you have to unlock rather being granted from the beginning at least it is only a level and a half away. ![]() ![]() Of course when you unlock one, you can anticipate using it for a series of puzzles and obstacles for the levels that immediately follow. As you progress you will unlock tried and true maneuvers such as slides and wall jumps at very nicely spaced out intervals. The game provides a very nice arsenal of abilities to be used in the adventure. In regards to the story, the very boldly cell shaded still shots used as a sort of cut scene are wonderfully animated. The player only really needs to know that they are to run and jump from the left side of the level to the right all while doing random things such as using swaying mushrooms as platforms, stopping on floating fishes and of course grabbing gems all throughout. That’s it, not much more to read into it than that and there doesn’t need to be. This is a game about a clown on an adventure to rescue his dog. It’s almost expected from these kid friendly games at this point but there does not have to be a face on an anchor in the pier level and I can’t imagine any other time where the hero in a game wears a boot upside down on their body, that also has a face on it, that naturally sprays fire. ![]() When you reach a checkpoint within a level for example, a hand will reach out and slap a pie in the clowns face. The charm really comes from all of the little touches that could be missed or unappreciated if you just observe from a far. Since the game doesn’t take on a serious subject matter, there is a lot of freedom to explore different visual locations, NPCs and even power ups. The use of 3D assets on flat backgrounds while having them scroll at slightly different speeds adds a great feeling of depth to what is already a very creative, imaginative world. Graphically the team behind the game made a decision to go with a very simplistic art style that allows for the highlighting of bold characters and colorful designs rather than a focus on technical prowess. While it is a very competently built game that aims to send everyone home happy there are a few small instances where it trips itself up over its own ambitions. Ayo the Clown is a platformer built on the stronger foundations of the genre that is both adorable and charming.
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