Feel the Magic: XY/XX

With the absence of Wario Ware Inc on the Nintendo DS at launch, Sega stepped in and released arguably the best title available for the Nintendo DS to date. Feel the Magic: XY/XX may be a strange name for a game title but it will give you a glimpse to the fun you can have on Nintendo’s new handheld console.

Feel the Magic: XY/XX uses a flat cel shaded look to deliver comic book style cinemas on both the top and bottom screens. The story is very bizarre and makes little sense. It tells a story of a guy who sees a girl and falls in love with her. He must now set out to impress her and protect her. As the player progresses through the game, the comic book style cinemas, played from the top screen down to the bottom screen, the story gets crazier and crazier.

Players will find a lot to love in Feel the Magic: XY/XX. Each level will give the player a set of mini-games to complete. Some levels have multiple mini-games and others just have one. In the levels with just one, you will just need to beat the mini-game once to continue on in the story. However, for the levels that have multiple mini-games in it, players will have to gain a hundred points. You can do this by beating the same mini-game over and over a few times or playing all of them. However, if you lose one, you will lose points.

The mini-games are the charm of Feel the Magic: XY/XX. Players will need to do a variety of tasks like blow out candles by actually blowing on the screen, spray paint walls, get goldfish out of a man’s stomach, move deadly spikes out of the way of shopping carts, blow a sailboat by blowing on the screen, typing numbers to open up parachutes, bowling strikes, and more. This game is full of variety and craziness. In fact, it reminded me so much of the fun I had with Wario Ware Inc., that I probably attribute my love of that game as to why I like Feel the Magic so much.

Unfortunately the game is very short. After defeating the game the first time, it can be replayed in Hard Mode. Besides hard mode, players can also lay individual mini-games in a mode called Memories. Here, you can earn stars towards dressing up the female character in the game. There are also some hidden easter eggs inside Feel the Magic. If you insert either Sonic Advance 1, 2, or 3, Space Channel 5, Astro Boy, Chu Chu Rocket, Sonic Pinball Party ,or Sonic Batle, you can unlock items to dress up the female character with.

Overall, I love this game because it makes great use of the Nintendo DS hardware. Until Wario Ware Inc. comes out, I highly recommend this title for all DS owners simply because the mini-games are a blast to play. While I hope the DS evolves into a handheld console that is more than just a series of mini-games, this is an excellent launch title and is my personal favorite on the platform.