Namco may change the main character for the next Klonoa game for American Wii (from a recent post at Kotaku). This decision is based on a survey which concludes that the participants like the new Klonoa better than the original one.

The original Klonoa (on the left) has long ears which make him unique. The long ears also act like an additional pair of hands or wings. The original character has more cartoon body proportion with big size gloves and boots.

The new Klonoa looks more like a bat. No more long ears. It has more realistic body proportion with smaller gloves and boots. The new character has the ‘cool, slim, and fast’ feels. I could imagine that this is the ninja-version of Klonoa. It still looks cute but definitely more powerful and fierce than the original one.

Both characters are good and look great, but I prefer the original one 🙂 Namco want to take more risk to make Klonoa character more recognizable in North America. Maybe they feel that the original character has not been so popular outside Japan, so maybe it is the right time to introduce a new and more acceptable character. However, most gamers who play Klonoa before might hate the new design.

Will it worth the risk? We’ll see.. 🙄