Platformers have always been a special genre for me. From Psychonauts to Crash Bandicoot, no matter what the theme or central gimmick is, chuck me in a level with doodads to collect and jump on and move around, and I’m there. That goes doubly so if your platformer has one small pal clinging to a bigger one and generally replicating everything Banjo-Kazooie introduced back in 1998, just like Clive ‘n’ Wrench does.
There’s something uniquely charming about ‘backpack mascots’ that have always endeared me to them, whether they be Kazooie, Daxter, Laylee, or Clank. That makes it all the more tragic that, beyond Ratchet & Clank’s ongoing survival, they’re basically a (precursor) relic of the past. Platformers feel like a dying breed in gaming these days, but for those still around, you’re going to be doing it Han style - Solo.
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From the ashes of Banjo’s backpack comes a new duo - the rabbit Clive and the monkey on his back, Wrench. Rather than chasing after witches or giving capitalism the RYNO-shaped finger, Clive ‘N’ Wrench’s adventure revolves around travelling through time in a fridge to stop an evil doctor. Travelling through time is apt, because Clive ‘N’ Wrench is pretty set on making sure you remember all the games that inspired it, for better and for worse.
Clive ‘N’ Wrench has lots of inspirations, but the most obvious one is Banjo-Kazooie: wide-open levels with unique objectives, some repeated missions across levels, and lots of trinkets to collect. This formula worked back in the ‘90s, and it does still work here, even if it often feels a little old hat.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t some differences though. Clive’s moveset is made up of moves clearly inspired by other games like Jak’s spin, Mario’s side leap, and that crouch jump from every platformer ever, there’s also a much greater focus on speed here. Unusually for a platformer, Clive can sprint around on all fours at any time and get a pretty decent speed going, which lends a much faster pace to the levels.
At first, the sheer size of the moveset and how fast Clive can go was a little tricky to get to grips with, especially since it’s given to you all at once. This makes platforming feel slippy in the opening hours, but it feels good to master and put to practise, a key thing for this genre to get right. In that regard, Clive ‘N’ Wrench succeeds, especially as you get further into the game and the levels get wider. The only thing that didn’t get better is the combat, with Clive’s Jak-inspired spin seeming to miss more often than not.
That success can be attributed to Clive ‘N’ Wrench’s greatest attribute - its levels. The time-travelling theme may seem a little Crash Warped, but there are some inventive worlds here, like a ‘90s house that you explore at toy size, an Ancient Egypt level that features aliens and a Lara Croft parody, and a snowy Christmas adventure.
Neat touches, like Clive getting a new hat for each time period and there being plenty of Easter Eggs and interactables, make it clear that a lot of effort has been put in to refining the worlds you’ll spend so long dashing about in. What you’re doing in these levels is usually the same each, and not too hard to figure out, but that never stopped them from being a joy to explore. It’s an area it manages to exceed some of its contemporaries in, and there’s no clear Rusty Bucket Bay stinker of a world here.
Taking so many good attributes of games across the genre comes with a price though. It feels like Clive ‘N’ Wrench could have used a bit more time in the oven, as it feels janky and uneven most of the time, with visual glitches and slowdown galore. Chief among these is the camera, which is one of the few PS2 throwbacks I could’ve done without. No matter where you are, the camera feels like it’s just slightly too far back and ready to get caught on a passing fly in the environment.
Outside of the inventive levels, Clive ‘N’ Wrench doesn’t carve out much of its own legacy. As charming as it is to see all of the influences from other platforming greats, all of those games had their own distinct element that sets them apart. Jak and Daxter had an expansive world that was smartly tied together, Ratchet & Clank had a focus on shooting and bizarre weaponry, and Banjo-Kazooie mastered the collect-a-thon level structure before anything this side of Mario 64.
In comparison, the most unique thing that Clive ‘N’ Wrench has going for it is its focus on speed and its wider pool of moves, which doesn’t feel like a defining feature. How much that bothers you is going to depend on what you go into Clive ‘N’ Wrench expecting. If you’re hoping that it’s going to revolutionise or build upon the collect-a-thon platforming genre, you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re just looking for a simple, nostalgic adventure that calls back to the platforming days of old, then you’ll Clive ‘N’ Wrench might be worth grabbing a backpack for, but its dated design makes it a tough recommendation for anyone other than the genre diehards.
