After stints as a prop designer at Sea World and an animator on the cartoon series Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Douglas TenNapel made the videogame Earthworm Jim, featuring one of the most popular game characters in recent memory. Now, TenNapel is the mayor of his own company, The Neverhood, and its debut of the same name is a masterpiece, combining devious point-and-click puzzles with hysterical clay animation that would make Gumby cry in envy.
The Neverhood puts you in control of the malleable Klaymen, a goofy-looking newborn creature. As the game unfolds, Klaymen learns that 1) something terrible has happened in the Neverhood, his surrealistic world; and 2) it's up to him to make it right.
The dozens of puzzles are challenging, but it's the gorgeous visual design that makes The Neverhood so wonderful. In an era of 3-D graphics, the earthy animation gives it a groundbreaking visual style. To paraphrase TenNapel, The Neverhood doesn't emulate textures - it carves them. The Neverhood, CD-ROM for Windows 95: US$54.95. DreamWorks Interactive: (800) 426 9400, +1 (310) 234 7000.
