Magical Drop II
More of a Drip
How many hours does it take to get to the meat of the game? In my Rocket Fist review, I highlighted how I track my play hours to gauge if the amount of content justified the price. I also keep my hours for another purpose: to show if I truly attempted to play the game. My reasons for doing this confront an issue I see in the reviewing world. Based on the content of some reviews, it’s apparent the reviewers devote as few hours as they can to the game—for whatever reason—before spewing forth an opinion. This results in shoddy writing, be it because the writers fail to unlock all the relevant content, miss key elements of a story, or fail to develop the skill necessary to truly enjoy the gameplay.
So how many hours do you need to develop a valid opinion? For a game like Breath of the Wild, 100 hours isn’t necessary, but I’m hesitant to listen to anyone who has invested less than 25 on it. Comparatively, 25 hours on something like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Splatoon 2 may be more than enough, even if you could spend considerably more time on both of them. Looking at the reviews I have completed thus far, I admit that I kind of cringe seeing how I’ve played the majority of these games less than ten hours. Part of me wishes I could be more thorough, but the other part reminds me I’d die of boredom before reaching the 10-hour mark of Wonder Boy: the Dragon’s Trap.
This brings us to Magical Drop II, which has a whopping two hours of playtime. Bought on a whim during those first dry months of the Switch’s lifespan, Magical Drop lasted me a few days before I dropped it from memory. For a puzzler heralded as one of the Neo Geo’s crowning gems, it probably deserves more attention, but it’s hard for me to imagine even doubling my playtime over the course of the Switch’s lifespan. Thus, at the risk of being barraged by hate mail from all of the Magical Drop fans who happen to read my articles, I present a review which has taken longer to create and post than to play.
What is it?
As is abundantly evident in the title, Magical Drop involves matching columns of at least three of the same-colored balloons. You choose a personified Tarot character as your board’s backdrop and then ignore that figure to take control of a jester at the bottom of the screen. On top of the screen are the randomized columns of balloons, which steadily descend (or drop, if you will) until they crush your body into a pulpy mess. To sidestep death, your jester can pull the bottom-most balloons to him, grabbing as many as he chooses as long as they are of the same color. Once you have gathered your fill, you can rocket your collected balloons back up in a single column. If you have three-of-a-kind, the match disappears, along with any adjoining balloons of the same color.
Once you make a match, you have a small window of time in which to chain a combo. If your match triggers other balloons to fall into another three-of-a-kind, you got yourself a combo. As matches flash and balloons rearrange, you have time to grab and fling more balloons to further inflate your combo. The bigger the combo, the more rows you add to your opponent’s board. Whoever’s jester doesn’t get smashed wins the game and gets sold into slavery or something. Occasionally, you will get special balloons which clear an entire color if matched together, which is magical presumably.
Player vs. computer and player vs. player are the main attractions, but a score attack mode and a puzzle mode (only included in the Japanese rendition) provide some extra variety with unique power-ups and obstacles. This being an ACA release, you have access to unlimited tokens, a suspend feature, various options to tweak, and a Caravan Mode for posting high-scores online. True to its arcade roots, a game of Magical Drop will last only a few minutes before you encounter a game over screen. Considerable practice (or the humility to decrease the game’s difficulty) is needed to survive past the game’s opening stages.
What’s good?
- Magical Drop, itself, is a fun twist on most puzzle games. Although some strategy is involved in creating combos, your speed (muscle memory, reflexes, and ability to identify matches) is what will win you the game. With many versus rounds over in under a minute, intensity runs as high as a preteen at her first music concert.
- Each mode is novel enough to be entertaining. Versus will suck up most of your playtime, but both the score attack and puzzle modes can lull you into the same pleasing zen-like haze you may encounter with endless Tetris or LSD.
- The game oozes sex appeal. You like three-eyed chicks wrapped in sheets? Got you covered. Prefer women with big jugs? Let’s just say one character’s jugs can carry a lot of water. Are you more of a person who likes snot-nosed youth? You’re disgusting, but at least you’re not left out, you perverted sack of crap.
What’s bad?
- The experience is shallow. Unless you glom onto the game’s basic gimmick, you won’t have much to keep you playing after the half-hour mark. As an arcade game, Magical Drop was never meant to last more than a few minutes, and this limitation shows itself pretty quickly.
- The game is unforgiving to newbies. Computer opponents can be nasty, but the real issue lies in player vs. player matches. Unless you have a buddy who is as into Magical Drop as you, you will probably steamroll over anybody you introduce to the game. With matches over so quickly, your opponents don’t have a chance to practice and improve. Muscle memory and reflexes don’t really develop over the course of a few rounds, and by the time they do, most of your friends will be ready to move onto other games.
- The balloons are not balloons. Magical Drop may pretend they are, but they’re really marbles. They clack together; they don’t float around; and they’re completely spherical. Although a minor complaint, it makes the game literally unplayable.
What’s the verdict?
Magical Drop II‘s core concept is just as entertaining as other puzzlers, but there isn’t enough of it to be engaging in the long-term. Because there isn’t much to the game, there isn’t much to dislike about it either. In an arcade, I would certainly drop (in a magical way, no less) a few quarters into Magical Drop, but I’m not convinced eight bucks justifies bringing the virtual cabinet home with you. There are so many other, brighter balloons out there to crush your life force.
Arbitrary Statistics:
- Score: 6
- Time Played: 2 hours
- Number of Players: 1-2
- Games Like It on Switch: Puyo Puyo Tetris, Tumblestone