Clock Tower (1995) was notable for being one of the few legitimate horror games on the Super Famicom. Since nothing cool ever left Japan in the 1990s, fans translated it in 2001, and for decades, it has remained one of the most influential games in the indie scene. Clock Tower would get ports on WonderSwan and PlayStation, adding features that improved the experience.
When Human Entertainment developed Clock Tower, the game’s director, Hifumi Kono, drew inspiration from Dario Argento’s films Phenomena and Suspiria and the obscure American 1981 slasher, The Burning. He took his love of horror films and wanted to create a terrifying experience of being stalked in the style of a Lucasartsian point-and-click adventure game. The sequels localized in the West never hit the same way as the original.
After decades of being circulated on English-fan-translated rom sites, Clock Tower finally has an official localization. With some new features added, new translation, and a wealth of extras, how does this belated localization hold up? Is this early survival horror still scary? Find out in our Clock Tower: Rewind review!
This is a review coupled with a supplemental video review. You can watch the video review or read the full review of the below:
Clock Tower: Rewind
Developer: Human Entertainment, WayForward, Limited Run Games
Publisher: Human Entertainment, WayForward, SUNSOFT, Capcom
Platforms: Windows PC, Super Famicom (as Clock Tower), WonderSwan (as Clock Tower for WonderSwan), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation (as Clock Tower: The First Fear), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch (reviewed)
Release Date: October 29, 2024
Price: $19.99
If you never seen Dario Argento’s Phenomena, you probably should. It’s an awesomely gruesome giallo with fantasy elements starring a teenage Jennifer Connelly. She had a very distinct and appealing look in the film and many Japanese developers took notice and co-opted her likeness in several games like Tifa Lockheart in Final Fantasy VII and of course, Jennifer Simpson in the original Clock Tower.
The story begins when Ms. Mary, the handler of the Barrows estate, adopts Anne, Lotte, Laura, and Jennifer on behalf of Mr. Barrows. She comes off as a bit stern and cold, but maybe she could be on the level and when the four teenage orphans are left alone in the mansion, all hell breaks loose.
Lurking in the shadows is an implacable killer. In this terrible nightmare, he can seemingly appear anywhere, defying the laws of space and time. This monstrously deformed child’s name is Bobby Barrows, but everyone who encounters him only knows him as the Scissorman due to his murder weapon of choice being an abnormally large pair of scissors. This horrible instrument of death cuts and presses against flesh, while announcing Bobby’s presence with a distinct sound of blades grinding.
Scissorman is by far one of the most effective and ingeniously designed slashers. His small statue emphasizes the size of his signature weapon, and the creepy juxtaposition of his childlike attire and thuggish gait gives him a lot of personality. His tenacity and lack of speech take cues from The Shape, as seen in the Halloween films. Being chased by this freak is still thrilling decades later, and it flawlessly captures the feeling of being stalked by a maniac in a horror film.
The set-up of a few girls being stalked in a mysterious mansion is effective and gradually introduces its plot as players guide Jennifer toward one of the many endings. Clock Tower‘s atmosphere is filled with suspense and mystery, as players are constantly confronted with the unknown and the potential for danger. Satanic elements are introduced implying a grander scope and some instances of nightmarish body horror that get explained in the sequel on PlayStation.
Finding a deranged and chained-up cannibal and discovering his connection to the family is purely on the player. Clock Tower won’t spoon-feed its story, at least not until the climax where the Macheveliian antagonist overly explains the motivations surrounding the hideously engorged demon fetus and the murders.
Clock Tower Rewind‘s core gameplay is the same as it was on Super Famicom. WayForward and Limited Run Games did not touch a thing apart from the new translation which made some pointless changes to justify itself from the already excellent fan translation that has existed for decades.
This is a point-and-click survival horror game that has some LucasArts influences. Jennifer is free to explore the Barrows’ mansion, find key items, and hopefully save her friends. Only one friend has to die no matter what story route the players take. Figuring out the optimal path to save the other two friends is half the fun of Clock Tower.
The other half of the fun is coping with the constant dread of Scissorman ambushing the player. Clock Tower is a stressful and nerve-racking experience. There are many ways to die, not all of them involve scissors and some of the multiple endings are grisly bleak endings. After all these years, Clock Tower remains a delightfully twisted and harrowing game.
The tension is bolstered by the unusual control scheme which is confusing for newcomers, and it’s surprising WayForward didn’t include an updated alternate scheme. Left and Right bumpers make Jen walk left and right respectively and pressing X on a Nintendo Switch controller makes her stop moving. There is no gyroscope option to control the pointer which is disappointing. The d-pad could have been mapped to make Jen move left or right, instead it’s still mapped to the pointer.
Rewind was meant to give players the ultimate Clock Tower experience, yet it feels like the most bare-bones port. Exploring the extras reveals that the developers took the time to record voice-acting and applied it to old Clock Tower comics. There is a redrawn HD Jennifer sprite used in the credits which suggests that maybe there was originally going to be a complete graphical overhaul. For whatever reason, none of this came to pass, and what we get is a very straightforward emulation of a Super Famicom game.
Having an official release of Clock Tower is welcomed but for its price, you aren’t getting enough bang for your buck. The target audience has likely played this via emulation and there are not enough enhancements to justify $19.99. The content added from the PlayStation version exists as mods and amounts to running speed on stairs, a few randomized jump scares, and a few additional scenes. The motion comics, interviews, and anime intro are not worth it.
The anime intro is technically impressive, but Mariel Cartwight’s art style is a poor fit for Clock Tower‘s sensibilities. Her style is so closely associated with Skullgirls and cheesecakey art that it feels horribly out of place and tone-deaf. Looking at the seinen-style art in the comics and promotional material, it’s obvious how her talent clashes with the very gritty and serious look of the game.
The Mary Elizabeth McGlynn song created using the Clock Tower theme is a nice touch, but again – not worth $19.99. WayForward and Limited Run Games should have included the sequel on PlayStation. It would have made the package fair and comparable to the Castlevania Dominus Collection, a more substantial package for the same price. This is closer to Tomba! Special Edition, but at least that re-release had an impressive optional remade soundtrack.
The rewind feature works exactly how you think, except it’s poorly executed. Clock Tower can be a very deliberately slow-paced game. Jennifer has lengthy uncancelable animations and the rewind does not have enough allowance to undo egregious mistakes. It’s almost useless and it’s too easy to rewind far back enough to restart an endless cycle of death. Save states are convenient, but Clock Tower isn’t the kind of game you can save scum your way to the best ending since it’s easy to unknowingly lock yourself to one route.
Clock Tower is an all-time horror classic. Regretfully, this belated localization fails to make it worth the wait. There should have been more features and content for this conversion. Rewind’s end credits showing a remade, fully animated Jennifer sprite got me wondering why there wasn’t an option for redrawn graphics and voiced dialogue. Why wasn’t there an option for a remade soundtrack?
Considering how long this was in development and how little there is to show for it, I can’t help but feel this was a compromised release. If all that you want is Clock Tower in English on current platforms, then that is what you’ll get with Rewind. The base game is still a palm-sweating and butt-clenching horror game, but know that it has all of its warts intact and not enough options to tweak your experience and that it comes with some intensely lame extras.
Clock Tower: Rewind was reviewed on a Nintendo Switch using a code provided by Limited Run Games. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Clock Tower: Rewind is now available for Windows PC (via Steam), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
