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Feel the Magic: XY/XX review

Game: Feel the Magic: XY/XX
Platform: DS
Genre: Casual (Other)
Developer: Sonic Team

Reader review by strawhat

August 11, 2006

Sometimes, I feel that launch games are just there to test a machine's capabilities and how the public will react to it. I feel that these games are somewhat entertaining, but not "complete". There's a missing element in some of these launch games that makes them feel more like a test than a game that's meant to keep you entertained for a long time. This is how I felt about Feel the Magic.

Feel the Magic is basically a story about a guy who chases the girl of his dreams and protects her from his rival. The story takes place throughout a number of cutscenes and mini-games that narrate the stunts him and his crazy crew, the Rub Rabbits, do. Feel the Magic has some mini-games that utilize the touch screen pretty well, but others which are just way too easy or just not very fun. There's one mini-game that features the hero in a boat and you blow into the microphone to push the boat forward to reach your girl in the water, all while dodging sharks and other obstacles. That was a great concept and a fun mini-game. However, there's others that are just "love scenes" in which you rub dirt off your girl. There's no challenge in that and it's not really fun. That "love scene" could have just been portrayed in a cutscene.

There are also other crazy mini-games that can only happen in this game. The game keeps its charm with those mini-games that feature you throwing people at cars, dodging monster plants, tapping bulls to save your girl, avoiding sharks jumping out of the water, and so on.

You'll spend the majority your time playing the mini-games. There are only 27 of them split into 18 scenes, so the game is extremely short. It will definitely take less than six hours to go through the story once, unless you really, really suck at these kind of things. There's not much of a reason to keep the game after beating the story. If you liked the mini-games, it's a reason to keep the game, but other than that it's probably best to turn it in. The game offers little to do after beating the game. You can unlock two higher difficulty levels, but you're basically doing the same thing two more times. Other things that you can do is find hidden rabbits in cutscenes to unlock costumes for your girl. You can customize her clothes by finding hidden rabbits and replaying mini-games in a mode called "Memories", which allows a higher difficulty of play and is a bit like a survivor mode.

Feel the Magic has a light and comical mood throughout the game that fits well with the story's wacky stunts. The graphics are bright and colorful and there's really no complaint that I can make here. I actually really liked the colors in the game. There are bright yellows, vivid purples, and the black silhouettes of all the characters in the game. The shapes and backgrounds of the game are well defined and look very good. This is all accompanies by good, zany music. There's not much more to say about the music and sounds though. There are a very limited amount of them. In the sound test, there are like, ten tracks. They replay a lot of songs throughout the mini-games, but they're not god awful like in some other games.

Overall, this game was okay, but not great. It felt more like a test for the capabilities of the DS and Touch Screen than a game that's meant to be kept and cherished for a long time. Some of the mini-games are fun, but the game loses out on its length and simplicity of some of the mini-games. It certainly is a unique game that can be fun for a short while, but comes short to other games in its genre such as WarioWare. As a launch title, it's all right, but there are still better ones out there. If you come across this game, go ahead and try it but don't shell out big bucks for it. If you're a type of gamer who'll return games after beating them, this one will be gone pretty quickly.

Rating: 6/10

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