Mario Clock
Mario Clock is a DSiWare clock application released in Japan on April 1 and in North America on June 15, 2009 for 200 DSi Points. The alarms can be set to be Mario-related sounds[1]. The clock can either be set to analog, or digital.
There is a small easter egg in the game, which allows the player to jump (whether they're using Mario or Luigi) and collect coins, after every 100 coins, one of the Mario Brothers swaps out with another one, allowing the other brother to collect another 100 coins, and so on. If the analog clock is set, every 100 coins collected, a sprite of Mario or Luigi will appear over one of the numbers starting from 1. When 1,200 coins are collected, the player will arrive at World 8-4, with Princess Peach waiting on one of the brothers. Thanking him, and introducing them to another quest.
The player must also collect Super Mushrooms and avoid Poison Mushrooms. The stage changes for every 30 minutes that pass in real time.
DSi Shop Description
American
Turn back time and enjoy a bit of classic game play based on the original Super Mario Bros. with Mario Clock. Help Mario and Luigi collect more coins than ever (POW block anyone?) while they run through a variety of stages. Gather enough coins and you'll be treated to another scene bound to bring back fond memories for many. Mario Clock includes both analog and digital clocks that use the system's internal clock or allow you to offset the time however you like. Program up to three alarms (with snooze functionality for those that need it) and assign them a Mario-related sound or use one created in the Nintendo DSi™ Sound application. You'll find yourself thinking "Just a few more coins..." in no time!
References
External Links
Mario Clock Review
One more time: an absolute waste of 200 points.
June 15, 2009 - Yes, Nintendo, we know you have a huge library of franchises to celebrate, but pimping them out by branding stupid software clocks with the characters then charging two bucks a pop for them…sorry, but this is just too much even for you. You've already done the Clock and Calculator thing with Animal Crossing themes and we weren't all that thrilled the first time, especially when you consider the fact that the system already has a built-in alarm clock with the same features and limitations. Now Super Mario Bros. gets its own Clock and Calculator downloadable set, and there's not much we can say that we haven't said already: while the calculator is useful, the clock is stupid and unnecessary. And to have these two as individual 200 point downloads instead of combining them into one is just flat-out greedy.
Mario Clock is the same damn thing that's been released as Animal Crossing Clock and Photo Clock: it's just a clock with an alarm, where you can either set the sounds to be Mario-related alerts or attach sounds you've recorded and saved to the system storage. Two problems here: the DSi already has this function built-in, and like the built-in clock, it only works if the program's running. Your system has to be sitting on the alarm clock application for it to actually alert you.
Oh, and Nintendo gives you the impression that there's a game sample in Mario Clock, but it's as much of a game as the Super Mario visualize is in the DSi's audio player: Mario's constantly running on the top screen, and you can have him jump with the A button to collect coins. Collect 100 coins and Luigi will jump in to take Mario's place. Do this 12 times (one for every hour on the clock) and you've rescued the princess. It's mostly stupid, pointless, and completely unnecessary, but at the very least it's sort of funny to see the numbers on the clock scatter when you hit a POW block.
Released on the same day is the Mario Calculator, a much more useful application that combines the power of a number crunching calculator and a unit converter with the branding of an 8-bit Mario game. There's no game here, just the ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, as well as figure out how many miles are in a kilometer, or how many human years in a dog year. But all the data entry is put to the sounds and animation of Super Mario Bros. for the original NES. Be sure to turn the sound down on your system if you're using it in class.
I'm really hoping this is the last time I have to review something from the DSiWare store that's existence is absolutely pointless. I've already gone through the whole song and dance with the Animal Crossing Clock, and luckily Lucas agreed with me when he was put to the task of reviewing the Photo Clock, but now the same thing has to be said one more time: Mario Clock, not worth even the budget 200 points. The Mario Calculator is much more worthy of the premium, though there'd be far less room to complain if Nintendo just combined the two instead of making them individual purchases. Would it have killed you, Nintendo, to give us two things for the price of one?
