Clay Fighter

File:Clayfighter the sculptors cut profilelarge 8758.png

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 is a series of fighting games published by Interplay. 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 the third game, Clayfighter 63⅓, Dr. Kiln has 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 (SNES) (1993) and its Mega Drive/Genesis port (1994)
• Clayfighter: Tournament Edition (SNES) (A updated version of Clayfighter)
• C-2: Judgment Clay (SNES) (1994)
• Clayfighter 63⅓ (N64) (1997)
• Clayfighter 63⅓: Sculptor's Cut (N64) (1997) (A updated version the Clayfighter 63⅓)

Interplay has also announced a new Clayfighter game for Wii and D Si, including improved graphics and gameplay.

Tropes used in Clay Fighter include:

• The Ahnold: Hoppy, in C-2.
  • When he becomes a Cyborg in the third game, he loses the Arnold accent entirely and instead becomes a Drill Sergeant Nasty.
• Artificial Limbs: Dr. Kiln has replaced his left hand with a mechanical prosthetic one, that can transform into a chainsaw, a scalpel, a machine gun and other dangerous things, after he was forced to amputate it when he accidentally touched the goo the meteor emitted.
• Ass Kicks You: Helga
• Bad Santa: Sumo Santa
  • Badass Santa
• Blob Monster: The Blob.
• Boxing Kangaroo: Kangoo (and her Evil Twin Thunder) from Judgement Clay
• Briar Patching: Taffy has a move where he can fake being dizzied to lure an opponent in for a beatdown.
• Bruce Lee Clone: Kung Pow
• Characterization Marches On:
  • 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.
    • It's probably safe to say that no character kept exactly the same personality.
• Charged Attack
• Claymation
• Darker and Edgier: C-2: Judgment Clay is both literally and figuratively darker than its predecessor.
• Digitized Sprites
• Dummied Out: The Blob's bomb move in the original game, which proved to be a glitchy mess when used.
• Elvis Impersonator: Blue Suede Goo, of course.
• Evil Redhead: Dr. Kiln
• 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).
• Finishing Move: Dubbed Claytalities in the N64 version.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Tiny
• Fun with Flushing: A stage in 63⅓ takes place above a toilet that it's possible to knock your opponent into.
• Guest Fighter: Earthworm Jim and Boogerman in 63⅓.
• Half the Man He Used To Be: Several of the Claytalities. Most characters have at least one that does this.
• Lady Not-Appearing-In-This-Game: a male example in Dr. Kiln. He's supposedly the Big Bad of the second game, but he doesn't appear in person until the third.
• Made of Plasticine: Literally.
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Kiln. Complete with the stereotypical hunched back, glasses and the German accent.
• Magic Meteor: The meteor made out of clay that emits goo that is able to transform living creatures and inanimate objects into clay creatures.
• Monster Clown: Bonker from the first and third game.
  • Though he changes a lot between games. In the first, he's an eternally-grinning psycho clown, in the third, he's a constantly-frowning Deadpan Snarker.
• Nice Hat: Bad Mr. Frosty's top hat.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Blue Suede Goo. Elvis impersonator much?
• 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.
• Pun-Based Title: Clayfighter 2: Judgment Clay, and Clayfighter 63⅓, which are allusions to the second Terminator film and the "64" endings of N64 games, respectively.
• Punny Name: The first game's final match against N. Boss.
• Put on a Bus: Blue Suede Goo, Helga, Ickybod Clay, Taffy and Bonkers were unavailable in the 2nd game. N. Boss also disappears as the final boss of Clayfighter 2 is your character's evil twin
  • For Blue Suede Goo and Helga, they don't show up in Clayfighter 63 1/3 ether. Many wonder if they'll return again.
  • Sad to say, Octo, Kangoo, Nana Man, Goo Goo, Ice, Slyck, Butch, Sarge, Dr. Peelgood, Spike, Jack, and Thunder disappear after Clayfighter 2, with Tiny from the first Clayfighter joining Blue Suede Goo and Helga on that bus.
    • The Bus Came Back: For Taffy, Ickybod Clay and Bonkers.
• Secret Character: at least one per game (save Tournament Edition):
  • Clayfighter: N.Boss is available by entering a code.
  • C2: The evil twins after beating the game
  • 63 1/3: Boogerman, Dr, Kiln, Sumo Santa
  • Sculptors Cut: Earthworm Jim and Boogerman by beating the game. High Five by a code.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: The Blob. Also, Dr. Kiln's prosthetic hand is able to transform into dangerous weapons.
• Shout-Out: Helga's Hard mode ending from the first game tells the player she once was married to Olaf the Stout, one of The Lost Vikings, and left him for Tiny the wrestler.
  • Mortal Kombat's fatalities, Street Fighter III's Parries, Vampire Savior's general gameplay system, and Killer Instinct's combos system in 63 1/3 (you can even do combo breakers in the game).
• Snowlems: Bad Mr. Frosty
• Stealth Pun: The ending credits always have an animation of Helga shouting at the very end. It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings.
• Totally Radical: Originally, Bad Mr. Frosty wore a blue top hat (to be evocative of the magic hat that is commonly depicted as bringing the original Frosty the Snowman to life). In C2: Judgment Clay, though, he started wearing a backwards baseball cap. (The top hat was restored in the third game, though.)
• Updated Rerelease: Clayfighter: Tournament Edition, as well as the "Sculptor's Cut" of 63⅓.
• Was Once a Man: All of the characters from the first were mutated humans.
• Weaponized Landmark: Lady Liberty, the Statue of Liberty turned into a sentient being made out of clay by Dr. Kiln, that is able to use her torch as a flamethrower.
• Wii Ware: the fourth game.
• A Winner Is You
• Witch Doctor: Houngan, the evil Jamaican witch doctor.
• A Worldwide Punomenon: Many of the fighters' names, most obvious being Elvis Impersonator Blue Suede Goo and pumpkin-headed Ickybod Clay.
  • All of the character endings in Sculptor's Cut as well. For instance, here is Ickybod Clay's:

"Ickybod Clay has succeeded in scaring all of the good guys off the Island of Claymodo. He knew that those weaklings didn't stand a ghost of a chance. His spirit high, his sole wish was to terrorize everyone on Claydonia and frighten all that see him. Icky's dream has just come to life, as he has made our heroes flee from his haunting visage. I'm afraid that's the end of this macabre tale."