Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament

Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament known in Japan as Kaze no Klonoa G2: Dream Champ Tournament ( 風のクロノアG2 ドリームチャンプ・トーナメント), is a video game published by Namco and released on the Game Boy Advance in Japan in 2002 and North America in early 2005. As the third game in the Klonoa handheld series, the game retains many of the gameplay elements of the previous titles, while adding in a few of its own.

Story
Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament takes place sometime after the events of Klonoa: Empire of Dreams. The game begins shortly after Klonoa defeats the King of Despair, and receives an invitation letter that floats from the sky telling him that he has been selected to compete in the prestigious "Dream Champ Tournament" among other accomplished adventurers for the title of "Greatest Hero" as well as a cash reward. After Klonoa finishes reading, he is enveloped in a bright light and finds himself transported inside a gigantic arena alongside several other adventurers. He meets up with Lolo and Popka, only to learn that they are taking part in the competition as well, and a pompous rogue named Guntz who brushes him off immediately. The master of ceremonies, and sponsor of the tournament itself, Garlen, makes his appearance and informs everyone that they will be paired off in a single-elimination tournament that has them racing across several worlds of his own choosing. The first one to reach the end will be the winner and will advance to the next round.

Gameplay
As the third handheld Klonoa game, Dream Champ Tournament plays very similarly to the rest of the games in the series. Using traditional platformer elements, the player can move Klonoa left and right, moving the screen forward as they progress. To defeat enemies, Klonoa will have to use his special weapon, the Wind Bullet, to pull them towards him so he can pick them up. From this position, he can either toss them forward to defeat other enemies, or use them to perform a double-jump to reach places he couldn't normally. In addition, by holding the jump button, Klonoa can flap his large ears to float in place for a short time, which also somewhat increases his jump height or distance.

The game consists of five worlds split into nine small levels called "visions", including a boss level where Klonoa must compete in a foot-race with another adventurer and battle a boss at the same time. One vision is also devoted to a special stage where Klonoa must navigate his hoverboard over water or other terrain while avoiding enemies.

In each vision, there a number of items Klonoa can collect, including exactly 3 stars (Moon Stones), 30 crystals-like objects called "Dream Shards", and one sun-shaped item called a "Sun Stone". The three stars are needed to open the exit door at the end of each vision, but the remaining items are optional. By collecting all 30 Dream Shards, a section of a piece of original artwork is revealed (5 in all, one for each world). If every Sun Stone in the game is collected by the time the player beats it, special stages called "EX Stages" will become available. Beating these new stages has no bearing on the actual game, and are included just for fun.

Klonoa must find the exit to all the visions in each of the five worlds to beat the game, and must race his current opponent at the last vision of each world.

Reception
Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament received generally positive reviews from critics upon release, earning aggregate scores of 77.50% at GameRankings and 78/100 at Metacritic. Famitsu gave the game 32 out of 40.