“ | Clawz isn't a monster, Rog... He's just a pet. | „ |
~ Reala, NiGHTS Archie Comics. |
Clawz (クロウズ Kurōzu) is a second level Nightmaren and boss in NiGHTS into Dreams. He is a black shadow cat with wings.
Character Information[]
Physical Appearance[]
Clawz is a giant black cat with a sinister smile and yellow star on his forehead. He has yellow and red stripes on his back, legs and tail, blue paws with red claws and blue pointy wings.
Personality[]
Clawz is shown to be sneaky and avoids melee combat by always running away from NiGHTS and shooting fireworks at them. His Japanese bio also states that Clawz is spiteful by nature[1] and is described to "rather torment you from the shadows than attack you fair and square",[1] which means that Clawz may play dirty if he needs to in order to get what he wants.
Abilities[]
Mice Fireworks
Clawz's signiature weapon is his Mice Fireworks. Clawz uses them to attack NiGHTS and also to protect himself from them. When the Mice Fireworks are released, they are impossible to avoid.
Super Speed
Clawz is shown to be really fast, as everytime NiGHTS tries to hurt him, he will dodge their attacks as long as he still have Mice Fireworks to stand on.
History[]
NiGHTS into Dreams[]
In NiGHTS into Dreams, Clawz is Frozen Bell's boss and an Nightmaren encountered in Elliot's story. He will attack after all Ideyas are collected in the level. His boss battle theme is called "E-Le-Ki Sparkle".
Battle
Clawz will always stand above one of his mice fireworks and everytime NiGHTS comes close to him, Clawz will jump to another one, far away from them.
Clawz lights up his fireworks and it is impossible to avoid them once they are launched. To defeat him, the player must destroy his fireworks, giving preference for the lit ones to avoid taking damage. The lit fireworks can be destroyed by both the paraloop and the drill dash; the ones that aren't lit can only be destroyed with the paraloop.
Once most of his fireworks are destroyed, Clawz won't be able to run away from NiGHTS anymore and the player will be able to knock him out with a single hit. For unknown reasons, a spotlight follows Clawz throughout the battle until the player takes out the last mouse. After the battle, Clawz isn't seen again.
Environment
Clawz's battle takes place on a weird carousel-like machine full of fireworks with pink mice heads, the machine appears to be surrounded by big walls made of colorful bricks, for unknown reasons, the walls have holes with a bright light coming out of them.
Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams[]
Clawz render appears in the concept art.
Other Media Appearances[]
NiGHTS Archie Comics[]
Clawz is the only NiGHTS into Dreams boss character who didn't have any significant role in the Archie Comics. Instead he simply appears as a background character throughout the story, acting as Reala's pet.
In the first issue, Clawz first appears looking at the portal Wizeman is creating to go to the waking world. He and the other nightmarens later tries to capture NiGHTS after the latter escaped with the red ideyas. In the second issue, Clawz makes a small appearance after Claris defeated Gulpo, where he eats Gulpo alive.
In the third issue, after NiGHTS, Elliot and Claris defeated Wizeman, Clawz appears being petted by Reala, who is thinking about his plans as the new ruler of Nightmare. In the fifth issue, Clawz, along with Gillwing, Puffy and Jackle, tries to fight Reala, after the latter proclaimed himself the new ruler of Nightmare. Before Clawz or any of the nightmarens have a chance to fight Reala, the latter attacks and makes them fall into an abyss. Clawz makes one last appearance at the sixth issue, where he tries to attack Roger, but is surprised by Reala, who makes him blow up.
Spin-Off Appearances[]
NiGHTS into Dreams (LCD)[]
Clawz appears as a boss in the LCD adaptation of NiGHTS into Dreams. Defeating Clawz adds 100 points to the game's score.
Other Appearances[]
- Sonic Pinball Party: Clawz made an appearance in Sonic Pinball Party as a boss. Curiously, instead of being the boss of the Frozen Bell table, he is the boss of the Mystic Forest one. To defeat him, the player must make the ball paraloop him enough times under 180 seconds.
- Sonic Lost World: Clawz appeared as the fourth boss of the Nightmare Zone DLC of Sonic Lost World, where he is ridden by Zeena. Much like in NiGHTS into Dreams, Clawz will run away from Sonic by teleporting from firework to firework and to defeat him, Sonic will need to destroy all of his fireworks quickly, as otherwise, Clawz will make more fireworks appear.
Descriptions and Profiles[]
Japanese bio (NiGHTS into Dreams)[]
"A Second-Level black cat with sharp claws, he's spiteful by nature and would rather torment you from the shadows than attack you fair and square. So, just how far will NiGHTS have to chase those quick feet…?"[1]
Gallery[]
Audio[]
Trivia[]
- Clawz early designs are drastically different from his final one. Originally, Clawz was intended to be either a round red cat with yellow stripes and pink spots or a female humanoid cat with red stripes.
- Bomamba from NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is similar to Clawz; she is a cat-like second level Nightmaren who can only be defeated after her traps (her cat minions) are defeated. Bomamba's cat minions also resemble Clawz's mice fireworks, as they have heads but lack body and they launch themselves into NiGHTS.
- In the Nightmare Zone DLC from Sonic Lost World, Clawz is the only boss who doesn't try to hurt Sonic. Instead, Clawz simply keeps creating fireworks for Sonic to destroy and make the hedgehog waste time.
- Clawz can accidently hurt and defeat himself during the battle.[2]
- By inspecting the game's files, it is possible to find an unused spikeball and a metallic spike, which were meant to appear in the Clawz's boss battle.[3] However, it is unknown how they would be featured in the battle.
- Clawz being a cat with a sinister smile might be a reference to the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.
- Jackle is also similar to the Cheshire Cat, as he is also has a sinister smile and is partly invisible.
- As seen above, in one of his earliest designs, Clawz was a round red cat with yellow stripes. This design bears some resemblance to the Cheshire Cat from the Walt Disney adaptation of the fairy tale released in 1951.
- Clawz's name is wordplay to the word, "claws".
- In the NiGHTS into Dreams game files, Clawz is nicknamed "#M3:FIRE-CAT'S".[4]
- This nickname is likely a mix between the words "Fireworks" and "Cat".