Throughout the development cycle, Namco tried to put in a hard to master, easy to learn play system; they finally succeeded. Klonoa -Door to Phantomile- casts you into the land of Phantomile, into the role of Klonoa, a child from the Wind Village of Breezegale, and his newly found friend Huepow, a mysterious spirit who resides in a jeweled ring. Soon after Klonoa makes friends with Huepow, he finds that he can control the power of the wind with the ring and everyone is happy. Enter nasty villain. Ghadius, the evil Dark Spirit, is once again loosed on the dream world and has kidnapped the diva, Lephise, the princess of the Moon Kingdom, who has the power to resurrect Phantomile. Bad news. But wait, there's still Klonoa and his pal, Huepow. So, Klonoa and Huepow set out to stop Ghadius and free Phantomile's captive inhabitants. Klonoa has a learning curve that makes it just challenging enough and makes it hilarious, both at the same time; you blow up your enemies. No, not like that. You inflate them like balloons. Heh heh. Therein lies the learning curve, as to truly master Klonoa, you must learn to grab, inflate, jump and then jump again in rapid succession.

  This may sound sort of bogus, but trust me, you'll love it once you see the idea in action. Now for those of you who only play jump on their head platformers. One, what is wrong with you? And two, this might be too hard for you. Sorry. Is anyone still reading? Good. Continuing on, Klonoa requires you to adapt to harder situations as the levels progress. There are more than twelve long, action-puzzling levels to conquer, which rise in challenge as you go. Eventually, you'll have to learn to grab and catapult off multiple enemies in sequence: absolute platforming bliss. Every stage consists of two levels or "Visions" and at the end of each set of Visions, you fight a large boss. You're probably thinking that this sounds fairly traditional so far, but just wait. The bosses have specific weaknesses and strengths that add to the challenge of the encounters. The battle with one boss, the Gem Snake, is presented in second person format. Mmmm...

  Oh, did I mention that Klonoa's levels have a non-linear track to them? You are restricted to two-dimensional movement most of the time, but there are times when a path will split or you will have to find a key or slide down a waterfall or... Well, I can't ruin everything. The graphics are best described as crisp sprite-based characters, with multiple frames of movement, on detailed, three-dimensional backgrounds and locales. Some locales even have moving aspects to them, which is refreshing. Another thing I won't ruin is the storyline, which is surprisingly deep for a platformer. The music in Klonoa ranges from mild to light-hearted ditties, even as far as epic confrontational songs. The sound effects are cuter than you might expect, as this is a cute game, there are some very squeaky sounds emitted from a majority of characters. Oh, and for those who heed my word, if you think Klonoa -Door to Phantomile- is easy, think again; just wait until you get to the final boss. Klonoa -Door to Phantomile-, while seemingly just a cutesy platformer, is really that much more of a great platformer and if you don't mind a few blindingly cute full-motion videos and some crisp sixty frame-per-second platforming goodness, this may be your ticket.
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