The original Klonoa played much like I thought games would play like in the future, way back in my early years of gaming. It managed to utilize futuristic, three-dimensional backdrops, but still kept that sort of tight, fluid control that's been suspiciously absent from a majority of today's three-dimensional games. I'd even go as far as to say that this is where gaming was supposed to go all along, but sadly it just never arrived at its proper destination. And in the last few years, that's what I've felt about a majority of video games; when exactly did we decide that two-dimensional control was bad? I mean, if the sole problem with most three-dimensional games is the camera, then why not just do away with any camera-reliant 3D controls? Well, Klonoa 2 -Lunatea's Veil- does just that. Released on March 22nd, 2001 in Japan and on July 24th of the same year in North America, Klonoa 2 is the long-awaited sequel to the game that no-one ever bought, and with four years to create it, Tsuyoshi Kobayashi and newly-founded Namco subsidiary "Klonoa Works", have crafted another masterpiece.

  Though Klonoa 2 looks absolutely spectacular, you won't be worrying about camera placement or which way to go, since it uses what effectively amounts to a pure two-dimensional control scheme. Use your Dual Shock 2 controller's sturdy digital pad or smooth-as-silk left analog stick to move Klonoa about the environments. Left is left, right is right; no two ways about it. The controls are simple enough for anyone to learn, with jumping assigned to either X or Triangle (your choice) and shooting a wind-burst from Klonoa's ring assigned to either Square or Circle. I personally prefer the Square and X combination. Capturing an enemy on Klonoa's wind-bursts is the name of the game, as doing so will literally inflate any given enemy, making the enemy into a sort of springboard to reach various items and areas within the many vibrant levels and vivid locations.

  Speaking of vibrant levels, Klonoa 2's simply loaded with 'em; over two dozen levels of addictive platforming action await would-be players. By harnessing the many abilities of the PlayStation2 hardware, developer Klonoa Works crafted a fantastic world of wonder, filled with colorful monsters, excellent lighting effects and well-above-average level designs, as well as mind-bending puzzles. Couple these features with the fact that every character is rendered using cel-shading, a process that makes even the most three-dimensional character model appear to be hand-drawn by drawing a thick black line around the currently visible edges of the character models, and what you have is an incredible graphics engine that consistently runs at sixty frames-per-second, without even a trace of slowdown.

  As all loyal Klonoa fans should remember, the original Klonoa had a number of stages that were based on a second person perspective, rather than that of a traditional side-scrolling platformer perspective. These fun, little variety stages have found their calling in Klonoa 2, this time as full-on hoverboarding stages. And for any of you who scoff at the notion that Klonoa would ever succumb to the current extreme sports trend, I highly recommend you reconsider, as Klonoa has never been in better form. In fact, most of these stages, which play out over water, snow, sand and more, actually manage to add that much more gameplay variety and overall difficulty to the Klonoa canon. Simply the fact that I was replaying these stages as much as the normal levels should reveal just how well they fit in.

  On top of the insane platforming and hoverboarding levels, Klonoa 2 hosts six lengthy boss encounters that not only require you to adapt, they also require a bit of thinking ahead. And since every boss encounter is different, a little bit of strategy is always needed to surmount the newest challenge. Another somewhat innovative feature to make its debut in Klonoa 2 is a constantly branching world map that splits your priorities during critical plot twists; if two enemies go in separate directions, two levels open up, leaving you with the choice of which to try first. This breaks up the otherwise linear nature of the game a little, while still allowing the delivery of a solid, cohesive plot. This time, Klonoa has landed in the mysterious world of Lunatea, where he meets an apprentice priestess named Lolo and a wise-cracking, known-it-all rag doll named Popka, who ask him to help them put a stop to a sky pirate's sinister plot to ring Lunatea's mysterious Fifth Bell--an event which will apparently spell certain disaster for its inhabitants.

  Arguably the greatest thing about Klonoa 2, at least for me, was the nostalgia factor. Klonoa 2 features even more of the same stuff I loved about the original; very familiar, mind-numbing puzzles, lengthy boss encounters and mad, mid-air platforming skills that the original Klonoa required are all here in the sequel. And until I dropped Klonoa 2 into my PlayStation2's disc tray, I hadn't realized how much I'd missed playing as my little, floppy-eared buddy. Klonoa controls just as smooth as ever before, and the way that each successive level ups-the-ante will keep the uninitiated on their toes and the hardcore thoroughly entertained, just as it should. And thanks to the dramatic, predetermined camera positioning, neither a beginner, nor an expert will worry about anything but playing the game.

  I must warn anyone that's thinking of buying Klonoa 2 that the soundtrack that backs the excellent visuals is of the cutesy variety. I personally like it, but some don't, so consider yourself warned. The sequel also includes some ridiculously squeaky voices, known as Klonoa-speak in fan circles, just as the original did, so once again, if that's not your thing, then just play with the sound turned down. However, if you don't mind listening to the often overly happy music tracks and cutesy voice acting, then Klonoa 2 is probably right up your alley. I personally enjoyed the cute J-Pop track that plays while you slide down the snow-covered mountain slopes of Mira-Mira, the tension-filled background music to The Ark Revisited, the jazzy Volkies' Song and every one of the boss encounter themes.

  Klonoa 2 -Lunatea's Veil- is an excellent illustration of Namco's ingenuity with every platform they decide to develop for. Namco subsidiary Klonoa Works has managed to create a great sequel, one that not only retains the style and feel of its predecessor, but also improves on every key feature, including graphical clarity and gameplay variety. And with more time for the planning stages than for actual development, project director Tsuyoshi Kobayashi and the smashing team of artists and programmers at Klonoa Works should be commended for their amazing dedication to making the sequel to Klonoa as good as the original. And if Klonoa Works has anything left where this came from, then by all means, go ahead and design it. Another game that's at least as good as, or even better than, Klonoa 2 every three years or so definitely wouldn't hurt my feelings at all.
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