Every once in a while, a new game comes out that tries something interesting. And sometimes, that results in something amazing. But it often results in something awful. Which does the DSiware game Clash of Elementalists fall under?

What we have here is an arena-based one-on-one fighter, reminiscent of one of my favorite arcade games, Virtua On. You play as one of four characters, anime girls, whose appearances and powers are based on the four elements. The character animation is really well done, if the backgrounds are a bit bland.

Sadly, that is about the only good thing we have here. The controls are not just sluggish, they’re awful. The worst I’ve ever played. Considering that the game is an arena fighter, the sheer inability to turn around is detrimental. Often, the opponent will boost off to the side, and suddenly you’re taking hits from off-screen. There is a way to turn, but not only is it cumbersome, it’s only about 15 degrees at a time. The only way to quickly turn is to jump and let the auto-target turn you around. Of course, the enemy will move by the time you land, meaning you keep doing this. The combat isn’t intuitive, with all attacks mapped to the shoulder buttons (meaning you only have three attacks). These change to melee when you’re close to the enemy, and often are better than the projectiles. Sadly, the computer will probably pick you off before you get close.

Throw in that there are only 4 characters, meaning that if you’re actually good at this game it’ll only take about 10 minutes to beat for each character, the lack of touch screen help, lack of modes, and just lack of quality, and this is the worst example of what a download game can be.