Cloning Clyde - Xbox Live Arcade review

Most of the Xbox Live Arcade titles this summer are simply updates of classic arcade games... with one amazingly intriguing black sheep, Cloning Clyde. More than just a rehash of an old fashioned concept, Cloning Clyde mixes clever yet silly humor with entertaining puzzles that grow in complexity as the game progresses. Playing as the somewhat stupid Clyde, you must navigate your way through a perilous cloning lab using machinery that you are undoubtedly not qualified to operate.

See, Clyde has a penchant for jumping into cloning and gene splicing machines at every opportunity, so you'll need to utilize the extra Clydes to conquer a mad scientists' nightmare collection of brain busters. The tutorials take the form of handy little signs scattered throughout the giant cloning lab, and can easily be skipped once you've got the gist of the game, making Cloning Clyde simple to pick up and play from the get go no matter what your skill level.

Clyde's basic library of moves and simple controls mask the genuinely tough challenges that lurk, because the difficulty of this game comes from its puzzles more than from anything else. Certain portions of the game require some advanced problem solving like splicing Clyde with a monkey and launching him high over an obstacle using a clone-operated catapult (and it gets even weirder than that at times).

An incomparably innovative combination of hilarity and diabolical puzzles, Cloning Clyde is also a total bargain at 800 Microsoft points ($10).