Claymates
Claymates is a 1993 SNES-exclusive platformer developed by Visual Concepts and published by Interplay. The protagonist, Clayton (a boy turned to clay by witch doctor Jobo), must rescue his scientist father, Professor Putty (turned into a jelly-like substance), and recover a serum formula that transforms people into animals when combined with clay.
Availability: Nintendo Switch Online — Super Nintendo Entertainment System app (Nintendo Classics)
This guide documents the game's main progression and structure; some specific details are still being verified and are noted where relevant.
Controls / Transformation Mechanic
Clayton transforms into different clay animals by touching colored clay/serum samples found in levels. Five animal forms are confirmed: Muckster the Cat (can climb some walls), Doh-Doh the Duck (limited flight), Oozy the Mouse (fast movement, crawls through small spaces), Goopy the Guppy (swimming), and Globmeister the Chipmunk. Each form has abilities suited to its level's environment; players jump over obstacles and attack using whichever animal form is currently active.
Levels / Worlds
The game is set across five environments: the protagonist's backyard, the Pacific Ocean, Japan, Africa, and outer space. Level warp shortcuts exist — e.g., in "Cape Claynaveral," jumping on a magnet four times warps to Japan; in "Clayton's Yard," jumping over the first tunnel and hitting the first flower four times warps to Cape Claynaveral.
Progression / Required Objectives
Levels are timed races to collect items (crystals) and reach the level's end. Finishing a level with more than 100 crystals unlocks "The Grid," a bonus level where bouncing on all lit-up yellow squares awards an extra life.
Bosses
The game has five bosses total: Ben, Corky, Webigail, and Jobo (the witch doctor antagonist, penultimate boss), with the true final boss being a Martian king who arrives with an armada to steal the clay serum formula for himself.
Trouble Spots
Because each of the five worlds pairs a specific clay-animal ability with its environment (e.g., Guppy for the ocean world, Duck for aerial sections), players attempting a level with the "wrong" transformation active are likely to get stuck — a common design pattern in transformation-based platformers of this era — though this was not independently confirmed with a level-by-level breakdown.
Still confirming
- Exact boss-to-world assignment (which of the five worlds each of Ben, Corky, Webigail, and Jobo appears in).
- Full list of level names beyond "Cape Claynaveral" and "Clayton's Yard."
- Specific button mapping for jump vs. transformation-specific special ability.