Mario Clash:

The Clash House Tower has been invaded by badguys! It's up to Mario to clear them all out by throwing Koopa shells to knock them off the narrow ledges connected by pipes in dangerous rooms.

Mario goes virtually 3D in this game based upon the classic Arcade & NES Mario Bros. game, and if you don't go back that far you might remember the SNES' (Mario Allstars) Mario Bros. 3 mini-game that many played so fondly in between levels, well this is it's 3D Virtual Boy conversion. Starting the game will lead you to a nice intro movie showing scoundrels entering Clash Tower, soon to be followed by Mario ready for some Koopa bashing! 

When I played the game for the first time and entered the main menu, someone walking by said the backgroundtune reminded her of New Orlean Jazz music, well I'm no music expert, but the intro tunes and background sounds throughout the game make a very nice catchy addition to the standard bleeps and bloops in all the levels, not mention they warn you (and stress you out at the same time) when the last minute ticks away!  So watch your timer.

Take this not to mean, there's no sound effects in the 99 levels of gameplay, because there's tons of them, from the sound of tingling money (bouncing at you towards the screen!) in the every few levels mini-game to the cool distorted music sound the ghosts named Big Boo in later levels make when they fade away.

Mario's controls are easy to master in the first few levels when you're being made familiar with them, just your basic running, jumping and throwing buttons, but with that said don't be put off by the ease of the game when you first start out, play longer than 15 minutes and know how hard and challenging this game really is as you struggle to throw Koopa shells into the spiked enemies in the backdrop while evading other enemies that come at you flying, jumping, running or throwing balls at you from a convenient distance, while you try to prevent them from giving you the blow that has you falling off the ledges by maneuvering back and forth in the pipes all over. Besides the sheer speed of the last enemy remaining, the biggest danger is probably staring and concentrating to hit the enemies that can only be killed from their side on the back ledges. Since you will mostly have to hit them multiple times to throw them off, this ofcourse takes time and in that time many enemies & hazards like icicles and fireballs can come at you.

With no friend being able to help you get rid of all the baddies and only one chance before losing a life, extra lives would sure come in handy, so through a scoring system of reaching 50,000 points, 100,000 points.... gives you an extra life with the more points you collect by defeating your enemies ingeniously like killing them at 2-3 at once or positioning the Koopa shell you throw towards the enemy in the background just right so that when an enemy comes where you stand (in the front in this case) the shell keeps bouncing back and forth causing your score to rise massively! Collecting all coins in the mini-game by good timing gives you an extra life aswell.

In short: Great game created from an old concept and put into a new 3D jacket. No gimmicks, all very nicely put together and inventive new levels that scream for quick thinking and creativity. If you like it you'll be glued to your Virtual Boy screen for days on end and will want to replay it long after that.

My opinion: As much as I thank Nintendo for the level select choice of the first 40 levels for when you turn the game back on, I still haven't finished the huge 99 level game and as annoying as it is to lose so many lives sometimes, I keep coming back for more, it's just very addicting and you can't help but continuing to play once you get started. Running and jumping around like crazy trying to find a way to get rid of all those buggers coming at you is heaps of fun. Lovely little game this one.