ClayFighter is a fighting game released for the Super NES in 1993 and later ported to Mega Drive/Genesis in 1994. It has been re-released on Nintendo's Virtual Console along with the two Earthworm Jim games and Boogerman, which are also by Interplay.
Most of the game features a circus theme focused more on humor than serious gameplay. It features claymation-style graphics that were created by photographing and digitizing actual clay models.
The game was one of the two "clay" themed game franchises made by Interplay, the second being a platformer titled Claymates.
ClayFighter's design was originally made to compete with fighting games such as Mortal Kombat but without the heavy violence and gore that was becoming controversial. Interplay pushed the game saying "Parents who object to blood-and-guts games now have an alternative title that gives kids the kind of intense action they want to see in fighting games" to draw sales.
A meteor made entirely out of clay crash-lands on the grounds of a humble American circus. The goo from the interstellar object contaminates all of the circus' attractions, transforming them into bizarre caricatures of their former selves, with new superpowers.
