The Neverhood (Retrospective)

Theres a very good chance most of you would not have even heard the name of this game before; it was a 1996 PC CD-ROM Claymation point-and-click video game created by animator Doug TenNapel and released by Dreamworks Studios.


I don't know if it's just nostalgia talking again, but its easily one of the best games ever to grace the PC and it might stay that way for a long time; newer games just don't have the soul or feel that games like this used to have, Being one of the very few games to be completely claymation, your sure to be in for an experience that can't be replicated by anything else.

In my mind theres not a single flaw in the entire game, that may sound impossible - but its true, this is a game where everything is carried out perfectly in every aspect. The graphics were mind blowing at the time and still manage to impress today, the music is just so simple but it fits every moment of the game perfectly, it's got a charm that's unexplainable, all I can say is that its brilliant.

Puzzles were everywhere in this game, seeing it was a point-and-click game and I have to say every one of the puzzles were well thought out and some can be quite challenging at times. These puzzles mixed in with hilarious cut scenes, a great sound track and amazing claymation animation just made this game phenomenal.


One of the best parts of the game has to be it's sense of humor - from funny animations to reciving letters like "Dear Klaymen, how do you spell Hoborg? - Willy". One part of the game actually forces you to walk 40 screens to the right, then back again - why? To get one seemingly meaningless item that you find out later you need to finish the game, which, in itself is a cruel little joke the creators put in - but what's interesting is you can zoom in on the text on the walls during your walk down these 40 screen and back, and you can read the entire history of the in game world; I don't think that much detail has ever been given to a game in a long time.

If you've never played this game, do it - however you can. It's a rare game that's almost 13 years old, so as you could imagine its going to be hard to get yours hands on (I guess you know where im going with this..). The fact that a game this game is so old, a point and click adventure and you can still get more enjoyment/fun out of it then a game like Crysis (which, as you all know, is one of the most advanced games out there right now) is just unbelievable. Unfortunately point-and-click adventure games have not made an appearance in recent years (with an exception being Zack and Wiki on the Nintendo Wii, which im yet to play) and don't appear to be making any sort of a comeback any time soon.

There is a sequel to the fantastic game entitled "Skullmonkeys" on the Playstation 1, which I believe is also fully claymation, but this time a sidescroller; I'd love to try it out one day, but I doubt that will be any time soon.

Just as a side note, apparently theres a movie based on the Neverhood's world currently under production set for a 2009-2010 release - so lets hope it turns out good =D

A special thanks to MitchieMcMouse from GameTrailers forums for helping me with parts of this post