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I figured that this blog needed some new life, so I came up with a new blog section. I’ll be reviewing some obscure video games and some not so obscure when it tickles my fancy. I’d like to start off with the SNES point and click horror game Clock Tower. Clock Tower is the first in a series of survival horror series created by Human Entertainment. It is also the best in the series and the only one not with a US release. Unless you live in Japan, you’re going to have to break a few laws to play it. It’s worth it though. It’s a refreshing take on the survival horror, and I’m surprised its formula hasn’t been used more. Unlike other horror games where you have some kind of weapon, whether it's a shotgun or crowbar, in Clock Tower you don’t get any weapon. The way you survive is by hiding from the enemies. Essentially, it’s the slasher genre gone video game. My name is Bobby Barrows and I will be your serial killer tonight. Yeah, that’s right. The big bad in this game carries a giant pair of scissors. The typical fan nickname is Scissorman. Unfortunately this is a misnomer. For you see, the man part suggests that, well, that you’re going up against someone who is somewhat tall. Turns out that Bobby is no taller than three feet. I hereby propose the new name Scissor Midget. So once you run into Scissor Midget you are forced to run away from him as you desperately try to find a decent hiding spot. Now apparently there are a good sized dozen throughout the game. I however could only locate three so I just abused those. Luckily he’s a moron. The plot of the game goes something like this: you along with three of your friends are orphans from Norway who are adopted by the kindly Mr. and Mrs. Barrows. From left to right: Dead, Deader, Psycho Mom, Deadest, and Jennifer (The Player) After arriving, Mrs. Mary soon runs off to fetch Mr. Barrows. This leaves you to talk with your fellow victims friends. After some small talk, you eventually notice that Mrs. Barrows is taking awhile. You, foolishly, decide to go look for her. How in the world Jen survives this game is beyond me. So you go to find Mrs. Barrows, and get no more than halfway down the hallway before you hear a scream coming from the foyer. You immediately head back, only to find that the lights are off and everyone has disappeared. I find this ironic because there’s only one door leading out of the room. Conclusion: Your friends have the magical ability to teleport. I hate to break this to you Jen, but they’re all DEAD. So rather than being intelligent and hightailing it out of the creepy mansion, Jennifer decides to go find her friends. So I head back into the hallway and enter the first room I come across. I click everything, and it turns out there’s nothing really worth noting. Bleeding paintings? Nah, that stuff happens all the time So I head into the next room. I start clicking one everything I see and am treated to this little gem. Seriously Jen, even your own reflection wants you dead. This is the game over screen. Get used to it. You’ll be seeing it a lot. Fortunately, this game lets you continue from the room right before you died. A rather nice feature, considering the fact that anything and everything can kill you. It’s kind of ironic really. The biggest threat in this game is everything BUT the serial killer stalking you. You see that parrot? It poses more of a threat you than Scissor Midget. So I hit continue, don’t release the parrot and don’t look into the mirror, and head into the next room. Hmm, somebody is taking a shower. Let’s investigate. Serves you right you peeping Tom! So I have my first experience with Scissor Midget. Truth be told, I jumped when he popped out of the water. This game has some pretty good scary parts. So I run as fast as I can and get out of there. I saw a couple of beds in the other room, and decide that they would make a pretty good hiding spot, and start heading in that direction. However on my way, I am treated to a pleasant surprise. I don't know about you guys, but I want to know where he got those scissors. Somehow, Scissor Midget had managed to get ahead of me, despite the fact there was only one way out of the bathroom. Conclusion: Not only do your friends have the ability to teleport, so does Bobby. This actually happened a couple of times throughout the game where Scissor Midget would be chasing me and would magically happen to get ahead of me. Luckily, there’s a way around this. EXTREME HAND TO HAND COMBAT! Don’t ask me how she caught the scissors. I don’t get it either. If Scissor Midget gets close enough to you, you get to engage him in combat. This mainly consists of mashing the B button like a hyperactive monkey and hoping you win. If you don’t, they Bobby pushes you over and if you’re low on health you die. If you win however… MIDGET PUSH! At which point you get to run past him and hopefully get to where you want to go. In my case I rushed to the bedroom and hid under the bed. Bwuh?!? Where'd she go? So I continued on my merry old way until I stumbled across the garage. Luckily, there was a car. After spending some time convincing Jennifer that she should forget about the others and get the heck out of there, she finally does something smart and drives off. See, this is why you always check the back seat. Oddly enough, this counted as an ending for the game, because I got the credits right afterward. This brings up one of the neat features of this game: multiple endings. It was rather refreshing to see a game so old to have multiple endings. Even better, the best ending where you get to save a friend is NOT the canon ending. Instead THREE of the possible nine endings are canon. I dare you to try to figure that one out. So I hit my handy dandy continue button, and wisely decide not to hijack the car. Instead I start investigating the mansion. After investigating a few rooms and solving some a few non intuitive puzzles, I am surprised to find Mrs. Marry, who promptly offers you a drink. Jennifer once again proves her stupidity, and drinks it. Why Marry decides to just knock her out intstead of outright killing her is yet another unsolved mystery. So I wake up in what appears to be a jail cell. There’s this grimy old hobo in there with me. I try to talk to him, and he for some reason decides I’d make a pretty tasty meal and pounces on me. Apparently Jennifer tastes like chicken. After hitting continue a few times and always getting the same result, I consult a guide and determine that I need to give him some ham from the fridge. So I am forced to restart my game and go through everything again in order to get the ham. So after going through everything, I give him the ham and after some discussion, he identifies himself as Simon Barrows. He then goes on to spout some random nonsense about somebody watching me from the cradle under the stars. Yeah, I don’t get it either. And in a shocking turn of events, Dead shows up in order to do something useful! Kinda sad really, the only one person who’s actually useful is the one you can’t save in any of the endings. And ironically enough, she gets shot by Marry as soon as she leaves the building. I quickly duck behind the corner, grab a plank, and deal out some justice to Marry. Take the shotgun? Why would I do that? Everyone knows guns are useless in horror movies. So anyway, I continue on my merry little way exploring the house. Eventually I come upon a storage room and guess who shows up! Third step: You let her open the box. So the chase begins, and as I’m running through the house it suddenly becomes obviously apparent what the game’s major problem is. Everything looks the same. You have a red hallway, you have a blue hallway, and you have a couple of different looking rooms. This is especially annoying when you’re looking for a specific room and you can’t remember where it is. You know that it’s somewhere along the red hallway, and so you go and enter each room hoping that it’s the room you’re looking for. This is especially frustrating when Scissor Midget is chasing you and you’re trying to find a safe zone. Eventually you could get used to the layout after a couple of play though but the game features a randomizer where the rooms are shuffled each time you start a new game. A map would have helped as well, but the developers decided that would make things too easy and didn’t include one. So you’re left to wander around trying to find the room you’re looking for. I kid you not when I say it took me a solid hour to find this room. Another problem this game suffers from is that for all intents and purposes Jennifer could be a mute. I cannot even remember how many times I would investigate an object only to have her describe it as “…” This is extremely frustrating when you’re trying to solve a puzzle that’s only hard because Jennifer can’t figure out extremely basic principles like pushing a box up to a bookshelf might allow you to climb over said bookshelf. What have I done to deserve this? There’s actually a funny story about that puzzle. If you go into this room with Scissor Midget chasing you, Jennifer will have no problem scaling the bookshelf and hopping over thus evading Bobby. However if there’s no danger… If this isn’t the defining moment of stupidity in this game, I don’t know what is. Oh wait, this would be it. Jennifer apparently has the strength to smash a wall open with a pole. Why she doesn’t use this to kill Scissor Midget is a another mystery that will go unsolved. Just throw in onto the pile with the others. Another problem with this game is the sound. If there’s no immediate danger, the only sound you get to enjoy is silence. This would be creepy if there were no music, and thus the only sounds were your own footsteps and the snapping of the scissors as the midget gets closer and closer to you. Unfortunately, as soon as Scissor Midget shows up the scary music kicks in. Once you escape the scary music stops. If Scissor Man is close, but hasn’t jumped out of his hiding spot, there’s a tense music. That generally is your cue to exit stage left. Pro-tip: Whether or not you look out the window determines what kind of ending you get. But in all honesty I’m just nitpicking at this point. Yes, the game does have its fair share of problems. However it’s a fun, refreshing take on the survival horror genre and can be genuinely scary at times and it’s nice to see a SNES game with multiple endings. It’s relatively clean horror, and I can’t remember there being any blood in game. If you can get over its shortcomings, Clock Tower is a genuinely scary game and is a must play for anyone who enjoys the survival horror genre. Trust me, you don’t want to know what’s behind door number one.
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\ Make of this what you will. <3
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Replay Metal Gear Solid 3 or start of Xenosaga I. Blah, this is too hard. Help anyone?
