Video Game / ClayFighter

Everybody's favourite lumps of clay!

A meteor crashed one fateful day
Turned Mudville creatures into clay
With heroes bent on doing right
And twisted foes up for the fight!
CLAYFIGHTER!

— Clayfighter 63⅓ Sculptor's Cut intro

Clayfighter^note also written as Clay Fighter and ClayFighter is a series of fighting games published by Interplay Entertainment in The '90s. The series is known for its usage of stop motion animation and clay animation.

The story of Clayfighter begins when a meteor made entirely out of clay crashes on the grounds of a circus located in the town of Mudville. The circus' employees are contaminated by the goo the meteor has emitted, and causes them to transform into twisted and wacky versions of their former selves.

In Clayfighter 2: Judgment Clay, the evil Dr. Kiln uses the goo from the meteor to create even more clayfighters! After the fall of the N. Boss, the final opponent from the first game, Dr. Kiln declares himself grand master of Mudville, and decides to hold a fighting tournament, to see who will become the next grand master of Mudville! Who will win?

In Clayfighter 63⅓, is set on the island of Klaymodo, where Dr. Kiln hatches a new scheme to transform the entire world into clay! The clayfighters are set to defeat him for once and for all.

Games in the Clayfighter series include:

• Clayfighter (1993) (SNES, Mega Drive/Genesis [1994], Virtual Console [2009], Evercade [2020], Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Mini 2 [2022])
• Clayfighter: Tournament Edition (1994) (SNES) (an updated version of Clayfighter that was only available for rental at Blockbuster locations)
• C-2: Judgment Clay (SNES [1995], Evercade [2020])
• Clayfighter 63⅓ (1997) (N64)
• Clayfighter: Sculptor's Cut (1998) (N64) (an updated version of 63⅓ that was only available for rental at Blockbuster locations)

Interplay also announced various new Clayfighter games for Nintendo Wii and DSi, including improved graphics and gameplay, but this was ultimately cancelled. Interplay announced another Clayfighter in early 2015, with an expected release in 2016, also cancelled.

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Examples

• A.I. Breaker: In the original, you can run the timer down just by standing in place and doing very fast attacks over and over again in a range close to the computer, which forces them to not just block but also causes them to just stay blocking and it never occurs that they should do anything else. The computer also tends to jump extremely often at the start of a round (which is very easy to hit them out of), so once you do that and have more life than them so you can win by timeout, if you desire, you can just park your character in front of the opponent, engage in Button Mashing (or use a turbo controller), give it a minute, and instant victory. Though depending on the opponent the range in which this "tactic" works can be punishingly low (in particular, Bad Mr. Frosty and the Blob require very precise range to the point a straight fight is often much easier).
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: A Real Life example. As part of the promotion of 63⅓, the winners of various of Interplay's contests like gaming tournaments and the "Create your own CF website" received apart of copies of the game, an exclusive nice pair of boxer shorts◊!
• Big Bad: Dr. Kiln, not just in 63⅓ and Sculptor's Cut, he was mentioned in C2's story as the one who managed the events in the game and created the clones for every character.
• Briar Patching: Taffy has a move where he can fake being dizzied to lure an opponent in for a beatdown.
• Bonus Feature Failure: Secret character High Five from Sculptor's Cut has an unfinished moveset, lacking certain normals and specials, with a single and pretty basic Super, and no Claytalities whatsoever.
• The Cameo: C2's Mount Mushmore stage has the clay silhouettes of all the characters that weren't part of the game then: Helga, Bonker, Taffy and Blue Suede Goo. Ickybod Clay, however, is missing.
• Capcom Sequel Stagnation:
  • Clayfighter: Tournament Edition of the first game, as well as the Sculptor's Cut of 63⅓.
  • There were plans to make an updated version of C2 for 3DO but was cancelled.
• Characterization Marches On: It's probably safe to say that no character kept exactly the same personality.
  • Bad Mr. Frosty was implied to be a villain in the first game, putting Santa Claus out of work, and in the second, he'd just gotten out of prison, having beaten up Santa Claus directly. By the third game, he's one of the good guys and "Sumo Santa" is one of the playable villains.
  • Bonker was maniacally smiling in the first game, but frowning and depressed in the third.
  • Blob started out upbeat in the first game, became outright angry and psychotic in the second game, but then turned into a thick-voiced cheerful moron in the third.
  • Ickybod Clay went the other way: starting with a creepy and whispery voice in the first game, but a high-pitched cheerful whine in the third.
  • Santa Claus is mentioned in the two first games as The Rival for Frosty. In some moment between the first and third game, he made a Face–Heel Turn and became Sumo Santa, having his first physical appearance in 63⅓.
• Charged Attack:
  • Good part of fighters in the series use charge commands to perform their powers. Most especially the 2 protagonists in the series, Bad Mr. Frosty and Blob.
  • This kind of move is more common in 63⅓, where this is the Combo Opener just like that other game series. In Sculptor's Cut the combo system was deleted, but some combo openers were kept as special moves instead.
• Claymation: One of the series' main draws, though this mainly applies to the Digitized Sprites used for the fighters. Many elements, like stages and HUD elements, were drawn in through different means.
• Compilation Re-release: The first two games were included in the "Interplay Collection" packs for the 2020 handheld console Evercade.
• Crossover: Not an uncommon thing in the series:
  • The Lost Vikings: Olaf the Stout is mentioned in Helga's ending in the first game as being Helga's boyfriend, but after winning the tournament she left him and got married to Tiny; in C2, the animated faces of Erik the Swift and Baleog the Fierce are part of Tiny's stage "Clay Keep"; and in some early interviews, there were hints that some of them would be part of Clayfighter III, but that never happened in the end.
  • Claymates has the animals Clayton morphs in the game as part of the "Round X" in the first game.
  • 63⅓ takes it up a notch, by introducing Earthworm Jim and Boogerman as Guest Fighters.
• Cutting Off the Branches: C1's Tiny ending is the only canon ending, being part of the C2 backstory and the reason why Tiny is back in the second game, defending his title against new clayfighters (and his Evil Twin).
• Darker and Edgier: C2 is both literally and figuratively darker than its predecessor. While the original had a cheery circus motif and cheery music, C2 has a gritty, ghetto style with heavy rock music and dank, dusty backgrounds. 63⅓ is even darker, with ominous orchestral music and much more advanced gameplay, including parries and fatalities (which are still comical).
• Easy-Mode Mockery: In 63⅓, Dr. Kiln can't be fought on cookie difficulty. The game ends after the Mirror Match with a message thanking the player for doing some warm-up practice before the real playthrough.
• Edible Ammunition: In C2, Hoppy throws carrots and Nanaman throws banana slices, both as their projectiles. And before them, Bonker in C1 in the form of Pie in the Face. This trend continues in 63⅓ with Taffy throwing gumballs to the enemy.
• Evil Twin: The final boss of Judgment Clay is an evil version of your chosen character, with different moves and (usually) different animations, as well as a different name (Blob fights Slyck, Bad Mr. Frosty fights Ice, Tiny fights Butch, etc).
• Expository Theme Tune: Sculptor's Cut's opening.
• Face–Heel Turn:
  • In some moment between Clayfighter and 63⅓, Santa Claus changed his ways to convert into Sumo Santa and wanting to conquer the world with Dr. Kiln.
  • In Sculptor's Cut, T-Hoppy is captured by Dr. Kiln and is put a microchip that makes him evil. Only is rescued by Lady Liberty and Boogerman in their endings, but not in his own ending.
• Fan Animation:
  • Lorenzo Letis aka Klay-Kremlin made not one but two short films with Claymation, one with Tiny managing his fast food restaurant (with Blob as The Cameo) and Nanaman singing and dancing as the "Cuban Pete".
  • And there's this fan animation of Sculptor's Cut intro animated as if were a Saturday-Morning Cartoon, also an affectionate homage to the series.
• Fan Game: The series has been rescued by fans in The New '20s thanks to various projects:
  • Ultra ClayFighter is a romhack of Tournament Edition that completely reworks the engine and character movesets, has a complete color/palette overhaul, and a fully playable N. Boss with a unique moveset. Released oficially in 2021, it can be downloaded here.
  • ClayFighter: Infinite Clayfare is a M.U.G.E.N fangame that intents to recreate the 2016 cancelled game with content from the 3 games with polished gameplay based on 63⅓. The Beta 1 was released here.
  • ClayFighter: ReSculpted is a work-in-progress 2.5D game made in Unity completely from scratch. However, it was cancelled in July 2023 because Interplay sent a Cease and Desist mail to his creator.
• Finishing Move: Dubbed Claytalities in 63⅓ and Sculptor's Cut.
• Food-Based Superpowers: The food-themed characters, such as Taffy (a literal Candyman) and Nanaman (a living banana), have attacks based on the same theme: Taffy uses gumballs as projectiles and stretch his body to attack at distance, and Nanaman can throw banana slices as projectiles and slide to reach the opponents.
• Funny Animals: Various animals in the series became this after being in contact with the meteorite or clay mutagen: Hoppy, Kangoo, Octohead and Lockjaw Pooch. And if she would appeared as official, Lucy the Gorilla, of course.
• Funny Octopus: In C2, there's Octohead and his Evil Twin (and less funny) Jack.
• Fun with Flushing: A stage in 63⅓ takes place above a toilet that it's possible to knock your opponent into.
• The Ghost:
  • Dr. Kiln in C2. He's supposedly the Big Bad of the game, but he didn't appear in person until 63⅓.
  • Santa Claus is mentioned in Frosty's backstory in the first two games, only to later appear as Sumo Santa.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Several of the Claytalities. Most characters have at least one that does this.
• Healthy Green, Harmful Red: The series only starts using green health in the second game:
  • In: ClayFighter: Judgment Clay, a full health bar is shown in green colour, and, past the halfway point, acquires a red colour.
  • In ClayFighter 63 1/3, the characters' health bar in the first round is a vivid green. Whoever is defeated gains a "second wind": the next round, their health bar is refilled (this time with a yellow colour), and becomes reddish after it is damaged past the midway point.
• Hero Protagonist: The Blob. Frosty also became this after 63⅓ in the form of Anti-Hero.
• Home Stage: All characters have a background stage related to them in all three games, including Earthworm Jim (Aquadome) and Boogerman (Boogerhenge) in 63⅓. Fighters who return from previous games get brand new ones each time, such as Bad Mr. Frosty and Blob who appeared in all three.
• Human Alien Discovery: Blob is a clayfighter who can shapeshift into the form he wants, but at the beginning, he thought he Was Once a Man mutated by the clay meteor in the circus. But later in his ending in the first game, he discovered he was an alien all the time, and even that he came to the Earth along with the clay meteor.
• Idiosyncratic Combo Levels: 63⅓ and Sculptor's Cut use a combo system similar to Killer Instinct's, complete with names making fun of it, such as Itty Bitty (3 hits), Little Girlie (8 hits) and Triple Brown Betty (13-15 hits).
• I'm a Humanitarian: Houngan and Zappa Yow Yow Boyz.
• Ludicrous Gibs: Clayfighter 63⅓ comes with an option in the menu that allows the player to dictate the volume of "gibs" that fly off the characters during combat, though the "gibs" themselves aren't bits of gore, instead usually being accessories associated with the character.
• Made of Plasticine: Literally.
• Magic Meteor: The meteor made out of clay that emits goo that is able to transform living creatures and inanimate objects into clay creatures.
• No Animals Were Harmed: Parodied in 63⅓. After the end credits, a message appears, stating that "This animal was severely hurt in the making of this game. Rest in peace Lockjaw."◊
• No Fourth Wall: The "Knock Off The Island" Claytality is about the character hitting so hard the opponent he goes out off the island... to later be splatted in the screen of your TV.
• Organ Autonomy: High Five, Dr. Kiln's severed hand, that has been mutated into a large and sentient being by chemicals. Holds deep hatred for his former host.
• Palette Swap: The clone bosses from C2.
• The Pig-Pen: HoboCop and Boogerman.
• Pun-Based Title: Clayfighter 2: Judgment Clay, and Clayfighter 63⅓; the former is an allusion to Terminator 2: Judgment Day and the latter is an allusion to the "64" endings of N64 games and Naked Gun 33⅓. Also Sculptor's Cut alluded to Director's Cut in movies. And one of the cancelled 63⅓ ports was called Call of Putty, obviously based on Call of Duty series.
• Put on a Bus:
  • Blue Suede Goo, Helga and N.Boss didn't return after the first game.
    • The Bus Came Back: Taffy, Ickybod Clay and Bonker, who weren't playable in the sequel either, did return in 63⅓.
  • Octo, Kangoo, Nana Man, Googoo, and the evil twins didn't return after ''Clayfighter 2' either.
• Rival Final Boss:
  • In C2, the final boss is your Evil Twin, who has a different palette and various modified moves.
  • Instead of Dr. Kiln, Sculptor's Cut pits you with designated rival of your character.
• Secret Character:
  • Clayfighter: N.Boss is playable in two-player mode via a glitch.
  • C2: The evil twins can be played by entering button-pressing codes. (Beating the game gives you the code to unlock the boss you just fought, but there's also a code to unlock all eight of them at once, gotten by beating the game on the hardest difficulty)
  • 63⅓: Boogerman, Dr. Kiln and Sumo Santa by entering button codes, also with the codes revealed by finishing the game in highest levels.
  • Sculptor's Cut: Earthworm Jim and Boogerman by beating the game. High Five and Sumo Santa by a code.
• Series Mascot: Bad Mr. Frosty, having appeared on the cover art for every game thus far and prominently featured in advertising.
• Shake Someone, Objects Fall: In ClayFighter 63⅓, when characters are hit, various random objects associated with them fly off.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: Frosty, Taffy and Dr. Kiln can turn their body parts into weapons. Taken to an extreme with The Blob, who is the Shapeshifter Weapon himself.
• Shout-Out:
  • Not just Hoppy and the game name, C2's intro is a parody of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
  • Mortal Kombat's fatalities, Street Fighter III's parries, Vampire Savior's general gameplay system, and Killer Instinct's combos system in 63⅓ (you can even do combo breakers in the game).
  • Also, this inscription on 63⅓ back cover:
    WARNING: Contains No Bloody Carnage or Fighters Named "Ryu" or "Ken".
    • Not to mention Kung Pow's costume is white and his second palette is red. Some other references to Street Fighter on him are special moves "Egg Fu Young" (Fei Long's "Shien Kyaku"), "Crane Technique" (shotoclones' Hadouken pose), "Chop Suey" (Dan's "Dankuukyaku") and hyper move "Lo Mein" (Ryu's "Shinkuu Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku".)
    • Another reference is one of Earthworm Jim's supers, an air combo that resembles Guy's Bushin Hassou Ken. Not to mention he also has his own Shoryuken and an Energy Ball (a shoot from his trademark weapon), making him the shotoclone of the game.
• The Smurfette Principle: Helga is the only playable female in the first game, while Kangoo is this in the second (though her Evil Twin Thunder can also be unlocked). 63⅓ bucks this trend by having an all-male cast. Sculptor's Cut adds Lady Liberty as the sole female fighter.
• Snowlems: Bad Mr. Frosty and Ice. Version III.
• Spin-Off: Claymates is considered as this for Clayfighter series.
• Stealth Pun: The ending credits of Clayfighter always have an animation of Helga shouting at the very end. It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings.
• Super Sliding: Nanaman is a human-size living banana that joins other Clayfighters and having banana-like powers, like banana slices as projectiles and he slides into the stage for special kicks with his own body.
• Title Theme Tune: One of two known SNES games (the other being Tales of Phantasia) to have a vocal theme song. Unlike the latter game though, this game's theme song consists of only one stanza.
• Totally Radical: Clayfighter 2 exudes this the most, with its character designs and locales. It is best seen with how Bad Mr. Frosty ditched his top hat in favor of a backwards baseball cap.
• Tropical Island Adventure: 63⅓ and Sculptor's Cut got as their setting the Klaymodo Island, a paradise island where the meteorite "Betsy" is found, primordial for Dr. Kiln to make his clay formula and Take Over the World. In fact, various of the characters went to Klaymodo for vacations without knowing this to later find this scheme and then choose to help Kiln or stop him.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Most of Dr. Kiln's creations in 63⅓ and Sculptor's Cut with the exception of Lockjaw Pooch and T-Hoppy in the latter game.
• Turns Red: Most of the CPU opponents from the first game. Even on the harder difficulties, it's usually a piece of cake to pulverize your opponent down to the last inch of their life meter. After that, though, the CPU will start spamming their most difficult-to-avoid attack (which, in terms of damage caused, is probably also the most lethal), prompting some absolutely infuriating comebacks by the computers. By and large, then, the entire challenge of the game is crammed into the tail-end of each fight.
• Unseen No More: The series has 2 of them: Santa Claus, The Rival of Bad Mr. Frosty mentioned in his backstory in the first 2 games, and Dr. Kiln, The Man behind the clones in the second game. Both finally appear in the third game of the series, ClayFighter 63⅓ and its update Sculptor's Cut as the bosses: the former as Sumo Santa (having a Face–Heel Turn) and the latter as the Big Bad and Final Boss.
• Updated Re-release: Clayfighter: Tournament Edition, as well as the Sculptor's Cut of 63⅓.
• Vacation Crossover: In 63⅓ and Sculptor's Cut, this is the main reason why Earthworm Jim and Boogerman appear as Guest Fighters: after their respective adventures in their origin games, both superheroes go to vacation at the same place: Klaymodo Island.
• Was Once a Man: All of the characters from the first game were mutated humans with the exception of Blob, a clay alien that came with the clay meteor who got Identity Amnesia when he crashed to Earth.
• A Winner Is You:
  • In the original game, beating the game on a difficulty other than Hard would simply show the credits. Only with beating Hard mode do you get a text ending.
  • This carries over into 63⅓, where Dr. Kiln and the proper character endings are inaccessible on the easiest setting.

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