'The Neverhood' may head to the silver screen
by Tony Carnevale 
{ Apr 5th 2007 at 10:25PM }
The Neverhood, a stop-motion clay-animated adventure game from 1996 (used copies of which can go for $100 on eBay), may well become a feature film, according to Neverhood (and Earthworm Jim) creator Doug TenNapel on his official message board. TenNapel wryly notes that this time, there will be "no game to get in the way" -- in case you don't remember, The Neverhood got mixed-to-bad reviews as a game, though everyone agreed it looked absolutely gorgeous. Anyway, TenNapel says, "Don't speculate on the feature." So, seriously, no speculating in the comments section, okay? Doug wouldn't like it.[Thanks, B]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
hancock @ Apr 5th 2007 10:29PM
speaking of claymation.. what was the claymation fighter on snes? i can't remember...
McWeen @ Apr 5th 2007 10:37PM
It was clayfighter on the SNES. Holy crap I can't believe other people have even heard of this game.
Michael Wilson @ Apr 5th 2007 10:37PM
@ #1 I believe that was simply "Clayfighter."
I hope this happens, the Neverhood was awesome.
Moe @ Apr 5th 2007 11:42PM
This game was the shit when it came out. I played it to death over and over again. The puzzles were very hard. It was way ahead of its time.
Ninegauger @ Apr 5th 2007 10:41PM
The Neverhood is awesome.
Daniel @ Apr 5th 2007 10:44PM
This game is so utterly complex and laborious, but it's definitely one of the best games I've ever played.
Some killer music too
"Da dada doi doi doi"
Jeff @ Apr 5th 2007 10:45PM
I love this game sooo much. SO much that i still keep 4 backups of the game just so i never lose it. I want my kids to play this game so they can enjoy it as much as i did when i was one. it got mixed reviews because it was way ahead of its time.
Ludwig Kietzmann @ Apr 5th 2007 10:47PM
"Half a cheer for Klaymen!"
"Hip-hip... HOO!"
Daniel @ Apr 5th 2007 10:47PM
And I had no idea used copies were so much. I've got mine (well... my mom's copy. sorry mom!) lying around here somwehere.
Did anyone ever play Skullmonkeys, the platformer sequel on the psx? Was it any good?
shadow @ Apr 6th 2007 12:09AM
speculating what's he gonna say to that huh i'm speculating haha.
AJ @ Apr 5th 2007 11:04PM
Shit, you're lying. $100 on ebay?! This game is sitting up in my room collecting dust. Score!
Rubang B @ Apr 5th 2007 11:07PM
ClayFighter, Clay ClayFighter!
Come on fight them if you dare! (Ooh!)
ClayFighter, Clay ClayFighter!
Hit 'em, smack 'em, they don't care!
LuigiHann @ Apr 5th 2007 11:11PM
SkullMonkeys wasn't as good as the Neverhood. It was like a dumbed-down Donkey Kong Country.
But the Neverhood was brilliant. I should really go back and try to beat the game, now that I'm no longer a dumb child.
LaughingTarget @ Apr 5th 2007 11:12PM
Not sure why anyone would want to pay $100 for it ... specailly since The Underdogs have it.
xdrewfacex @ Apr 5th 2007 11:19PM
wow. i got that game for free with my family's first computer back in the day (gateway running win95, 64mb ram... good stuff). i still play it through from time to time, and i can never remember how to do some parts.
brodie pomper @ Apr 6th 2007 12:50PM
The soundtrack is incredible. It was really great one year, I spent a whole week at Rehoboth Beach walking around listening to it. Lonely, contemplative nights reading Vonnegut and Rand, walking on the beach collecting horseshoe crabs and missing someone special. Good music.
Judd @ Apr 6th 2007 12:13AM
Clayfighter 62 1/3 was awesome
Judd @ Apr 6th 2007 12:14AM
Excuse me that would be "63 1/3."
ridestowe @ Apr 6th 2007 12:50AM
..i played this game when i was 9. holy crap memories!! and i still have the copy of it too!
Megaqwerty @ Apr 6th 2007 1:24AM
The Neverhood? Never hood of it.
Sorry, I couldn't resist, but I was looking at some pictures, and, damn, for something out of 1996, those graphics are pretty insane. I want next-gen consoles to render claymation in real-time, with realistic (or not so much) physics. Booyah.
GhaleonQ @ Apr 6th 2007 1:40AM
I apologize for being crude, but I would literally orgasm if this came to fruition.
Pyronite @ Apr 6th 2007 1:43AM
"it got mixed reviews because it was way ahead of its time."
I don't know, I think it would still get mixed reviews today. The world, while cool, never quite lives up to what it could have been at the beginning.
Did the music remind anyone else of early Ween? I really think the composer got pointed in their direction. Compare "Big Jilm" or any of their other similar songs to a lot of The Neverhood's tracks.
BlueNocturne @ Apr 6th 2007 2:05AM
Word.
Rubang B @ Apr 6th 2007 2:49AM
I missed out on this game entirely, but having it compared to early Ween has piqued my interest. I'll have to czech it out now.
jc @ Apr 6th 2007 3:41AM
What? No link to the torrent?
SeNiLe @ Apr 6th 2007 4:49AM
http://digg.com/tech_news/The_Neverhood_may_head_to_the_silver_screen
Omer van Kloeten @ Apr 6th 2007 6:41AM
This is pure awesome dipped in amazing! :D
I love The Neverhood! It's one of my favorite games ever! I have even recently replayed it and enjoyed myself immensely.
I would recommend everyone to play this game through at least once in their lifetime.
(I sure hope Terry does the music on this one too - that was one of the highlights of the game)
PapaChabre @ Apr 6th 2007 7:03AM
Holy crap, Pyronite! Someone else who likes Ween. That's amazing. No, though, it doesn't remind me of Ween so much as it reminds me of Scat music - which is really what it is. It is strange/goofy like Ween, but I think that's as far as it goes.
Tiremfej @ Apr 6th 2007 7:36AM
I too have the game lying around here somewhere. I can't believe it's going for $100.00 on eBay. Maybe I should go through my old old collection, and she how much moolah I can make. Although, I may have thrown some of them out thinking they weren't worth anything. I too got my copy of the Neverhood with my Gateway years ago.
Todd @ Apr 6th 2007 9:31AM
$100 on eBay? Damn, I should sell my copy! What a fantastic, and utterly hilarious, game.
Todd @ Apr 6th 2007 9:33AM
I would love to see a new Clayfighter game come to life. I miss Big Bad Mr. Freeze!
Jackson Pritt @ Apr 6th 2007 3:15PM
This will be awesome, as long as the movie is CLAYMATION and not CG.
Most of the magic of the Neverhood was that everything was clearly made out of clay. CG will never, ever feel the same.
Ryan de michigan @ Apr 6th 2007 7:58PM
Clayfighter (i loved that game) doesn't belong anywhere near a discussion of Neverhood. My high hopes are that the Movie sparks enough interest that we get a few more NH games. Maybe Hannah Montanas high sales will bring the Point and click adventure back to where it needs to be. Hell, I wouldn't even mind seeing a Kings Quest 23.
Liz @ Apr 6th 2007 9:09PM
Did any of you guys ever play Skullmonkeys or Boombots on the playstation? They were both by the same company that did The Neverhood and were rather amazing. Skullmonkeys was a side scrolling platformer a la Super Mario Bros, and Boombots was a fighter game sort of like Mortal Kombat. However, they were both done in claymation with the same wacky sense of humor that made The Neverhood so undeniably awesome. Also, they both featured a soundtrack by Terry S. Taylor, the man whose music contributed so much to the original game. I have the Neverhood soundtrack, but he released a cd called Imaginarium that also included the music for the other two video games that's sadly out of print. Ah well.
"Me Willy...me Willy Trombone! These discs tell a story..."
Tamakun @ Apr 7th 2007 6:10AM
I picked up Skullmonkeys for a song a few years ago. It's a fun platformer - I'd say it carries more similarities to Earthworm Jim, but without the gun or head-whip.
Neverhood rocks, and if TenNapel is considering revisiting the story, I sure hope he goes more into the story of Big Robot Bill. That was the coolest, and I actually wanted to hear more (and wrote to him personally about it, too). :)
I highly recommend picking up his comics, by the way, as well. Creature Tech is just fascinating to me.
Oh yes, the reason I wanted to post - the Imaginarium CD was re-released recently and is on the Daniel Amos Store - http://www.danielamos.com/store/ .