Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series

This title brings two classic action games together for new players and fans of the original to enjoy. Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is comprised of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil. Your character's basic abilities boil down to jumping and shooting, but don't be deceived by the simple controls. The challenge rests not in your skills, but in how you harness enemies as tools to progress with a golden ring that shoots magical wind bullets. These allow you to hold onto and turn foes into balloons, which are used to jump higher, attack other enemies, and activate switches. The first game uses these mechanics to great effect with a pleasingly challenging experience that smoothly transitions into its hardest sections to test your puzzle-solving and timing skills. Both games have some annoying moments where a shocking amount of accuracy is required to hit some things, but these are manageable, rare frustrations. The sequel builds on its predecessor with more enemy types that introduce new abilities. Along with a series of interesting design gimmicks for levels (such as one where you can reverse gravity), the sequel dreams bigger with its gameplay.

While both games involves movement on a 2D plane, both games are presented in 3D with unconventional levels that twist and turn on each other, sometimes involving collecting items or completing puzzles by transitioning between the foreground and background. It helps that the HD upgrades give more clarity to the colorful, imaginative environments and characters. In particular, the sequel can be a wonder to behold with the camera panning out to show off cities and castles as you literally fly across levels to different sections. Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is a charming, engaging set of games with a spunky cast of characters suited for young kids, and since a second player can join in to help the main player, parents can join in on the fun, too.