The Clumsys: Great Idea… Clumsy Game
Time machine, time travel, and 20 kids sneak on the time machine after Grandpa told them to leave the machine alone. The kids don’t listen and find themselves spread across different centuries messing with history. Poor Grandpa has to go to their locations, remove what’s the kids brought from our time, put things back in place, and find the kids. That’s the set up for The Clumsys Wonderful and original idea. Clumsy execution.
I love history and the story integrates a lot of history in a sensible way. However, I can’t say the same for the game experience. As soon as I arrive on the first scene in Troy, the graphics quality disappoints. However, let it slide and keep on playing in hopes things improve.
Because of the low quality graphics, the hidden objects (past and present) barely show up. While experience players complain that hidden object games get too easy, finding them in The Clumsys is too hard. In the mode where you must remove all modern toys and objects, the game says to find and remove objects that don’t belong. No list. We need a list because it’s not obvious which items belong and don’t belong in the scene.
It takes too long to figure out what to do when finding items and then moving them to the right spot. For example, the first one I see is a helmet. Well, the scene has two helmets on the scene — one I don’t notice for a long time. So the game doesn’t cooperate when I click the helmet (wrong helmet). I finally find another helmet and figure out how to handle this game mode.
Grandpa can search for the kids and objects using a variety of search modes. Players also find gadgets to assemble and use to find the kids. Another original feature. When finishing a scene, the game has a short history lesson (Shh, don’t tell the kids!). It doesn’t affect the game player if you skip the lesson.
The Clumsys lasts for a long time. But I can hardly play for long because the scenes tire my eyes. The blurriness and many small-sized objects don’t help.
I want this game to succeed as it offers an original story and idea, but the graphics quality doesn’t compare to today’s hidden object games. The game feels disorganized. If the developers come out with a sequel to The Clumsys (and it sounds like they will), I hope they improve the game and its graphics quality as I think they have a hit with their idea.
We give The Clumsys Mania a 3/5 diamond rating
