" Feel your DS, feel the magic, feel yourself"

Being known almost officially as a "tech demo", Sega's daring new title looks to stretch the DS's capabilities from the get-go. Of course this isn't a bad thing. Sonic Team is always the first in line to take chances, and that is something that will keep the gaming industry on its feet while other developers follow suite. While Feel The Magic uses the stylus exclusively, it can feel extremely generic at times. I suggest that you don't judge FTM until you've played it because it's a truly a mixed bag, and will have different effects on people.

I Feel The Magic, and it feels like a charming love story to me. Your character becomes infatuated with this girl that he fell in love with at first sight, and has become somewhat of a stalker. Joining a (kinky) group known as the Rub-Rabbits our hero will have to play through "touching mini-games" and complete a short-lived journey to be with the girl of his dreams. It will all start out with a couple short games to impress your woman. You'll be making men throw up goldfish, riding a unicycle across high-rises, and helping her strip by the fire. Later on in the game Sega attempts introducing a plot in which your nemesis/rival is constantly capturing your princess. Sega has baked a cake for you, and you'll enjoy parts of it no matter who you are, but the frosting may be a little too rich for some.

Being the nifty chunk of hardware that it is, the DS allowed Sonic Team to experiment with the technology, and create a game that takes advantage of the touch-screen, and the built-in microphone. Everything may feel gimmicky from the get-go, but what a wonderful gimmick a touch-screen can be! The game's mini-games will be separated into 'scenes' in which you'll have to work your ass off to impress the girl enough so her heart meter will fill to 100 for the particular scene. Some scenes may feature a few games, others may only feature a single mini-game. Unfortunately the lack-luster story takes less than a day to work through, and leaves a lot to be desired.

An offbeat oddity like Feel The Magic should be destined for a bumpy ride over here in North America, but so far consumer response has seemed positive. The actual gameplay implemented into FTM is what makes it the addicting launch title that I was looking forward to months prior to the DS's release. In one mini-game you'll find yourself blowing on the touch-screen with varying pressure so your yacht can blow out into uncharted waters to rescue your drowning lover. In other mini-games you may performing tasks as simple as swimming through the body of a snake avoiding flames and stomach-acid so you can escape through its mouth. Whatever you think of FTM overall after completing it, you're sure to be impressed by individual mini-games.

Graphically Feel The Magic carries over themes from the 60s, typical Sega style, and characters that would fit in perfectly in one of those neat iPod commercials. Throughout the game you'll notice that the majority of the levels are bright and cheerful, while others are gritty, and aren't a whole lot of fun to play because they're so bleak. While the art-style is certainly attractive I can't help but think that it feels somewhat weak for all the power that the NintendoDS is allowing its games. Likely to attract the eyes of children, the cartoonish feel is pleasant, but doesn't get in the way of the action for an instant.

While gameplay and visuals are for the most part why people play games these days, there's a select group of us gamers who actually enjoy in-game music. FTM passes the audio-test with flying colors. The songs all prove to be catchy, addicting, and worth listening to time and time again. I'd rather not play Feel The Magic at all than to play it with the sound off.

Overall FTM was a neat surprise, that left a sour taste in my mouth. There was a serious lack of replay value, and I felt myself slugging through Hell mode only to have finished the game completely. Collecting rabbits will only allow you to dress your woman, and feels somewhat useless in the end. Many of the games just feel discouraging, and aren't that fun to play. Visually resembling an acid-trip, and playing like a full-blown gimmick FTM offers little once you've played through the game, but utilizes all of the DS's capabilities other than multiplayer. I'd suggest buying this tech-demo if you either cannot live without the newest Sonic Team games (that's me) or if you cannot find anything better to play on the DS after Mario 64 DS.

6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/05