Clash and Burn.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/reviewmini/40954/mario-clash-review-mini
For many Nintendo fans around the world, the Virtual Boy is a fabled machine existing in faraway lands, a holy grail of missing Nintendo gems that may never again see the light of day on a modern Nintendo system. We hear talk of that other Wario game or the first true Mario sports title, and fantasize about these red and black mesh games we never got to play. Mario Clash is, sadly, one game that's probably better off left to legend.
Designed as a successor to the original Mario Bros. arcade classic – sans Luigi as was the style at the time of the Virtual Boy – this game saw Mario happening upon a gigantic beach-side skyscraper known as the Clash House Tower, which has been overrun by bad guys. What else to do but hop on in and start busting heads?
In each of the game's 99 stages, Mario must navigate a series of platforms connected by pipes, clearing out enemies by first stomping a Koopa and then hurling its shell at the others in the area. When all the enemies are defeated, the stage will progress to the next one, ad infinitum. The platforms weave and twine themselves between the foreground and background at different heights, and sometimes the connecting pipes are arranged in more complicated directions, making it difficult to keep track of enemy movements. Enemies can enter pipes and navigate the entire stage's platform path just like Mario, requiring quick action and preparation to dispatch them all.
There are no POW Blocks, and touching all but the Koopa enemies directly will result in instant death. The majority of enemies can't simply be attacked head-on with a Koopa shell either, the strategy instead involves hurling a shell across a void in the center of the stage (from front to back or vice versa) so as to knock the enemies sideways off the ledges to their doom. This is where the game's faults start to show, however, as flinging a shell across the stage requires almost pixel-perfect precision and it is very easy to miss in the thick of battle, meaning you usually have to wait for another Koopa to crawl out of the pipeline, line up your shot and try again. The control and gravity of Mario's jumps also feels a little unrefined compared to other Mario games, making for some sudden deaths that often feel like cheap shots.
The end result is a game with a simple premise and an absurd difficulty spike after only the first few stages, requiring grit and determination to master. The game is further hindered by some oddly creepy Mario face close-ups, a forgettable soundtrack, and some off-brand sound effects that don't match up with the previous fare from Nintendo EAD and the legendary pair of Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi. There isn't even anything in the way of a boss battle, ending sequence or any explanation of the enemies that overtook the tower, and the arduous trek towards the ninth floor will reward players with a warp back to the first stage to do the whole thing again. Most players will quickly become bored with the game long before coming to the realization of their pointless endeavour.
A player must remember that this game was released in 1995, alongside other Nintendo offerings such as Yoshi's Island, Donkey Kong Country 2, Earthbound and Chrono Trigger. What we have in comparison is a product that almost feels like a cheap plagiarism. If Virtual Boy games ever earn a release on the 3DS Virtual Console, this game may be worth downloading for kicks, but until then it's not worth sifting through inflated eBay prices.
Topic: Mario Clash Review Mini (Read 2001 times)
