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Feel the Magic XY/XX

This review cycle we’re looking at a batch of handhelds. Some to take home, some to rent (if possible) and some to avoid like… well… (?)… running out of cliches I guess, so avoid it like… oh, just avoid it!

Have you seen the recent Brain Age game?
This recent Nintendo DS game release promises to stave off the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease if you only would play “Brain Age” a few minutes a day. That’s it. Just play this game a few minutes a day and it’ll give you brain a workout that’ll insure that you can hold back or (heaven forbid) overcome Alzheimer’s Disease. Huh? How can this do such a thing? Because of the mini-games.
Brain Age, basically an intellectual buffet line of mini games, is supposed to stimulate your brain by throwing intellectually stimulating mini games at you… and by intellectually stimulating I mean kinda boring. I don’t know about you, but if you are not playing Sudoku or certain other “games” from newspapers, math equations, counting stuff or little game booklet games (for starter) then you are not going to be playing it in a video game (despite the fact they seem to be rolling out a few Sudoku themed games for the handhelds).

However it seems to me (in my own opinion) that you really don’t need Brain Age to benefit from it’s gift. All you really need is a game (or games) that feature a wide variety of different mini games that stimulates your brain each and every day, which should give you the benefit of Brain Age without you having to play Brain Age. This might be best done by having at least a small fistful (3 or so) of handheld mini game bliss to rotate through a few minutes a day, working your brain and entertaining yourself at the same time.
That means, of course, Warioware : Touched for certain since that is a highly recommended DS game. Maybe even Warioware : Twisted (though I wouldn’t use it on my DS considering it requires lots of physical twisting and jiggling of your DS in order to play). But what else? How about the mini game content of Feel the Magic XY/XX and possibly the present day sequel Rub Rabbits as possible filler content for your need for mini game excess.

Yeah, now you see the relevance of this game. It might be a bit of old school Nintendo DS but now it has come back into relevance now that it may be one of your “alternatives” in your mental gaming batch to replace Brain Age for your few minutes a day of intellectual stimulation. And, yes, I did say this will stimulate you… I didn’t say you were going to be playing this for 10 hours a day, only a few minutes which even I can withstand when it comes to playing Feel the Magic XY/XX.

Take the weirdness of Katamari Damancy, mix in a lick or two of Warioware with a hefty dose of strange intermixed with a slice of titillation and you got yourself the first Feel the Magic XY/XX.
Raise the curtains on this “movie” and you’ll find a young man who has just fallen in love with this girl who passes him by, love (seemingly) at first sight… or is it? Anyway before you know it a rabbit man, who can’t sit by and watch you deny your destiny, climbs up out of his audience seat and into the movie itself to inspire you to greatness. And, as he gives you a fishbowl filled with fish, your quest to make this lovely lady all yours begins… after you click the first task then promptly accidentally trip, hurtling your fishbowl’s contents down the throat of an innocent passerby… eew! His MMO isn’t going to cover that!

From there it’s off to the weirdness as you realize that, in order to win this girl’s heart, you’ll need to play the strangest minigames you’ve seen short of Warioware (which is weirder, but not as titillating) because apparently the key to her heart is “extreme performances“… say what!
You start off your weird mini games rubbing a guy’s belly to make his disgorge goldfish and… baby turtles?!? (Where did the baby turtles come from!) Well, after that you are convinced by this group you have been “adopted” by, the aforementioned “Rub Rabbits”, that you’ll need to perform a series of increasingly weird mini games (live performance “art”) in order to make this girl love you. From blowing on your touch screen to blow out candles (but this time you should use the stylus since you’ll not burn out all your blowers at once which means you’ll not be caught “short of breath”), yelling out your love into the microphone to confess your heart’s feelings to your lady love (blowing into the mike is easier than talking though), to punching the numbers attached to parachuters into a calculator before they go splat. Bowling for bus stop patrons, flipping over cards to match an image on the cards to an image your girlfriend is holding, or riding a unicycle over thin platforms between buildings, you’ll find each game to be a short burn cycle of brain stimulation that’ll make you think in different ways depending on the game. Some are pushovers, some are easy once you master their quirks, and some are challenging. Each game you play gives you a shot of stimuli to the old brain cells, which is (yes) a good thing.

To break up the mini games you’ll also play Boss level games as you must face down runaway bulls by “touching” them (not that way), chase after an overweight punk rocker rich dude and use runaway pedestrians on a highway as human ammo to destroy his escape vehicle, and saving your girl from Audrey (Little Shop of Horrors) third cousin provide a bit more challenge to the mini games.
That and there are also LOVE games, though none of these serve any “Hot Coffee”… yeah, I mean that.

As the story goes, however, you realize that you have begun to think about a girl who drowned when you were a kid… but what does that have to do with this beautiful woman? Could it be her?
The plot twists as a strange sumo wrestler acid rocker rich dude thing (mentioned above) tries to kidnap your girl, only for you to save her (in a minigame called “Drive”, where you pick up people running on the highway in your slingshot truck so you can use them as living ammo to disable the evil guy’s vehicle) and end up escaping to the ocean where you both wash up on a desert island… eh?
After a few mini games (“undress” the lovely lady in front of a raging campfire, pass through a snake’ digestive track, dig through the sand for items she lost while on the beach, fight the distant cousin of Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors, and a majorly difficult rhythm game that I gave up on quickly), she’ll get kidnapped again and you have to chase after her to rescue her which leads to a mini game where you distract guards by poking kittens before you face major battles including Nightmare versions of the game’s previous three “boss” levels, and two final battles (one in a huge Gundam robot and another as a DragonBall Z style power beam struggle) before the game ends.

There are three levels of gameplay. Normal, Hard and Hell.
Along the way, as you play these modes and go into Memory to replay the games over again, you’ll earn points. Also you’ll have to touch the touch screen a lot to uncover hidden “Rub Rabbits” during the cutscenes (go to GameFaq for a cheat list of all the Rabbits to find).
Finding these rabbits, and gathering star points, unlocks a virtual array of clothing to dress your female model icon in. From giving her different hairstyles, to different tops and bottoms to making her bare naked (if you beat Hell mode) you’ll find 21 different options which even gives her certain costumes like Sonic, or Lala from Space Channel 5 though for all the details on that you should also check GameFaq.
Add a music mode where you can listen to the music and sound effects from the game, and you got a somewhat interesting fare for your DS (though not one of your best choices though). The mini games are abit fun, but once you beat this game you’ll only be playing this a few minutes a day after you put this one to rest… which, by the way, is kind of the point since this is to stimulate those brain cells!
The breakdown will prove my point.

Feel the Breakdown XY/XX/RV
What’s Hot?
Not every mini game laden title is worth your time and effort… Mario Party Advance comes to mind… but as one of the more interesting mini game laden titles it does at least earn kudo points for being somewhat original and interesting, if only for a few minutes a day.

What’s Not?
However this game has only a low amount of mini games, about 20-ish or so, which is way lower than superior mini game content games like Warioware : Twisted or Touched. Still this should be something on your list of considerations, especially since you can probably find it previously played for under $15 (which I did). Add this to “sequel” Rub Rabbits and you have a nice two hit combo to consider for keeping your brain cells clicking and ticking, even if for a few minutes a day.

Moments to Remember?
Some of the mini games are my favorite… but I won’t tell you which, you can find your own faves.

What to Ignore?
You’d think having a “nude” model would be hot, but it isn’t. But you can “interact” with the girl in the mini game select screen in the storymode (I didn’t know that until I tapped her and she reacted) so I guess that is at least something special, though this is mostly to watch her cringe… which is kind of odd since she only winces at being tapped on the breasts, but takes great offense to having her hair mussed (even saying “Hey!!” when you do it).

Overall?
You’re looking for a discount game that stimulates brain cells for a few minutes a day? Here you go.
By now you should be able to find this for a nice low price, so it’s easy on your pocket.
The games are kind of quirky and cool, so it’s easy on you personally and won’t bore you too quickly.
And the unlocking of the various costume pieces will keep you playing for awhile, and might even compel you to take the challenge in Hard and Hell modes!
As for Rub Rabbits I’ll review it… eventually… when I, you know, find it at under $15.
Stay tuned.

Nintendo DS - Feel the Magic: XY/XX

Nintendo DS Feel the Magic: XY/XX Reviews

Feel the Magic XY/XX

Nintendo DS Feel the Magic: XY/XX Images