Claybook

Claybook provides a soothing sandbox experience that is only hampered by the lack of variety in premade levels currently on offer by the community.

Claybook deserves a lot of credit for being as unique and enjoyable as it is. Even though it doesn't quite feel like a fully fleshed out experience yet, I hope to see a sequel that really runs with its clever concepts.

It’s not groundbreaking and it’s fairly short. But it has a lot of potential, and I hope it continues to be supported. The online works well, despite being a bit basic, but the editor is pretty robust if you can get past the learning curve.

Claybook is gorgeous and playful, but its core gameplay focus simply isn't compelling.

All in all, Claybook has its faults, but there’s a lot to love that makes any blemishes worth tolerating. The game’s rewind feature is a big help in circumnavigating some of these flaws, but it would have been nice to see a touch more polish injected into Claybook. The experience will zoom by for most players, but the ability to create, share, and download levels from other users helps to pad things out. Still, player-created content doesn’t please everyone, so know going into Claybook that it will be fun, if brief. Definitely give it some thought when perusing the eShop.

Claybook puts the players into a world of clay creation and imagination to solve puzzles while getting your hands dirty. Its vibrant, whimsical colors and designs evoke a child-like wonder for creation over the course of its twenty levels, but it falls short by gating content behind an ambiguous rating system. Claybook is $14.99 on the Nintendo Store.

Claybook is admittedly ambitious. It’s also quite a nice looking and unique game, with commendable user features. Yet it struggled to command my attention, lacking elements to maintain interest beyond a few minutes at a time. The community creations do help here to an extent, but the overall experience needs to be tightened, and perhaps reigned in a bit.

Just like kids playing with plasticine, Claybook is good-hearted and full of creativity, but has more than often hazardous results. In other words, while the concept looks good, it's not well modeled enough concerning gameplay and ergonomics.

Claybook offers an enjoyable, lighthearted atmosphere, but the game's environmental puzzles fail to stay interesting or satisfying for long.