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DS | Puzzle | Feel the Magic: XY/XX

Boxart for Feel the Magic: XY/XX
Feel the Magic: XY/XX 15 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.0
  • SOUND: 4.0
  • CONTROL: 4.5
  • FUN FACTOR 4.5
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.8
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 3.5
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Review: Feel the Magic: XY/XX

Review by Child of Chaka | 04/13/2005 | 11:25:18 AM PST

More than any other launch title Feel the Magic was conceived and constructed to fully express the unique technological potential of the DS.

Boy meets girl, boy gets smitten, boy swims through snake intestines, shoots phantasmagorical bulls, fights punk rock giant robots, and helps a buddy puke goldfish to win her heart in this deliriously inventive offering by Sega.

More than any other launch title Feel the Magic was conceived and constructed to fully express the unique technological potential of the DS, and its Wario-inspired mini-games require quick reflexes, pinpoint accuracy, a steady hand, strong lungs, and a healthy sense of the absurd to successfully complete.

Rubbing the Wrong Way

The plot, which can be surprisingly touching and sometimes tragic and is told completely in dialogue-free visual tableaus, fuels blazing mini-game blitzkriegs that make full and clever use of the DS's dual screen, touch sensitivity, and voice recognition functions (sadly there's no multiplayer games so wireless connectivity is the only feature of the DS not present and accounted for).

Rubbing and tapping the screen in the right areas when prompted zaps flesh-crawling scorpions, navigates unicycles across treacherous bridges, clears debris from the path of oncoming shopping carts, and pops the buttons off your gal's dress. Other notable challenges include frenzied inputting of number sequences to open the parachutes of falling skydivers, Space Channel 5-type mimic dancing, tricky flip-image puzzles, and stealth sequences that would rattle Solid Snake's nerves, while the boss battles in which you have to drive a truck, hit pedestrians, and use them as projectile weapons by hurling them at enemy cars, is the stuff.

Magical Mystery Tour

Feel the Magic is also the first game to use the DS's voice recognition as some games require you to blow into the microphone to put out candles and propel a yacht across shark-infested waters, or yell into it to profess your love loud enough to be heard over cantankerous street musicians. The only complaints one could level at Feel the Magic is its short duration, but the good far outweighs the bad here, partners, and this is one wild and creative surprise.