TLDR: Very unique exploration platformer that is full of whimsy and humour, but can be a bit confusing. There's nothing else quite like except for Sylvie's other games, which you should absolutely check out as well!

Clockwork Calamity in Mushroom World: What would you do if the time stopped ticking?, or Clockwork Calamity, is a game by Sylvie[love-game.net] and hubol[hubol.itch.io]. They have worked on a number of games including Cat Planet or You are such a soft and round kitten for the former, and 2 or Super Bogus World 2 for the latter – all of them are fantastic games that definitely did not get enough recognition, but more importantly, they ooze with their respective style of game making. That is why a collaboration between the two is interesting, but how is the result?

Clockwork Calamity is an exploration platformer with collectibles in the vein of Cat Planet or Knytt. Time has stopped in the land of the game, and your goal is to go to the mushroom worlds in order to find rare mushrooms that will help you collect the twelve clock hands and repair the clock tower. These mushrooms can be traded for money, or for other items such as clock hands. More than platforming, this is actually the core of the game – you will have to go from zone to zone in order to find specific mushrooms to trade for items that will help you progress further.

- There are a lot of NPCs, around 50 according to the description. What’s lovely about that is that they all have a voice and personality. You’ve got a bag maker, a shoe maker, a knight guarding a door, a junk collector, a wizard and their inventory always reflects this, which makes them feel very unique.
- It’s far from being a simple platformer: you can climb walls by bouncing off them and use the momentum to wall jump consecutively, throw mushrooms and ride them, collect rare mushrooms to get passive abilities… You can also trade with every single NPC in the game, and some offer exploration utilities that let you use a rope to climb upwards or stay in the air longer. But all of these items go into your bag and you need to make sure there’s enough space in there! But you can upgrade your bag! But you need to make space in your bag to pick up the item that lets you upgrade your bag! There’s a lot to unpack and it’s a deceptively complex game that slowly unveils all of its possibilities.
- Rearranging your inventory to cram as mush mushrooms in it as possible is very fun. It’s a bit like Resident Evil 4 and 8’s briefcase inventory.
- The visuals help the different worlds feel unique, which helps alleviate one of the game’s con: although you may feel lost, you’re never TOO lost. Hubol’s wonderful music is also a big draw since every theme is sung by them, and I’ve been hearing the main theme in my head for a while.
- You can rob a museum!!!

- It’s quite tough! But the accessibility options provided are a very welcome surprise, since you can change gravity, make your jumps higher or even slow down the game. The platforming may get hard but you always have ways to make it easier, either with items or with these options.

- It’s very, very easy to get confused. However, you’re warned about that at the beginning of the game and the devs advise you to take notes, which you absolutely should do. Lots of NPCs sell unique items that you need specific mushrooms to buy and it’s very easy to forget where they are; moreover, some even sell hints related to the zone they are in. Even with all of this, you can and will get lost! It’s part of the fun, but it may not be what you are looking for, so beware.

In conclusion, Clockwork Calamity is a very unique game that will definitely not appeal to everyone. To be completely honest, it didn’t really appeal to me as I’m more of a platformer fan. And it’s not a simple platformer since the actual platforming is more of a means to an end – it’s actually an exploration game with items to collect and trade. But despite that, the main draw is that it feels wonderful to play: the NPCs have personalities and little substories associated, each world is charmingly crafted and is filled with content. Clockwork Calamity is full of whimsy and humour, and it’s one of Sylvie’s loveliest games yet. If you are interested, you should check out her other games like Cat Planet or JIGGLY ZONE in order to know what to expect; and if you like it, I wholeheartedly recommend giving Clockwork Calamity a try.

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This is a really unique and fun game!

Historically, I've always been a big fan of metroidvanias, but it is definitely a genre which suffers from a lack of originality. I'm so used to exploring a world, getting a double jump, then a wall jump, then a dash, fighting bosses, etc... While it is a very compelling structure for a game, it's an extremely stagnant genre. The last 10 metroidvanias I've played are all basically interchangable.

This game, on the other hand, definitely isn't like that! Every part of it feels unique. And I don't just mean the presentation, I mean the gameplay. The controls are very unique-- your character bounces off walls instead of stopping when you hit them, and while it is pretty simple to understand, it takes a long time to really wrap your head completely around the physics, and so the biggest barrier to you moving forward is your own skill and knowledge, instead of what items and upgrades you have.

On the topic of items, one of the main mechanics of this game is trading. Oftentimes you will need to keep track of who wants what, and when you finally get an item you need to trade someone, it'll create a cascade of trade events. There's also a lot of thought put into what you want to put your mushrooms towards-- the game is very open, and so it's fun to always be making choices. These items also have uses-- for example, you can throw items, and ride around on them. Different items also have special properties in the world, like a springshroom bouncing you up when you stand on it, or different kinds of cars each driving you around with their own physics. This means there are always lots of different ways to get past an obstacle-- it feels less like a game where they programmed in a solution, and more like a playground or sandbox where there are lots of creative and fun ways to reach your goals.

Overall, this is a really unique and creative game. It will constantly surprise you with new and cool ideas, and give you lots of freedom both of what you do, and how you do it. If you are tired and jaded of playing uninspired, overdesigned games, this is very very good. If you aren't, and you're just a casual player of normal games, this is still unabashedly very fun!

It's a Sylvie game so it's good. You don't know what a Sylvie game is? Go play JigglyZone. What you will find in her games is cheerful visuals, honest vibes and weird ways to interact with her worlds that often challenge our gaming conventions while being surprisingly well designed and thoughtful.

Clockwork Calamity is all that and delivers unusual ways to navigate her world that need to be mastered first and completely exploited later while also implementing a near-OCD-inducing inventory management that requires pixel perfect precision to fit all the stuff that you'll need to carry with you to trade and get the objects needed to restore time and beat the game.

This is a very good game. Good job and thanks Sylvie and Hubol!

Has some very unique ideas. A lot of it is about pixel-perfect inventory management, trading with characters, remembering who wants what and figuring out how to get it.

Since items never disappear, you can just drop them in the world and pick them up at a later time, this kind of makes the world an extension of your inventory, you just have to remember where you dropped what.
Something you'll do often is re-arranging your inventory to fit just "one more thing" into it, which I found quite engaging. Upgrades just being another item in your bag really creates a nice dynamic where you have to make trade-offs and e.g. decide to sacrifice inventory space for a double jump.
I would have loved if there would have been even more weirdly shaped objects and even more objects with strange effects to deliver.

The music is catchy, but can get repetitive quickly. However you'll be moving between zones quite frequently so this is rarely a problem.
There is a bit of reading front-loaded, but once you start the game proper you can explore to your hearts content. After the initial hurdle of figuring out where to get mushrooms and how to trade, it starts to feel quite natural interacting with the world.
There is a lot to keep track of, so it can be overwhelming, but there are optional hints you can buy, if you get stuck. These hints helped me get through the last few puzzles I couldn't solve myself.

I only encountered one bug where an item would come to rest exactly in front of an NPC and it was impossible to pick it up again, because it would always talk to the NPC instead. Thankfully this didn't happen with any important items.

Overall, if you love to see some fresh ideas on item management and exploring an open world, can't go wrong with this.

Cool, what a bunch of great ideas, how fun to play.


You might be sitting there thinking, "What is this, I'm not going to play a game that looks like it was drawn in paint."

Stop

Stop thinking that

Swallow your pride for a second and just enjoy a unique experience.

While you may find some hints to be more helpful in the long run, especially ones involving rare shrooms, I never felt the need to rely on outside sources for help, though Mushroom Zone exploration can be frustrating at times if you move too hastily and bounce off walls too much.

The inventory system and puzzles are fun, and there were some neat surprises I didn't expect too.
Also, it is recommended to equip every color of Kittyshroom like the Infinity Gauntlet just because.

Many trades to be had & much to learn about the mysterious Eivlys. I like the weird jumping. I give it two thumbs up!

fluffy little citey
fluffy like a kittey
fluffy little citey
everyday citey life

This game's title is as hilariously long as the game is really cool. A lot of puzzles and things are doable in a variety of different ways, which I really like! There are also plenty of ways to move through the world, and a lot of the fun for me came from just choosing whatever way I liked. There are also a ton of other things I liked, these are just two things I chose but there are plenty more really.