Loved by many...feared by all. Captain Claw, surveyor of the 7 seas, is perhaps the greatest pirate ever to grace the Animalian Lore Realms. His courage? Legendary. His followers? Loyal to the death. His claws? Well, let's say that more than a few sailors have permanent reminders of their razor-sharp tips.

Captain Claw and his crew have been captured and imprisoned in La Roca, the notorious prison run by the Cocker Spaniards. Your goal is to help him escape and complete his quest for the missing gems of the Amulet of Nine Lives, a mystical amulet that provides the wear with near immortality. If Claw fights his enemies skillfully, he may avoid death, uncover hidden treasures and find the remaining gems for the Amulet. With enough luck, he may even defeat his arch nemesis, Red Tail, complete his quest.

WOW, pretty tall order are you up for the challenge? Monolith has given you everything that you need to complete the adventure. You have a superior and fast side scrolling graphics engine with levels a plenty, 14 to be exact plus secret rooms and warps. You can play at your favorite resolution up to 1280 x 1024 with all of the varieties of sound ambient, trigger, and in-game character voices. And let's not forget the best Internet connectivity in any game any where, 64 players at a time, let me say that again 64 players. Plus the ability to post your high scores, just like in the arcade except everybody in the world can see them.

The alpha version of the game that we are play testing doesn't contain all of the features mentioned above, but it is still pretty impressive. The opening scene is fantastic, it is something that you would expect to see on the Saturday morning cartoons, and the cutscenes are of the same quality. One thing that Monolith is known for are the cutscenes that are used to create a story, Blood also has great cutscenes. The attention to detail and quality of the cutscenes are signs of a great game and a great company.

The gameplay in Claw is fast furious, better than most console systems. One of the nice things about Claw is that the quality of the imagery was not sacrificed for gameplay. The Claw game engine is capable of handling high quality imagery with fantastic gameplay without loss to either.

I found the keyboard mode to be the most comfortable and easiest to play, there is also support for the gamepad and joystick. The music and sound efx, are also excellent it is one of those games that if you don't have a Sound Blaster or other high end sound card with speakers you are going to want to go out buy them. Because you want to miss the experience.

And if that were not enough, ClawEdit will be available as freeware, it will give you the ability to create your own levels, to play with your friends. Level can be created from the ground up or you can modify an existing template, or level.

Unlike most arcade quality games that are available, they are designed for an older and more mature audience. Captain Claw is good old fashioned fun and can be enjoyed by the entire family. But don't get turned off by it's seemingly family friendly nature, the enemies are still nasty and devious, and the combat is still fast.

The unfortunate thing here is that with the advent of the 3D shooter and the overhead game, the side scroller has virtually disappeared from the PC and the arcade. Which is kind of sad because, there is still a lot of life left in the side scroller as is evidenced by Captain Claw. The game is great, it redefines the standard for excellence, but that is nothing new for Monolith. I can hardly wait for the real thing.

Screen Shots:

Related Links:

• Captain Claw Home Page
• Monolith Productions Home Page

Goto Captain Claw:
Special Features
Hints and Cheats

Sign up for the FREE GameOfTheMonth.com Newsletter! Enter your Email address Below: