Mario Clock

Mario Clock
Developer	Nintendo Software Technology Corporation
Publisher	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Nintendo DSi, Nintendo 3DS
Release date	Nintendo DSi (DSiWare): Template:Release Nintendo 3DS (eShop): Template:Release
Genre	Educational
Rating(s)	ESRB: - Everyone CERO: - All ages
Mode(s)	Single player
Input	Nintendo DS: Gamepad Stylus Nintendo 3DS: Gamepad

Mario Clock is a DSiWare alarm clock application styled after Super Mario Bros., released in 2009 for 200 DSi Points. It is also available on the Nintendo 3DS eShop for $1.99 (USD). Up to three alarms can be set to play Mario-related music. For each alarm, the player can set its volume, overriding the system volume, and whether to snooze, automatically cycling between one minute of alarm and four minutes of silence for an hour. Alarms will only work while Mario Clock is open, but they can play while the system is placed into sleep mode.

The clock can be set to analog, 12-hour digital, and 24-hour digital display modes. The application also shows the current date, day of the week, and battery charge; when the system is on low power, the graphics tint red.

Nintendo 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!

European

With Mario Clock, you'll always have the time wherever you go! Wake up with classic Mario music, or simply use the Nintendo DSi system as a desktop clock complete with a Super Mario Bros. background. You can even make Mario jump, bash blocks and collect coins!

Customise the clock to your liking: choose from analog or digital displays, 12-hour or 24-hour modes, and set up to three separate alarms with different NES-style Mario tunes or use your own saved sounds from the Nintendo DSi Sound application.

Gameplay

Mario Clock's gameplay takes the form of an auto-runner game based around accumulating coins. The player character can jump, dash, and grab coins, Super Mushrooms, and Poison Mushrooms. They will only stop running briefly after hitting a block containing multiple coins or a mushroom.

For every 100 coins collected, Mario swaps out for Luigi, or vice versa, and their sprite appears over the numbers on the clock. When 1,200 coins are collected, they will arrive at World 8-4, and Princess Peach will thank the player and introduce them to another quest.

If the player doesn't press anything for a set amount of time, the application goes into an Energy Saving mode, turning off the Touch Screen, and the player character will stop to look around.

Upon exiting to the system menu, the game shows totals of coins collected in the current game and across all games.

Controls

The player uses to jump, to dash, and the to make selections on the Touch Screen. For an alarm in snooze mode, they must hold to cancel snoozing.

Stage themes

The stage theme changes for every 15 minutes that pass in real time. A Fortress appears on every hour.

• Ground: A normal ground stage, based on World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros.
• Ground (Night)
• Snow
• Snow (Night): A snow stage with a dark background, based on World 3-1 of Super Mario Bros.
• Coin Heaven: A Coin Heaven with many coins in it.
• Coin Heaven (Night)
• Underground: A dark underground stage, based on World 1-2 of Super Mario Bros.
• Bridge: A stage with many bridges and a ground made of Hard Blocks.
• Castle: A castle with Bowser bridges and many coins.
• Princess Peach's stage: Based on World 8-4 of Super Mario Bros. Only appears upon collecting 1,200 coins in one game.

Characters

Playable

• Mario
• Luigi

Supporting

• Princess Peach: Damsel in distress. Cameo appearance on the alarm screen.

Alarm screen

• Blooper
• Bowser
• Bullet Bill
• Buzzy Beetle
• Goomba
• Hammer Bro.
• Lakitu
• Red Koopa Paratroopa
• Toad

Items

Item	Description
Coin	Collect 100 to change the player character. Collect 1,200 to save Princess Peach.
Super Mushroom	Makes the player character Super. Only appears when they are Small.
Poison Mushroom	Makes the player character Small. Only appears when they are Super.
POW Block	Collects every coin on the screen, and briefly knocks down the numbers on the clock.
Starman	Cameo appearance on the alarm screen.

List of alarm music

• Mario: Ground Theme
• Starman: Starman theme
• Cheep-Cheep: Underwater Theme
• Sounds saved to Nintendo DSi Sound

Reception

Mario Clock received a GameRankings score of 35.00% from 2 reviews, and did not have enough critic reviews to receive a Metascore on Metacritic.

Corbie Dillard of Nintendo Life called the application "[a] waste of time", finding it "a bit more practical than the Animal Crossing Clock" but ultimately still redundant to the clock on the Nintendo DSi Menu.

Craig Harris of IGN was extremely critical of Mario Clock, saying it is "not worth even the budget 200 points." He mainly criticized the application's uselessness in comparison to Mario Calculator, and stated that "to have these two as individual 200 point downloads instead of combining them into one is just flat-out greedy." Harris called the gameplay "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."

Reviews
Release	Reviewer, Publication	Score	Comment
DSiWare	Corbie Dillard, Nintendo Life	4/10	"It's tough to criticize anything that features our beloved Mario, but as with the previous clock applications for the DSi you have to wonder what the point is in releasing a separate clock program, especially one that has to be launched in order to be used when there's a perfectly suitable clock on the DSi main menu that pops up as soon as you start up your DSi system. Sure, the Mario theme is cool and the ability to actually have some interaction with the experience makes it a bit more practical than the Animal Crossing Clock, but ultimately it's still not enough. Maybe at some point Nintendo will wise up and allow DSi owners to put these themed clocks on their DSi main menu screen, but until then, you'd be better off using the 200 Nintendo Points for something a bit more useful and fun."
DSiWare	Craig Harris, IGN	3/10	"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?"
Aggregators
Compiler		Platform / Score
Metacritic		N/A
GameRankings		35.00%

Staff

• Megumi Kurata
• Yoshinori Katsuki
• Masaaki Sugino
• Taiju Suzuki
• Tetsuya Sasaki

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	ニンテンドーDSi時計　ファミコンマリオタイプ[?] Nintendō DSi Tokei Famikon Mario Taipu	Nintendo DSi Clock Famicom Mario Type
Chinese	iQue DSi时钟　红白机马力欧款[?] iQue DSi Shízhōng Hóngbáijī Mǎlìōu Kuǎn	iQue DSi Clock Famicom Mario Edition
German	Mario-Uhr[?]	Mario Clock
Italian	Orologio di Mario[?]	Mario's Clock

External links

• Official American Website (Wayback Machine Archive)
• Official Japanese Website
• Official Chinese Website