Review: Clock Tower: Rewind (Nintendo Switch)

Clock Tower: Rewind on Nintendo Switch comes with a lot of bonus items for fans of the original 1995 release. There’s an art gallery, a music player, an interview with the game’s creator…problem is, I’m not sure this game has many fans.

That’s not meant as a slight on the game. Clock Tower: Rewind is a good survival horror throwback, but it had never been released outside of Japan. The bulk of Switch players, then, are less likely to be interested in the nostalgia and more into enhancements to make the game more modern. WayForward’s release does come with a few of those, but not quite enough to earn a full recommendation.

The gothic horror begins when four teenage orphans are adopted and taken to a desolate mansion at the end of a long, wooded walk. It’s never a good sign for orphan girls when they can’t reach their new parents’ home by car, and things go predictably south in a hurry. The orphanage director, Mary, disappears. Jennifer goes to look for her, only to hear her friends scream before they, too, are gone. After a brief search and an attack by a peculiarly aggressive parrot, Jennifer finds one of her friends dead at the hands of a dude with a giant pair of scissors. Worse, Scissor-Dude now has his sights set on Jennifer.

That right there is everything you need to know about the general gameplay. Jennifer will spend the game searching the mansion for Mary and her remaining friends while uncovering clues about the mansion’s history, all while being chased by the particularly tenacious Scissorman. Clock Tower: Rewind is, more or less, a point-and-click adventure with survival horror elements.

I quite liked that about the game. I grew up on puzzle-adventures that required you to “save early, save often,” so this is my kind of haunted house. Unfortunately, the console implementation isn’t as friendly as it could be. The player moves Jennifer left and right in a 2D, side-scrolling environment using the L and R buttons. X stops her. This is OK, as Jennifer is bright enough to cut corners and open doors automatically. And when you’re being pursued by Scissorman, it’s great that his intended victim is smart enough to run on her own. That allows you to focus on hiding spots, but that’s also where things get dicey.

The player uses the L- and R-sticks to move the cursor about the screen. This, of course, is not very precise. That’s OK when you’re not under pressure. It’s incredibly frustrating, however, when you have to quickly pinpoint a small item to escape Scissorman. If the developers had widened the detection area of doorknobs, for example, or implemented some type of snap-to process, the survival horror elements would seem much more fair. As it stands, I kept yelling at Jennifer because she couldn’t figure out how to open a door, and I don’t want to be that guy…especially considering the game’s Jennifer is inspired by Jennifer Connelly’s character from David Argento’s Phenomena. In fact, fans of ’70s and ’80s horror will definitely want to take notice, as Clock Tower: Rewind’s story and visuals are directly inspired by David’s works.

Another problem is that the puzzles are typical of the timeframe in that they quite often make no sense; you’ll definitely need to rely on either trial and error or Internet and walkthrough. If you’re brave enough to go with the former, you can also count on plenty of backtracking to search for items you’ll need to move things along or to get different endings on subsequent play-throughs.

Although the controls and random puzzles don’t work that well, nearly everything else does. The ability to sometimes set up traps for Scissorman is very rewarding when you pull them off successfully. I also loved that Jennifer’s stamina comes into play; the more tired she is, the more likely she is to stumble in her escape attempts. Keeping her rested is key to survival.

Finally, the graphics and “sets” are fantastic. Although the mansion is oddly barren, it’s presented in a wonderfully creepy way that—when coupled with the chilling audio effects—manages to provide good, often unexpected jump scares. The game is also designed for multiple playthroughs. There are numerous endings to reach, and item placement is randomized. Clock Tower: Rewind is a game you could revisit each Halloween (or whenever the mood strikes) and get a fairly new experience each time.

Again, though, this type of game will not appeal to everyone. Its controls and approach to puzzle solving are long dead and buried, and they should not be exhumed. And although the bonus content is insightful, most of it (aside from save states) doesn’t really push the gameplay forward. Fans of nostalgic horror and puzzle/adventure games will be rewarded for adopting Clock Tower: Rewind despite its intrinsic frustrations, but others will likely want to leave this one orphaned in the eShop.