"The Magic is Real"

Some games can sell simply on a name, even if the title has nothing to do with the game (Final Fantasy for instance). There are other games that sell based on the pure fact a key video game star appears or stars in this side-title (Mario comes to mind… and Final Fantasy again). Then there are titles that are the underdogs, the quirky offbeat title that most would figure could never sell but do because the game is that great (hello Katamari Damacy). Feel the Magic XY/XX falls into the third category, sure it may not be the first title you think of when you think of the Nintendo DS system, but its one you'd come to if you searching for Katamari Damacy's long lost relative.

Feel the Magic takes place in the present age of Earth, at least one could guess. The whole story of Magic revolves around you this skater kid (or someone simply wearing a helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads…take your pick readers) who wants to get with this pretty girl he passes one day. Throughout the game he will try to impress her, but not in any normal way. In Magic the hero joins a band of traveling stunt artists who are rabbit people, they refer to themselves as The Rub Rabbits. With their help the hero can impress the girl like nobody else ever could. As interesting as that sounds you get this strange feeling sometimes you're playing Jackass the Game.

The art in the game is a two-sided coin, while it IS beautiful and a really different style of viewing just about anything it still suffers from some falsehood. The engine in the game is actually only partly 3d, the top screen if you pay very close attention is not a fully 3d atmosphere and the bottom/touch screen certainly is. Even factoring that in it really is hard to ‘hate on' Magic's beautiful artwork like graphics. Everything really looks fluid in its animation and the decision to forgo real details in the people makes the characters that more interesting to watch.

Terms to sum up Feel the Magic's musical score: Upbeat, pleasant, catchy, and enjoyable. The entire soundtrack switches moods constantly and yet it always remains background music that won't distract you but will increase your enjoyment of the game. Sadly the same cannot be said for the audio which can be very distracting, so much so that its very easy to blow a mini-game when a sudden, glass shattering sound is echoed through your Nintendo DS' speakers.

Gameplay in Magic is similar to Wario Ware, Mario Party and other mini-game based video games. As with those kinds of titles, everything you will do as the player revolves around quirky tasks that will last a few minutes or a few seconds. Utilizing the Nintendo DS' touch screen everything you do will revolve around that as well as the system's microphone. This works great most of the time but the microphone games are easily fooled by breathing, it can easily help and hinder, therefore making the microphone games a complete waste of space in the overall look at the game.

Other games such as Painter (a favorite of mine) or the Static game require lots of quick rubbing on the touch screen. Which runs into my real problem with Feel the Magic, the fact a select few of the games can cause scratches on your touch screen. If not careful, or like me get caught up in the moment of an intense game like painter, its quite easy to scratch your beautiful DS' screen.
There are some games featured that are extremely questionable as to why their even there. The searching through the sand game that's essentially a blind matching game is not only a bore but nearly completely random. It really gets worse towards the end of the game with three rehashed boss mini-games from earlier. Not even rehashed well they are simply frantic versions of the earlier additions with cheap little additions to get you killed. It gets worse though, as if you fail on one game you have to start over the Nightmare cycle of mini-game hell.

That aside the Gameplay in magic can be infuriating, especially with the unicycle games, but mostly the game is a charming wordless story you experience by doing whacky things like coughing up goldfish, bowling across busy streets with people, or throwing people at cars to stop a bad guy. The game is quite short, quite hard, but you never regret purchasing the game and it simply is original enough to be remembered.

The controls in Magic are extremely responsive in most cases, relying completely on the touch screen works well for the game. There are some developing errors that can easily be exploited or exploit you into a game over. In the car chase where you are required to throw innocent people into a truck to damage it, the steering wheel is extremely sensitive and if you don't touch the exact way you could easily lose a life. As well every monocycle game is very precise or in some areas of the track, completely ridiculous in keeping the small unicycle from falling to its doom. The biggest control snafu has to come in the boss mini-game Plants. By moving the hero to the left side of the screen, he becomes one with immortals as nothing will damage him provided he continues to hug the left wall. Then again without that glitch that mini-game would probably be one of the worst things to hit gaming in ten years.

One extreme downside to Feel the Magic is there really is little to do once you finish the game. Like most games in this generation, you can always collect completely pointless items so you feel complete. Magic lets you get new wardrobes for the girl to wear on the waiting screens, while this may appeal to the young gamer nerd, its barely worth the hassle.

Unlocking these wardrobe malfunctions in the making requires you to complete events in memories mode, the essential mini game practice zone of the game, except unlike story mode you will go through ten stages of increasing difficulty. It simply isn't that rewarding after nearly cracking your Nintendo DS' touch screen simply to fully complete the painter mini game for instance. When or If in some mini-games cases you actually fully complete a mini-game you'll be rewarded with stars that unlock, you guessed it, wardrobes.

There is though one other thing you can fully complete that's very fun, although it doesn't last long if you are scared of hard mode. In each of the story chapter intros, you'll notice you can tap the touch screen skipping the scenes. You also can earn Blue Rabbits, which essentially work the same as stars (meaning you'll be styling that wardrobe!). Depending on where you tap or exactly when you'll earn these elusive tokens of perfectionism, but as I said there isn't that many and to get a lot you'll have to play hard mode.

In conclusion, Feel the Magic isn't the A+ title people thought it would be; yet it doesn't stop Magic from being a fun distraction from the great ones if even for a few days. The game is a bargain bin title, but unlike titles that may scare game reviewers Feel the Magic is a treat and a complete steal for its current retail price.

Gameplay:8.5
Audio:8.3
Replay Value:2.0
Graphics:9.5
Overall:8.1 or 8 for Gamefaqs

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/14/06