Claymates SNES is on Switch now and y’all need to try it

Oh and two other insane games

This is super weird, because I have vivid memories of renting two of the three bizarre SNES games that just arrived on the Switch Online service this week. I’ll start with Claymates, which you should probably try, in part because of how dang weird it is.

Platformers were a dime a dozen on the NES and SNES, but have you ever played one with this premise?

“The protagonist of the game is a boy named Clayton, whose scientist father has developed a serum that can transform people into animals when it is combined with clay. Suddenly, Jobo the witch doctor appears and demands the formula for the serum. The father refuses, to which Jobo replies by changing Clayton into a ball of clay and stealing away both his father and the serum.”

I thought not! The SNES was a boon for strange concepts, and Claymates was no exception. Playing as a blue ball of goo as your default form, you’ll roll around and morph into various animals, all of which control a little differently. It even made a snazzy “blast processing” [blaze processing] joke in 1993 when it was fresh.

Next up is Jelly Boy, a European exclusive that’s finally getting a chance overseas, followed by Bombuzal (aka Dynamite Kablooey). The latter has extremely “your parents rented this for you, but oh my God this puzzle game gets insanely hard very quick” vibes and a super weird mascot. Nintendo calls them an “array of quirky and combustible” and they aren’t lying! If you need convincing that these games are worth dabbling in, check out the video from Nintendo below.

I totally get that people are probably pissed off with the glacial pace that retro games are added to Switch Online, and giving us three bonkers things probably isn’t providing a lot of goodwill. But I’ll take weird stuff like this at a faster rate any day of the week.

Over in Japan, Shin Megami Tensei IF and Dead Dance have been released. Remember, if you have a Japanese eShop account you can play them by downloading the app, then logging in with your regular account with Switch Online: