Mario Clash is a ‘kinda’ remake of the Classic arcade game ‘Mario Bros.’ which derived from a mini game planned to be included in the cancelled ‘VB Mario Land’.
Instead of knocking the enemies from below, you need to throw a Koopa shell to defeat the enemy. (Being more similar to Hudson’s ‘Punch Ball Mario Bros.’)
The game does use 3D effectively in a visual way, but along with the noticeably slippery controls, the gameplay feels disoriented, making the game hard to control. (The switching of the jump and action button doesn’t help either).
The major flaw of this game which causes the frustration before becoming fun, is the over abundance of enemies required to be defeated from the other side. I guess this was done to necessitate the visual 3D, but in practice, it becomes a choir waiting for the right timing and position to hit the shell.
Since the shells has a ‘Powerup’ function, being able to be thrown further, why didn’t the programmer’s also gave an option to powerup the shell to defeat the enemies from the side?
So, Mario Clash is a kind of game that I want to like, but not able to fully experience the ‘fun’ due to its clunkyness, turning to a rather frustrated experience Instead.