Hands-On Clawpunk Preview: Spoiled Fur Choice

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Clawpunk is a melting pot of ideas blended into one Steam game, featuring a feline-themed action platformer with roguelike elements. The player’s objective is to progress through its levels, all presented in a ’90s arcade visual style that pays homage to the tough animated animal superheroes popular during that time period.

In simpler terms, the game, Clawpunk, appears to pack a multitude of ideas into its design, and a quick glance at its Steam trailer suggests an overwhelmingly dynamic and chaotic playstyle, featuring feline characters battling against swarms of robots and animal troops.

In Clawpunk, nine brave feline heroes embark on a quest to liberate Feral City from ruthless gangs that currently rule it. Their journey begins at their hidden headquarters, leading them to carry out missions in various districts of the city. Along the way, they systematically eliminate adversaries in each area, culminating in battles against the bosses who oversee each series of stages.

During our practical testing session, we got a glimpse of Clawpunk to determine if its various concepts harmoniously blend into a unified and seamless entity, or if the overall experience might be so chaotic that viewers could become motionless due to overstimulation.

The Cats Are Back In Town

In Clawpunk, you can play with nine different characters, two of which are available right from the start of the game. During my gaming experience, I controlled three: Candy, who fights using a whip similar to the Belmonts in Castlevania; Dash, who swiftly wields dual swords; and Buck, who may be slow but delivers massive damage with his hammer, its attack arc having a broad area of effect.

A mission commences at the group’s headquarters, providing an opportunity for players to socialize with non-player characters and strategize for their upcoming mission. Once prepared, you head towards the vehicle, which differs legally from the Mystery Machine in Scooby-Doo, to choose your level of play.

In Clawpunk’s gameplay, there are five unique zones that are divided into several steps. During the demonstration, I could explore a city and a forest level. These levels conclude with a battle against a mini-boss, after which you transition to another location for a face-off with a boss in its designated arena.

In the complete version of the game, players can employ cards to boost their feline characters and bestow them with novel skills, either making the levels less challenging or increasing the rewards. Regrettably, I didn’t have many opportunities to test out this mechanic while playing the game myself.

Clawing Your Way To Victory

After setting aside any initial explanations, let’s delve into the gameplay aspects. In the game Clawpunk, instead of moving from side to side, players navigate downwards through the levels. This entails cutting and shattering destructible parts of the ground, allowing you to carve your own path through the terrain. Furthermore, each character in this game can scale walls, being agile cats as they are.

The positive aspect is that the antagonists carelessly scattered explosive drums across the scene. Striking these triggers an area-of-effect (AoE) display indicating the blast zone, offering you precious seconds to vacate the area before it detonates. However, beware! There are numerous barrels strewn about, and they activate whenever you assault, making it simple to inadvertently set them off during intense combat. Fortunately, these explosives will also harm your adversaries.

It’s great that the bad guys left bombs everywhere. Hitting these bombs shows a circle where they’ll explode, giving you time to move away before it blows up. The problem is there are many bombs and they can be triggered whenever you attack, so it’s easy to set them off accidentally during a fight. But on the bright side, they will also hurt the enemies.

Regarding our adversaries, they’ll rapidly pour into the arena. The key distinction I noticed between the two arenas I tested is that one primarily featured melee enemies, whereas the other was filled with ranged opponents. Furthermore, there are additional nuisance foes scattered about, such as spiky characters who will injure you if you step on them.

Now we move on to the fight scenes, where Clawpunk truly shines. Each of the three characters stands out with unique strengths. Candy’s chain moves in multiple directions, enabling her to attack from every angle, Dash is swift and relentless, overwhelming opponents with his rapid attacks, while Buck wields a hammer, enabling him to break through stages swiftly, making it simpler to dodge enemies.

In this game, you won’t need to solely depend on hand-to-hand combat since you can pick up firearms throughout your journey. This assortment includes a pistol, a shotgun similar to the Contra Spread Gun, and a machine gun. However, I found that these weapons weren’t as efficient or gratifying as the cats’ own melee tools in larger stages, so I primarily used them to bypass enemies who were camping.

Scattered throughout the arena are floating monitors. Breaking these contributes to increasing my Chaos meter, which ultimately triggers a power-up granting me additional skills, like Dash becoming invincible while zipping across the stage with explosives. Racking up Chaos is crucial for achieving a top grade at the end of each level, as it’s one of the factors considered, alongside the number of foes vanquished and avoiding harm.

In each character’s journey, they possess the ability to be reborn nine times, which effectively gives them that many opportunities to endure. Much like in the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video games, you can alternate between characters throughout the levels. When a character meets their demise, the next one steps up to continue the journey as long as there’s life left in them.

A Real Catfight

The climax of the stage leads to a battle against a mini-boss, a colossal rat boasting immense health and hordes of minions scurrying about. Upon reaching the final boss of the stage, the scenario drastically altered; I found myself trapped in a confined arena, squaring off against a mammoth spider that spat projectiles at me while darting around, scaling both walls and ceiling.

In the end, the spider won over me, yet my enthusiasm for another try remained high. Regrettably, my chance had come to an end at a perfect moment, leaving me yearning for more. The roguelike gameplay mechanism is captivating, compelling you to venture a little deeper and battle a bit tougher against the horde. The controls feel precise and swift, while the rapid pace of combat delivers both thrilling excitement and fulfillment.

So far, I haven’t delved much into the topic of aesthetics, but it’s worth emphasizing their importance. While imitating the bold style from the late ’80s and early ’90s isn’t exactly novel, Clawpunk manages to do it exceptionally well, incorporating sound effects that transport you back to a bustling arcade.

At times, the display can become excessively cluttered, making it desirable to include a feature for dimming some of the overly vibrant and flashy elements. Locating the cat among the commotion can be challenging, particularly during periods of intense action like when explosions occur.

Closing Comments

As a gamer, diving into Clawpunk feels like a whirlwind arcade adventure that seamlessly manages its diverse game mechanics and features. While it’s too early to tell how these elements will fare over a comprehensive review, the brief glimpse I’ve had so far is nothing short of remarkable, especially considering it’s an indie production.

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2025-06-07 20:42