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Mageclash vs. Uncommon
Mageclash ExDeath's castle, where, aside from having your opponent to deal with, you've got flesh-melting acid to avoid, too!
Moogle1
Download: 218 KB
V.S.
Uncommon
Play Time: you can play for hours and it's that fun but most matches will rarely last longer than one or two minutes
Review # 22 for Uncommon ExDeath's castle, where, aside from having your opponent to deal with, you've got flesh-melting acid to avoid, too!
Them's Fightin' Words
    That zany Red Mage is at it again! He's stolen the crown jewels from the royal treasury, and the king has called upon you, the mighty White Mage, to stop him!
Wait, that's not it at all...

Okay, get this. The enemy land of Hewsway has sent their spy, the dastardly Red Mage, to gather secrets. Only you, the White Mage, can keep him from infiltrating your king's most pers--No, that's no good, either.

Alright, the Red Mage has insulted your mother's femininity. Take up your wand and restore her honor!
What does it matter? They're two mages and they're clashing. That's all you need to know.

Mageclash is a pure-programmed spell-fighter made some years ago by Moogle1 and Shaede Reshka. Between 14 different arenas, 25 spells, and two players, you can have a lot of fun with this thing.


Graphics
    Man, was Shiva supposed to be a dude? I know that'd align better with mythology, but this game seemed more like it kept to a Final Fantasy continuum than classical mythology.

Mageclash isn't going to wow you with its graphics, but they serve their purpose well enough. You'll sometimes be left wonder who some of the high-level summons are (Bahamut looks like a bat until you realise it's him), but everything else is generally clear. All in all they're okay.

I will say this, though. The title screen supplied by the legendary Stephen Nedley is great.


 
Storyline
    Now, you can make up your own little scenarios as much as you want, but none of that will change the fact of the matter: there is no story.

Now, with many games this might not be a problem, but, with Mageclash, I think it was. See, if you're just playing for two-player action, it's fine, but there's nothing to the one-player. I think this game would be a lot better with a story mode or an arcade mode. Like most fighter games, you might mostly just play it for the versus mode, but, when you don't have that option, what else are you going to do with the game?

The one-player mode doesn't suffer so much from lack of story as it does from severe pointlessness. The game gives you no goal to achieve. There's really just nothing to do with Mageclash without a friend to play against.


 
Gameplay
    Well, it's sort of like Super Smash Bros. if you think about it.

In each clash-match, there will be two mages. One will be you. The other will either be the computer AI or a friend of yours, assuming you don't play non-internet multiplayer games with total strangers or non-friends. Your objectives are twofold. First, get the other mage to fall down one of the great openings in the bottom of the screen, which, for the purposes of this review, we'll call "cliffs". Second, don't fall off the cliffs yourself. Straightforward? Yes. Fun? Definitely.

Now, you also have Damage to take into account. The higher a mage's damage, the easier it will be to knock him around, thus, the easier it will be for him to fall off a cliff. To bring your opponent's damage rating up, just touch him. Of course, if you hit him head on, you'll take damage, too, but if you jump on his head, you'll rack up his damage without any to yourself. Another great way to damage your opponent is, you guessed it, with spells. I mean, what else would you expect from mages? But I'll go more into that in the Battle paragraph.

One of the biggest problems with this game is its clunky controls. They're pretty hard to get used to. That's probably the biggest thing keeping me from absolutely loving this game, but I'll go more into that later.


 
  Battle
    During your match, you'll see a variety of little floating circles. Those are the "spellspheres". Spellspheres allow you to use magic, so you'll want to collect every sphere you see, except for that sneaky Death Sentence sphere! Also, collecting spheres of the same type will upgrade the spell, up to a third level, even. Say you get a Lightning sphere, right? Well, that'll allow you to use a level-1 Lightning spell. But, if you wait and collect a second, you'll use a level-2 spell instead, and so on and so forth. In this way, there are 25 different spells you can use to keep the clashing going. Might be pretty cool if you could mix spells as well as match them, but it's pretty awesome either way.


 
  Map Design
    Every arena has a special trait, making each a distinct experience. From dodging lightning bolts in Stormy Heights to keeping up with the constantly changing layout of the Phantom Castle to the special HP-battles of the Coliseum, you'll have 14 great arenas to choose from.

Only complaint is that the secret maps aren't.


 
  Balance
    This looks like the best place to complain about the enemy AI. See, it has exactly one tactic. Get on top of your head. And, of course, the computer doesn't have to deal with the problem of awkward controls, so it gets there very easily. It is endlessly annoying, and, once you get the hang of it, very predictable. One-player matches don't consist of collecting spellshperes and having fun so much as two-player matches do, but rather keeping the computer off your head until he missteps and falls off a cliff. Sure, they're fun on some level, but they get really boring.


 
Music
    Silent. Very, very silent. It is a bad silence.
This game would greatly benefit from sound.


 
Enjoyment
    If you've got two players and a thing for fighting games, you will probably enjoy this game.

Again, my major complaint is the controls. Yes, there is a notice in the readme that the player should tap rather than hold the keys, but doing so makes controlling your mage awkward and a little sluggish. There are moments when the run will kick in when you don't want it to, making every jump a risk at tumbling off a cliff. Also, control placement is awkward on the fingers. Making "S" dive and "E" cast might improve upon that. I also didn't quite like how only the NumPad worked on the menu, since that's a little awkward for a one-player game. I mean, if WADX is going to control the first player, shouldn't it control the menu as well?

Oldschool Mageclash players may notice a new feature, Options. Now the player can select which spellspheres are active in a match, and enable the Colliseum Mode, so you can have an HP-based match in any arena.

Also, one bug to point out. If you go back from the secret maps menu, it will bring you to the options menu instead of the main map select menu.


 
Final Blows
    Bored? Got a friend handy and enough patience to deal with slightly iffy controls? If so, Mageclash is right up your alley!


The Options button is hiding the fun little messages. :(

The Options button is hiding the fun little messages. :(
Final Scores
Graphics: 6/10.0
They do what they need to and don't look too ugly in the process.
Storyline: 1/10.0
There is a severe lack of a goal in the one-player mode.
Gameplay: 7/10.0
Well-thought out and fantastic design, but a few things really need fixing.
Music: 1/10.0
There needs to be more than nothing, please.
Enjoyment: 5.5/10.0
Great fun as long as you have two players, but poor controls put a huge damper on the experience.
Overall Grade: C+
Final Thoughts
    Clash, little mages, clash!  


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