This day of November 15th, an odd 1v1 fighting video game released to the North America retail stores for the Super NES in 1993 and later ported to the Sega Genesis in June 1994. This game was part of a long, strange parade of Street Fighter II style games, but also more of a goofy parody of the popular genre using the photographic stop motion framing made famous in the genre, by Mortal Kombat.

ClayFighter arrived, and will never be forgotten as an awesomely weird and silly game of its time. Featuring silly circus level characters including a murderous snowman, an Elvis impersonator, a bunny, a baby, a blob, a clown…and more of its stand-out cast to the fighting game genre. Each molded from clay, photographed for every frame of animation. This ambitious effort remains worth checking out.

Also notable, is that silly theme song in the intro. It’s almost catchy!

The game is a lot of fun for old school fighting game fans yearning for the genre’s simpler time, where the full roster was selectible from day one of purchuse. Playing together with friends, meant sharing a couch and not an online connection. Turns were taken, and laughs were had with this goofy selection.

Since then, there’s been sequels that never quite got that magic of the original among fans. Perhaps, not being as fresh and there were problems with Interplay throughout the years. This history retrospect by Matt McMuscles well covers that:

But ClayFighter retained it’s cult status over the 3 decades, with a strong following.

Clay Fighter: Sculptor’s Cut Blockbuster Exclusive (Nintendo 64, N64) remains ridiculously expensive on eBay, with prices raising well into four digits. A purchase reciept for the said game from a Blockbuster reached a surprising amount.

So, let’s cheer off the not-so forgotten gem that is ClayFighter. If you played and enjoyed (or really hated), please share some memories in the comments below. If not, and feel you missed out..then seek this gem out and kick some clay!