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As I grew up playing games like “Kirby”, “Super Mario Bros”, “Master Blaster“, “Donkey Kong Country” and” Rayman”. I simply can´t help myself to try out new platform games when ever I get the chance to do so. Well, just the other day I downloaded the alpha demo (PC) for Cloud M1 LLC´s upcoming 2.5D side-scrolling platformer “Ayo the Clown” (you play as a clown called Ayo, who is looking for his lost dog Bo). Long story short, I made the right decision to do so. Because “Ayo The Clown” really does look and feel like the child of Super Mario Bros., Yoshi, Kirby, and Little Big Planet. Furthermore, Ayo is the kind of game that a little child could learn how to play in less than a minute, so just about anyone could jump in and enjoy the game without any fuss.

Cloud M1 could have looped Black Sabbath´s “When death calls” song throughout the whole demo, because death exists everywhere.

However, I soon learned that Ayo The Clown is anything but a walk in the park. As the demo stage was pretty darn hard (I´m talking about “Ninja Gaiden”, “Super Mario Bros 3” or “Rayman 1” hard), and I honestly didn´t expect that (I guess that the demo stage is based on some of the later levels from the full version of the game?). Don´t get me wrong now, I have nothing against challenging games (because I don´t), but I made the mistake to believe that the demo would go easy on me due to Ayo The Clown´s child friendly theme (you know, the fairy-tale-like setting and everything?).

Yes, Ayo is trying to find his dog Bo. So it´s your job to help him find his dog friend.

Then again, I made the very same mistake when I played Ubisoft´s first “Rayman” game back in 1995 for the PS1 console. You see, I honestly thought that the game would have a “child friendly” difficulty setting, WRONG! Because Rayman is anything but a simple game. In the matter of fact, some of my friends rage quitted so hard that they didn´t return to the world of Rayman for days. Well, I did indeed feel some of that while playing “Ayo The Clown”, especially during the tank and boss fight segment, and why is that? It´s because the tank is somewhat slow, and the controls are stiff at times, and you can´t reach very far with the tank’s gun…Not to mention the fact that you can only get hit three times before you die, and there is just one place in the whole demo that offers you the ability to refill your life (it´s at the same spot where you find the tank).

Yes, you can actually drive vehicles in “Ayo the clown”. However, you can only drive a tank in the demo. Nevertheless, I still had a blast with it.

I would also like to point out that there are literally millions of things that could hurt or kill you, and I´m not even exaggerating, not even a little bit. As you (the player) get bombarded with missiles, traps, tons of enemies and things that just fall from the sky out of nowhere (like deadly rubber ducks, fish and wrenches). So you really have to keep a close eye on everything around you. It´s also truly important to watch where you step, as some platforms just fall apart when you step on them. Hell, some of the platforms even work as pure death traps. Well, at least if they hover above the super deadly lava, and I had to learn all of that the hard way (thus my outbursts in my gameplay video *cough cough*).

The boss fight in the demo was pretty darn intense and entertaining.

Even so, “Ayo The Clown” is the kind of game that you just keep on playing because it´s really fun to play. In other words, you won´t give up until you actually finish the demo, and you will be rewarded greatly for doing so. As I found the end of the demo to be very adorable and entertaining. I also enjoyed the game´s side quests, hidden secrets, Ayo´s special abilities (in the demo you can fly with the help of a balloon, and you can also head-butt your enemies), and all the cash that you can collect throughout the demo (in the full version of the game, you will be able to buy stuff with the money that you collect).

So all in all, “Ayo The Clown” impressed me a whole lot. That is also the reason why I really hope that Cloud M1 LLC will be able to reach their Kickstarter goal on time, because “if” that´s the case. Then we might get to play the full version of Ayo in December this year. Well, time will tell. As for here and now, you can watch my gameplay video of “Ayo The Clown” further down the page, and if you like what you see. Then you can download and try the demo for yourself =)

Pros:
+ Awesome graphics and level designs
+ Tons of stuff to collect
+ The boss fight was really fun and intense
+ You can drive different vehicles
+ Ayo the clown is a really adorable protagonist

Cons:
– The controls are somewhat stiff at times
– It would be nice if one could skip dialogs and cut-scenes
– The ability to look down and up would be a good idea