I Wanna Catch the Clown

Creator: renex

Average Rating
8.5 / 10
Average Difficulty
53.6 / 100
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Tags:

Adventure (7) Needle (3) Avoidance (2) Trap (6) Gimmick (2) Boss (6) Special (3) Story (1) IWT (5) Clown (1) Car_Music (2) car (1)

Screenshots

  • by renex
  • by renex
  • by CanusAntonius
  • by renex
  • by SteelMelody

Creator's Comments:

renex [Creator]
The goal of this simple action game is to catch the moving clown
by clicking with your mouse on him. Whenever you succeed your
score it raised. But watch out, the clown will also move faster.
How high a score can you get?

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[7] Likes
Rating: N/A       Difficulty: 55 55
Jan 29, 2022

31 Reviews:

TheNewDerf
Fangame Awards 2022 needs to have a "Best Vibes" category just for this game :P

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[8] Likes
Rating: 8.5 85       Difficulty: 60 60
Jan 30, 2022
Wolfiexe
Catch the Clown is a rather unique platforming-focused game with a fair mix of relatively simple but effective gimmicks, used in tandem with a charmingly presented premise to make for a pretty memorable game. It even ended up being one that I cared enough to beat it on all 3 difficulties (as the respective changes extend towards actual platforming and boss changes, rather than the typical save re-balancing).

The nature of each respective gimmick in unison almost makes some elements feel like you're playing a pattern avoidance in platforming form, which can really go either way depending on the design, but I think in this instance it felt very satisfying to come up with strategies for. This could then be refined even further on a higher difficulty playthrough. These challenges are often mixed up with different elements and even a couple of quirky twists and bosses along the way. There's even an extra boss which I found particularly fun, and I'd strongly recommend giving that a try as I found the attack design to be super enjoyable.

The game also jumps out at me for having a really unique mix of some charming oldschool-ish PC aesthetic designs, overlayed with some really polished and impressive visual flair to balance it somewhere between retro and extremely modern. The side shot of the car riding as the sunset shines behind it is a particular visual highlight for me.

Definitely worth a look if you want some platforming that might stray out of your comfort zone, whilst throwing you a couple of surprises along the way!

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Tagged as: Needle Gimmick Boss Special
[4] Likes
Rating: 8.7 87       Difficulty: 55 55
Aug 23, 2022
voraciousreader
2003 called they want their flash game back

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Tagged as: Adventure Needle Trap Boss IWT
[3] Likes
Rating: 8.6 86       Difficulty: 51 51
May 15, 2022
Phooey
Rating based on Normal 100%

One of the most charming and polished fangames out there. You should give it a try if you haven't already, for sure.
Although, to be fair, most of the charm will be lost on you if you aren't at least a LITTLE experienced with Game Maker, or its many "example" games. Sad to see that there wasn't a reference to that one platformer example, at least not from what I can tell, but the rest more than make up for it. I really enjoyed a majority of the platforming in this game, incorporating puzzle elements and more than just jumps.
However, the worst part of the game in my opinion, comes right at the end. The final boss has a lot of good elements, but is otherwise kind of a mess in some areas. The first phase is alright, nothing too challenging though I feel it relies on RNG a little too much during the "Get!" and "Shoot!" at the clown bits. It's a very short and easy phase however, so this isn't a huge issue. My issue comes in the second phase, when you control the plane.
The phase begins with you getting an extra life from three enemies before the boss truly starts. First problem: this is the only time during this phase you can get an extra life. It feels like a wasted gimmick, oddly enough? Why allow the player to get a 1-UP if you're only going to use it at the very beginning of the fight? It seems pointless when just making the player start with one more life than usual would achieve the same effect, and waste less time.
Second problem: you are unable to restart until you run out of lives. If you lose a life during the first bit of the fight (which is the hardest part of the phase), you just have to either stick it through and hope you don't choke later or throw yourself into bullets until you die. Very annoying.
Third problem: The first part features many attacks going off at once, and is pretty chaotic (and slightly random)_in this regard. Worst attack being the red-ball laser that is sometimes shot out of the main boss. It's a very quick attack, happens with no build up, and is basically unreactable in some situations. What's so weird to me is that the second part has a similar attack (the darts), yet they're significantly slower and you even get a red crosshair indicator to let you know it's about to happen? And even then, it's extremely well choreographed anyways so it's the one attack where I'd say the crosshair isn't necessary? Personally, I would add crosshairs to the red ball laser during the first part.

Other than that hiccup, it's a great game with plenty of good jokes and is DEFINITELY worth your time, especially if you're a maker.

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[3] Likes
Rating: 7.0 70       Difficulty: 56 56
Feb 13, 2022
Skulldude
It's very interesting to see this kind of fangame nowadays with how heavily established each genre's standards have been, seeing this is a real breath of fresh air, and feels like it was made by someone who has a lot more experience than most makers as well as someone who has much more to offer than he leads on.

Renex never ceases to surprise me with his technical skills and general domination over anything related to GameMaker itself, I don't know anyone who has gone to the same extent that he has on studying through it and putting what he learned to work for his benefit and making fangames, out of everything else he could be doing, in the most efficient way he can. And it certainly shows in the style this game goes for, shooting for a certain nostalgic aesthetic as a sort of homage to older PC games from the early 2000's or 90's, and still keeping it chock full with stunning production and pure eye-candy all throughout.

I can't wait to see more out of this maker, who came into the community out of nowhere dropping fantastic games one after the other, with entirely different concepts and themes than what the community aims for. The variety in his portfolio is something I respect a lot, helping to build a lot of his own character in an incredibly short amount of time.

Highly recommend this game along with everything else made by Renex, specially if you're looking for a good and chill time with a game that tries something completely different in each screen. Definitely one of the makers I look up to the most in the community.

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[3] Likes
Rating: 9.5 95       Difficulty: 55 55
Jan 31, 2022