"Though short, plenty of fun."

Feel the Magic has been around since the early days of the DS. It's a "Mini Game Collection" type of game, similar to the acclaimed Wario Ware Inc. series. I was somewhat cautious of this game after playing another Sega game, but considering how low the price was, I gave it a chance and picked up the game. And I wasn't disappointed.

Feel the Magic is tons of fun while the game lasts. A bit on the short side, but considering how cheap it is now, not too bad for its price.

STORY
The simple story works surprisingly well for the game. It starts as a typical story of a guy meeting a girl and falling in love with her. He wants to get her attention, and it is then he is approached by a strange man with bunny ears. The man tells the guy (no name, most people just call him the Hero or Goldfish Boy) that he's part of a performance group called The Rub Rabbits, and asks him to join. He tries to impress her, while trying to keep his rival away.

GRAPHICS
A very different graphics style for this game. The characters have no real features, and are all black. Only the hero, girl and villain have distinguished features, as their clothes and hair are colored in. It works very well for the game and stands out well in the typical graphics you'd see today. The animation is spot-on. Overall a good job.

SOUND
Kind of repetitive in the sound area, as most of the games menus and missions use a single song, the "Rub It" song, which is a very catchy and enjoyable song. Certain missions like the boss battles and love missions have separate music. As far as voices go, they are done well. There are different voices for the hero and people, but the best work is done with the girl, as she has several voice clips that sound just perfect. You'll also most likely be finding yourself saying "Rub It!" as they do in the start of the mission.

GAMEPLAY
Very good in the gameplay department. The mini games all use the DS' features. Most missions are played through the touch screen, while a handful also use the microphone, some even use both. The missions are usually done in five-part levels, with the difficulty gradually increasing. After the third, there's a short "Break Time". Boss battles and love scenes operate differently than the normal missions. Most scenes have one to three games, and you have to get 100 Points to clear the scene. You can play any combination of the games you want, with each success getting you points, but if you fail, you'll lose points.

The games themselves are mostly fun. Some of them can be hard, but very few get frustrating to the point where you'll be wanting to throw your DS at the wall. Most of them are just good fun. The games are wild and crazy, as they range from getting goldfish out of a man's stomach, typing in numbers for a parachuter, shooting scorpions off the girl's back and dancing. Every mission is something different, and definitely not boring.

There are four main menus: Story, which is the main game; Memories, in which you can replay the mini games you've beaten with extra levels to try to earn points; Menu, which really just changes the language; and Maniac, which is an interesting mode, as you can change what the girl is wearing. You can unlock clothes and hairstyles by beating missions and finding hidden "Rabbits". You can customize her however you want, which is a neat feature, though it's only for menus and such, her clothes don't actually change for games and scenes. Also, you can poke her to see her reactions. Maniac mode is fun, as there are nearly limitless possibilities for how you want her to look. Want to make her look like a Sailor Scout? 'Cause you can.

The main fault in the game is its length. It's very, very short, there are only 18 scenes, which really won't take a long time to beat. This is what lowers its appeal by a lot, personally. But it'll depend on the person, for the replay.

EXTRAS/REPLAY VALUE
This is all up to the person. First, the extras. Before a scene, by poking a certain part of the screen you can find "Rabbits", which will go towards unlocking more things for Maniac mode. You can also replay the game in Memories mode to win stars, which unlock more things for Maniac mode. Also, when you beat the game, you unlock a Sound Test, so you can fool around with that if you wish. There are also extra modes, Hard mode, and eventually Hell mode, which crank up the difficulty (though the games were hard in the first place).

Replay value is all up to the person. Personally, I didn't want to play the same games very much more after beating it, but some would find it fun to play again and unlock more things.

OVERALL
Feel the Magic is a great (yet very short) experience that everyone should try. The lack of length is made up for by how fun the game is in general. It has a nice feel to it, and the games and sounds make it feel like you're playing a real Japanese game. A fun game with an intriguing story, crazy gameplay and shouldn't be missed. For the low price you can find this game it, it's worth the cash.

Tons of fun while it lasts.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/03/06