![]() It's time for me to check out the May updates to Switch Online's emulator services. Let's start with the one that I was most interested in. BACKGROUND:
I've never heard of this game before, but in the update trailer, this caught my eye the most because it looked a lot like Puzzle Bobble in terms of gameplay. I love me my puzzle games, so I was most looking forward to trying this one first. SUMMARY: While Magical Drop II does look like Puzzle Bobble at first glance, its gameplay is quite different. The basic idea of popping same-colored bubbles remains the same, but the mechanics are distinct. For one, you don't have a queue of colored bubbles you have to shoot; you actually have to pick up the bubbles from the board itself and then shoot them elsewhere to get combos going. This alone makes Magical Drop a completely different experience from Puzzle Bobble, since now you're kind of free to decide your next move or set up your own combos. as opposed to the game dictating the pace with a random selection of colored bubbles. Another thing that's different is that the aiming in Magical Drop is purely vertical. You don't have to think about geometry and trick shots here like you do in Puzzle Bobble; just shoot bubbles directly above and you're good. On that note, you can only pop bubbles when three or more are stacked vertically, whereas Puzzle Bobble is a little more liberal on where you can place bubbles. Combos feel Puyo Puyo-esque in this game, as well-placed bubbles can cause a chain reaction of consecutive pops. Given how you can manipulate most of the bubbles on the board yourself, it's a little easier to set up your own combos, but I found that the game's fast pace (at least on higher difficulties) would require you to be extremely quick with your setups. Also on the board are bubble types apart from the standard colored ones you have to clear. Some (like clear bubbles and ice) are obstacles that require you to clear or shoot bubbles onto them, while others are power-ups that can clear entire lines or every bubble of a certain color. The obstacles are surprisingly tricky to work around, and the power-ups are quite satisfying to pop. The game has four modes: Solo Challenge (which is your typical endless mode), Friend Challenge (your 2-player VS mode), Story (an arcade-style mode where you play the VS style against the CPU), and Puzzle (a gauntlet of boards with fixed layouts that you have to beat within a time limit). All standard stuff for the most part. The VS modes are pretty intense, as combos cause the opponent's stack of bubbles to descend faster (they descend somewhat fast even playing solo at normal difficulty), and there's also a score threshold that you and your opponent are racing to reach first. In terms of the story, there barely is one, as most of the story can be summed up with character #1 going "fuck you", and character #2 responding with "no, fuck you". I will say that the characters themselves (who are named after traditional tarot cards) have unique designs. Speaking of design, this game has a strong anime aesthetic, and the sprite work is quite polished (it feels more like an arcade game than a Super Nintendo title with how great it looks). The animations in particular are impressive; I was completely surprised to see certain.... motions fully animated. VERDICT: I really enjoyed Magical Drop II's unique spin on the Puzzle Bobble style of match-3 gameplay, and the game has all the usual modes I would want from a puzzle game of this type. This scratches my itch of match-3 puzzle games that require equal parts reflexes and strategy, so I'm pretty happy to have played this. In fact, I think I'll be playing more of it going forward. If you're a fan of this subgenre of puzzle games like I am, you should definitely check this one out. I think it's distinct enough from more popular offerings that the experience won't feel too similar to anything you may have played before, and if you liked something like Puyo Puyo or Panel de Pon, the game's art style and characters have that same charm to them. - end -
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
June 2024
Derryck
|