"Jab jab rub! Jab jab rub! Scream breathe scream! Jab jab rub!"

Feel the Magic is a strange sort of game. While other games encourage planning and training, Feel the Magic encourages scribbling. It also encourages screaming, stabbing, and touching just about everything you can. It's as if Sega is attempting to turn their fans into toddlers. This formula, odd as it is, works, and works well.

The day starts as any other. You walk down the street, not going anywhere in particular. You are content. Then, a man in a bunny suit throws a fish tank at you and asks you to help him and his colleagues vomit out goldfish. When you finish your performance, you notice a beautiful girl from your high school has been watching you. Infatuated, you join this street performance troupe (known as the “Rub Rabbits”), in hopes of gaining her attention more often, and eventually getting close to her. Of course, given her popularity, you'll have some competition...The story, while undeniably ridiculous, is at least a bit entertaining.

Upon loading the game, you'll notice an overabundance of the colors yellow, orange, and a mix of brown and red. I think you call it “Burnt Umber”. Get used to it, because you'll see it all over the menus. Besides this horrible color scheme, the graphics are detailed and unique. Nothing is very noticeable about the backgrounds, other then their amazing detail and vibrant colors. What really get your attention are the characters. They are (to the best of my knowledge) cel-shaded, which is always pleasing. They also lack detail, in stark contrast to the background. They are simply silhouettes, completely black except for their hair and clothing. I can't stress how well this style works.

FtM's sound - I hesitate to call it music - is strange, to say the least. Basically, it's a few men moaning to a simple tune. Trust me, it's better then it sounds. The other sounds are forgettable, with a single exception. At the beginning of every minigames, four pictures appear to set up the scene. The sound effects accompanying them are as follows:
DUH!
DUH!
DUH!
BOING!
I loathe that boing.

The interesting thing about Feel the Magic's gameplay is that it relies entirely on the touch screen and microphone. The only button you will ever press is pause. This makes the control of the games more accurate and involved. It also makes it simpler to explain. There are three basic types of minigames: Precision, persistence, and vocal.

Precision games require you to move the stylus carefully. Some require constant movement (such as Monocycle and Painter), while in others you must jab quickly at targets (demonstrated in Scorpion and Bull). Still others require more timing then anything else (Bus Stop). These are generally the most fun games.

Persistence games require repeating the same movement over and over (examples are Antlion and Goldfish). These games, while still fun, are less so then precision games.

Vocal games are just what you'd expect: games that require use of your voice. There are three that allow use of your voice, but one can be controlled with the stylus as well (and is more fun when you do so), so I won't count it. The two left require you to either scream at or blow on the DS. While threatening the game's characters is enjoyable, it is also embarrassing, and will become annoying when you have to increase the volume of your yells frequently. Blowing on the DS is also fun, and its appeal lasts a little longer then the screaming, but will bore you. It's a nice gimmick, it just doesn't last long.

The game has its own more story-oriented way of classifying minigames, however: Performances, Love Scenes, and Bosses. Performances are the standard minigames. Love Scenes are segments where you interact directly with the girl you are trying to win over, and are generally pretty easy. Bosses are the longest and hardest of the scenes.

“This is all well and good,” you say, “but what is there to unlock?” Everyone loves unlockables, right? You're in luck. Doing well on minigames unlocks new items to use in the oddly named Maniac mode. In this mode, you can customize the appearance of the heroine. Whenever the game shows her in 3D, she'll appear with the hair and outfit that you have set for her. It is a neat addition, but it's not enough for you to replay everything.

If a video game system is to succeed, it needs good launch titles. Not only that, but the games should show off what the system has to offer. Feel the Magic has accomplished both of these for the Nintendo DS. It took the touch screen and microphone features, neither of which had previously been used in video games (not much, at least) and built an incredibly addicting game around them. If you're in the market for a DS, be sure to pick up this title along with it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/22/04, Updated 12/30/04