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alienjesus
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Re: Together Retro June 2021 - Too Rich For My Blood

by alienjesus Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:03 pm

It took me a while to get around to a game for this month, but the other day I sat down and played through Magical Pop'n, for the Super Famicom. eBay puts the going rate for this at about £500-600, cartridge only, and £1000+ for boxed copies. Thats upwards of $800 for a cartridge!

First impressions of the game are super strong, this game is a real looker. The character is charmingly designed, the game has lovely backgrounds and parallax scrolling, and the animation is top notch - the character moves in a way that reminds me of DoReMi Fantasy with elements of Sonic the Hedgehog, it's lovely. The game plays as good as it looks too - super precise controls that feel just right.

You play as a princess on a quest to defeat and evil wizard who stole a magic stone. Gameplay wise, this is a platformer, with levels to play through, but there's often branching paths and secrets to find, and it definitely has elements of the Monster Land games too. You can attack with a sword, which can be stabbed upwards or downwards too for more options, and pressing A with cast a spell which is powered by star collectables. You start with one that shoots a laser, but you unlock new spells each level including a grappling hook for swinging across gaps, a flamethrower and more. Pressing select casts a biiger version of the spell which is a screen clearing attack, at extra cost.

Levels are long in this game - there's only 6 but it took me about 2 and a half hours to play through the game. I believe there are limited lives and continues but I didn't actually game over to check this - the game is challenging but not obscenely so. You can find trophies in each level, and grabbing 3 is worth an extra live, and they're more abundant in later stages so I found I was at more risk of dying early on. This is true because you can find extra health power ups each level too which increase your maximum health. Early on you start with 3 hearts, but I had 8 by the end.

The game sounds great too. The main character is voiced (in Japanese of course) and the voice samples are pretty clear for the console, although I obviously can't understand them. I read an adult video star recorded the voice for the main character, but I don't know how true this is. The game has some spectacular music too, it sounds fantastic, take a listen to a choice few tracks below:

Stage 1: https://youtu.be/XeAIayy4APc?t=271
Stage 5: https://youtu.be/XeAIayy4APc?t=1020
Stage 6: https://youtu.be/XeAIayy4APc?t=1208

Anyway, the game isn't perfect - it has a few frustraing moments where you're expected to make tough movements and enemies will attack causing you to fall all the way down and have to redo it. Later levels have some timed switches which are very frustrating too. But I'm glad to say that whilst it is, of course, not worth £600, this is a game which at least somewhat justifies the high demand - it really is a fantastic little game for the system.

The downside is that this game was developed by a basically unknown studio, Polestar, and published by Pack-In Video who published little else of note - lots of D tier stuff generally. I'm almost certain the rights to who owns this game these days are long since lost, so I wouldn't expect a rerelease any time soon. It's a crying shame, but this is a game you should really just go ahead and play by other means, because it deserves to be played.

Screenshots:
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And a gif showing how good it looks in motion:
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Note
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Re: Together Retro June 2021 - Too Rich For My Blood

by Note Tue Jun 29, 2021 12:37 am

That's awesome you finished Magical Pop'n, AJ. Great write-up, looks like a really fun game that I'll have to try down the line.

I managed to play a few more hours of Chrono Trigger last night and this evening. In the past two nights I got through the Ocean Palace, the Blackbird section, the North Cape, and Death Peak. However, I've opted to complete the sidequests before fighting the final boss. I also completed Fiona's sidequest tonight -- awesome cutscenes and story bits in that quest. Hope to get through another one or two tomorrow!
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Note
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Re: Together Retro June 2021 - Too Rich For My Blood

by Note Fri Jul 02, 2021 9:47 am

Just a quick update on my Chrono Trigger campaign. I finished all of the side quests except for the final one. They're pretty awesome in regards to the story points embedded in each quest. Especially Fiona's quest, really enjoyed that one.

I'll be visiting a friend for 4th of July weekend, so I'll have to continue with the final side quest and last boss battle next week!

Also, I'm a bit disappointed I didn't get around to playing Radiant Silvergun this month, but hopefully I can still put time into it this summer.
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alienjesus
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Re: Together Retro June 2021 - Too Rich For My Blood

by alienjesus Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:21 am

Now that's it's July it's time to wrap up this theme. I'm a bit sad I didn't get to play more, but Magical Pop'n was a great time nonetheless.

Thanks to everyone who participated, obvious feel free to keep posting progress if you're still playing too!

Now lets go and appreciate how we don't need to spend $1000 a game to have fun in the July TR thread!
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