Mario Clash (マリオクラッシュ, Mario Kurasshu?) is a game produced by Nintendo in 1995 for the Virtual Boy. It is the first stereoscopic 3D Mario game, and a 3D reimagining of the original Mario Bros. game.[5] Reception for the game was mixed, with reviewers feeling that while the Virtual Boy hardware itself held the game back, it still had it's positive traits as well.
[edit] Gameplay
Screenshot of
Mario Clash
The objective of the game is to knock all the enemies in a particular level off ledges. This is accomplished by jumping on a Koopa Troopa, picking up its shell, and then throwing it at other enemies to defeat them.[5] Levels consist of two planes, a "foreground" and a "background", with lower, middle, and upper floor on each plane, and 4 pipes connecting different combinations of planes and floors.[6] Some enemies can be defeated with Mario throwing a shell at an enemy on the same plane as himself, while others can only be defeated if Mario throws a shell at an enemy into the background from the foreground, or vice versa.[5] The game's sole usable item is a mushroom, which, when touched, initializes "Fever Time", where Mario's shell throwing defeats any enemy it touches, regardless of it's defenses.[7][8] The game has 99 levels, although the player can only choose to begin from any of the first forty of them.[9] However, the game does not allow for the saving of progress through the games, or high scores, once the game is turned off.[10]
[edit] Development
Mario Clash was developed by Nintendo R&D1, with director Gunpei Yokoi, the same team that was responsible for the development of the Virtual Boy itself.[11] His success with the Game Boy line of systems, coupled with the public's general belief that it was too early for the next generation of systems, due to the failure of systems such as the 3DO and the Atari Jaguar, the team brainstormed on different directions that could be taken.[12] The team came up with a system that used 3D images to display conventional 2D graphics, the Virtual Boy being the end result on the hardware end, and Mario Clash and Mario's Tennis the end result on the software end.[13]
[edit] Reception
The game has received mixed reception. Screwattack named it the second worst Mario game of all time.[14], while others were much more positive, like The Video Game Critic, who gave it an A rating, calling it "a satisfying mix of strategy and arcade action" and "a must have for Virtual Boy owners."[15] IGN called it "mildly clever little game that could have succeeded without the strange limitations of the Virtual Boy itself", citing the systems red-only graphics, and an awkward controller as things holding it back.[5] They also named it as one of the five 3D games of Nintendo's past that were most deserving of a rerelease on the Nintendo 3DS, [16] and called it "underated".[17] Nintendo Life gave the game a 6 out of 10, stating that it " can be pretty boring and with its flat sprites, lack of a save function and other minor niggles, it's hard to recommend as an essential purchase. However, if you stick with it you'll find it does provide something of a challenge... it hardly deserves the title of 'Worse Mario Game Ever.'"[18] Nintendojo was more positive about it, give it an 8 out of 10, stating "While not without its pitfalls, Mario Clash proves to be an innovative departure for a Nintendo interpretation of Mario Bros... The modern iteration found in Super Mario Advance 1 and [Super Mario Advance] 2 may be very faithful to the original and include 4-player support, but Mario Clash is still a worthwhile romp through the 3rd dimension..."[19] GamesRadar praised the game,stating "it actually made brilliant use of 3D...The level designs featured a huge amount of variety, and figuring each one out was enormously fun."[20]
[edit] Legacy
Game mechanics of Mario Clash were also used as a microgame in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! for the Game Boy Advance and its remake WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Games! for the Gamecube.[5] Featured as one of 9-Volt's microgames, the object was to knock either a Spike Top, Boo, or Paragoomba off the middle ledge in the foreground with a Koopa shell in the allotted time limit.[citation needed]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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