Indie Spotlight: Clark

Clark is a common name for human beings, but Clark, the game, developed by Golden Tricycle, is not a game about a human being, it is a game about a robot that likes solving puzzles; what I'm saying is, Clark is a dumb name for a game about a robot that likes solving puzzles; however, dumb name aside, the game, Clark, is actually quite good.

For whatever reason, I felt like turning on my Ouya and seeing if there was anything worth playing; the first game I played was an awful mobile port that made me almost immediately turn off my Ouya, leaving with no plans of returning for another month if not longer, but then I saw Clark. What stood out right away was Clark's visuals; the game looks good, with more color and variation than I would expect from a robot-themed game. And so, after being impressed by the screenshots, I downloaded the game and was surprised by what happened next.

I liked it. I like Clark. I haven't had many pleasant experiences with games on the Ouya, especially Ouya-only games--Clark is currently only available on Ouya, but an iOS and Adroind version is planned, and they're doing the whole Steam Greenlight thing too--but Clark is different; Clark is fun, simple yet challenging, nice to look at (as previously mentioned) and, most surprising of all, funny--the writing is good and weird, featuring drunk dancing robots and more.

But you, as Clark #37, don't have time for drunken dancing; you must go around, moving blocks and manipulating lasers to save the factory from annihilation because, well, Clark #37 is just a standup robot. The gameplay is pretty simple so far, moving blocks and navigating tight spaces--I like to imagine all the blocks in the game are old Ouyas no longer being used, but the game isn't that meta (or that mean)--but, as simple as it is, the game stays fresh by mixing up the way you use the simple mechanics in order to solve puzzles.

I never expected to find anything great when I turned on my Ouya, but Clark snuck up and slapped me right in the face with its quality. It is sad that it's only on Ouya right now because that means the number of people who can play it is relatively small, but if you up-vote Clark on Steam Greenlight, it will be on Steam--for PC, Mac, and Linux--in no time. So, in conclusion--which I haven't said since high school--Clark is a dumb name, but Clark is not a dumb game.