Plot The Clash House has been invaded by bad guys! It's up to Mario to clear them out, throwing Koopa shells to knock them away. Take care as you battle in dangerous rooms of narrow ledges connected by pipes. Ahh, the Virtual Boy, often considered Nintendo's only failure. The machine had it's good points and it's bad points, but sadly the bad points were considerably more prominent. Granted that the machine had excellent tech specs and cutting-edge technology, the machine only ran two colors, it was wildly expensive, it could cause eye damages to children under seven, and ultimately had a poor supporting lineup, primarily because most of Nintendo was working on the N64 at the time. But lets get onto the game. This was one of Mario's two direct Virtual Boy appearances. It was ultimately an upgrade of Mario Bros. As Mario, you climb the Clash House, floor by floor, fighting off enemies by throwing shells at them. Of course each enemy has to be attacked from a certain point. Spike and Lobb can be attacked head on, but the same is not true of other enemies. Thorny and Para-Goomba must be hit from the side, so you have to position yourself across from your target and throw the shell over the pit in the center. And then you have Fire and Ice (no connection to the NES game of the same name), which just get in your way and are invincible. And then theres Big Boo, Snake, Pokey, and return character from Mario Bros, Sidestepper. All in all, a huge mess. Overview Graphics on Virtual Boy games are a controversial subject. They are 3D, but not to the extent of todays consoles. They're smooth flowing, but often slow. You can move from the front of the screen to the back, but with no change in camera angle. The subject of color adds fuel to the fire, and the battle rages on. This games graphics aren't flashy or eye-catching, but in this sort of game you don't want that anyway. You walk around on a screen divided into a front half and a back half, switching position via pipe, and just smash the enemies with shells. The sound effects are limited to jumping, throwing, and the impact of the shells on the enemies. The music is very repetitive, and you have to tune it out or it will drive you insane. The gameplay is again, nothing new, which didn't do the Virtual Boy any good. Eventually the game can seem to get slower and slower until you just die because you don't notice that Koopa sneeking up behind you and biting you at two millimeters an hour. Had the game been a little more fast-paced, this wouldn't have been a problem. The game can just get too boring after a while. To conclude, of the few Virtual Boy games, Mario Clash doesn't rank up with the games like Mario's Tennis, Virtual Boy Wario Land, or Galactic Pinball. Had the game been faster and a little less repetitive, Mario Clash just might have gotten a little more respect. If you're a game completist, like me, and have a Virtual Boy, then you can usually find this game on places like ebay. But I wouldn't reccommend going out and get a Virtual Boy for this game alone. |
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