An adorable mini-Metroidvania starring some kind of wizard/witch girl as she goes through six fairly large stages. The character is a blast to control for the most part (the grappling hook felt really finnicky at times) and even if the levels are large and open-ended, I never really got lost or annoyed in the same way I have in other backtracking-heavy platformers. As with most games of this type, combat is very simple and while the bosses may be larger than life...they don't put up much of a fight.
I do think the level design drops off a bit in the last stage especially, hence why I didn't give this four or more stars. It relies just a bit too much on the whole "press this switch and rush back to the other end of the room before the door shuts" gimmick for my taste. I also found one point where I intentionally had to die because I did not have enough magic stars (the game's equivalent of magic points that allow you to use the abilities you find scattered throughout the stages) to get up to a ledge.
Still, if you can forgive that (and a few annoying sound effects), you're in for a good time that feels surprisingly modern.
I do think the level design drops off a bit in the last stage especially, hence why I didn't give this four or more stars. It relies just a bit too much on the whole "press this switch and rush back to the other end of the room before the door shuts" gimmick for my taste. I also found one point where I intentionally had to die because I did not have enough magic stars (the game's equivalent of magic points that allow you to use the abilities you find scattered throughout the stages) to get up to a ledge.
Still, if you can forgive that (and a few annoying sound effects), you're in for a good time that feels surprisingly modern.
Game Review - originally written by ???
I think this game takes away Umihara Kawase’s title as Cutest Game Ever. Although Rhapsody also comes close. Even after watching the opening story, the plot isn’t really clear as to why this adorable little princess has to go and take down all these demons or what have you. But, you don’t play these kind of games for their story.
You’re a princess. Who looks a lot like Little Red Riding Hood except you’re, uh, Blue. And you’re adorable. Anyways, your goal is to jump around and swing your sword at enemies, until there’s no more enemies to swing your sword at. Basically. You also get powerups, that you can use with the A button, and you have your super badass attack, that you use with Select. But basically it’s just your usual charming platformer that’s really fun to play. Tada!
I think this game takes away Umihara Kawase’s title as Cutest Game Ever. Although Rhapsody also comes close. Even after watching the opening story, the plot isn’t really clear as to why this adorable little princess has to go and take down all these demons or what have you. But, you don’t play these kind of games for their story.
You’re a princess. Who looks a lot like Little Red Riding Hood except you’re, uh, Blue. And you’re adorable. Anyways, your goal is to jump around and swing your sword at enemies, until there’s no more enemies to swing your sword at. Basically. You also get powerups, that you can use with the A button, and you have your super badass attack, that you use with Select. But basically it’s just your usual charming platformer that’s really fun to play. Tada!
Magical Pop'n has one of the most fun, well animated characters to control on the SNES and it really feels like the developers focused most of the development on making the character an absolute joy to control.
Sadly, it feels less focus was put into the actual level design so Magical Pop'n is a game that feels very lopsided. I could see myself coming back to this game in a couple of years just because of how fun the character was to control only to immediately drop the game at the halfway point because the levels become an absolute slog to get through.
Sadly, it feels less focus was put into the actual level design so Magical Pop'n is a game that feels very lopsided. I could see myself coming back to this game in a couple of years just because of how fun the character was to control only to immediately drop the game at the halfway point because the levels become an absolute slog to get through.
Magical Pop'n e a distração do hoje por João Fructuoso
This is one of the most expensive, if not the single most expensive, videogame in the vast Super Famicom catalog, and me, being the huge nerd that I am, couldn't resist the urge to play it just out of curiosity.
I just wanted to know what the big deal was, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this was not one of those frequent cases in which a game gets extremely overpriced for reasons that don't involve the game's quality. (Caltron 6-In-1, Trip World, or the golden Nintendo World Championship cartridge come to mind.)
This is an actual competent game—a really good one, in fact.
Right off the bat, I can say that the cutesy graphics are stellar, and the main character is also so full of life and personality; she has tons of animations if you stand still, get close to an edge, you get the idea. Enemies have a cute design too and are packed with their own unique animations; I love when games do that.
Your main weapon is a sword, and something that surprised me is that enemies can fight back and clash with yours. That's really cool! I did not expect that!
Each level is non-linear, in the sense that you are required to do a bit of backtracking in order to get extra lives or find the level's heart (which increases your health bar for the rest of the game); some people call it Metroidvania, but it reminded me more of something you'd see in a Monster World game, like Dragon's Liar or IV. There are some really fun platforming sections too.
You also get a new power-up on each level, and the level design will make you constantly swap between them; they are all very unique and distinct from each other, so there's also some room for experimentation in how you approach certain challenges.
The music was sweet and catchy; it's just SNES music at its best, and I liked it a lot.
My only complaint with this game is, and I know I'm going to sound like a hater, but why did this have to be a Super Famicom-only title, man? The console can barely keep up with it, especially on the last levels, where there are tons of enemies and environmental hazards. There are constant loading screens all throughout the game too; nothing crazy, but sometimes they can take up to 7 seconds, and with rooms being very small most of the time, it really starts to get to you. I'll say you do get used to it, but that shouldn't be an issue on a cartridge game, c'mon now.
Some people would say it's because the game is badly optimized or that the developers themselves added punctual slowdowns for a more dramatic effect in certain scenes; I call it the Super Famicom having an awful processor. Really, a Mega CD, Saturn, PlayStation ( ma-maybe a 3DO port?), or even a PC-Engine CD release would have solved this issue, but oh well, it is what it is.
So TL;DR, I had a lot of fun with this one! I will definitely come back to it in the future.
I just wanted to know what the big deal was, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this was not one of those frequent cases in which a game gets extremely overpriced for reasons that don't involve the game's quality. (Caltron 6-In-1, Trip World, or the golden Nintendo World Championship cartridge come to mind.)
This is an actual competent game—a really good one, in fact.
Right off the bat, I can say that the cutesy graphics are stellar, and the main character is also so full of life and personality; she has tons of animations if you stand still, get close to an edge, you get the idea. Enemies have a cute design too and are packed with their own unique animations; I love when games do that.
Your main weapon is a sword, and something that surprised me is that enemies can fight back and clash with yours. That's really cool! I did not expect that!
Each level is non-linear, in the sense that you are required to do a bit of backtracking in order to get extra lives or find the level's heart (which increases your health bar for the rest of the game); some people call it Metroidvania, but it reminded me more of something you'd see in a Monster World game, like Dragon's Liar or IV. There are some really fun platforming sections too.
You also get a new power-up on each level, and the level design will make you constantly swap between them; they are all very unique and distinct from each other, so there's also some room for experimentation in how you approach certain challenges.
The music was sweet and catchy; it's just SNES music at its best, and I liked it a lot.
My only complaint with this game is, and I know I'm going to sound like a hater, but why did this have to be a Super Famicom-only title, man? The console can barely keep up with it, especially on the last levels, where there are tons of enemies and environmental hazards. There are constant loading screens all throughout the game too; nothing crazy, but sometimes they can take up to 7 seconds, and with rooms being very small most of the time, it really starts to get to you. I'll say you do get used to it, but that shouldn't be an issue on a cartridge game, c'mon now.
Some people would say it's because the game is badly optimized or that the developers themselves added punctual slowdowns for a more dramatic effect in certain scenes; I call it the Super Famicom having an awful processor. Really, a Mega CD, Saturn, PlayStation ( ma-maybe a 3DO port?), or even a PC-Engine CD release would have solved this issue, but oh well, it is what it is.
So TL;DR, I had a lot of fun with this one! I will definitely come back to it in the future.
I'd say this is one of the more fair adventure games of it's era, given that you actually bother exploring and picking up items to increase your health instead of beelining to the end of the level, it also showers you with healing items save for the last few levels, the 2 before the final one were fine but the last one was ass due to how vague it was with where you needed to go. And don't think I didn't notice that Rondo of Blood rip-off final boss you cheeky wanker devs. Other than that the game has a lot of charm thanks in part to it's fantastic sound which helps give the game that much more personality, your character emotes a lot through voice which I found amusing, and the OST itself is a good listen. Visuals are great too, good old SNES pixel art. Fun, whimsical experience all around.
Cherchant un petit jeu à compléter pour finir l'année, je suis tombé sur ce titre en fouillant une liste au hasard. Une esthétique adorable pour un petit plateformer décrit comme "mignon et sans prise tête" fut au final mon expérience vidéoludique la plus frustrante de cette année.
Magical Pop est effectivement un jeu très mignon comme le souligne sa jaquette au style magical girl enfantin. On y contrôle une petite princesse dans un univers assez léger, notre héroïne est très expressive, il y a de belles animations, c'est coloré, la musique est sympathique, et tout ce qu'on pourrait reprocher sur la réalisation serait quelques lenteurs dans certains passages surchargés.
Cependant, j'ai trouvé à coté l'expérience de jeu plutôt frustrante. Ce n'est pas un mauvais jeu, ni même un challenge vu que le jeu est généreux en item de soin, le système de magie est intéressant et le jeu se permet un petit coté exploration bienvenu.
Mais, dans la grande tradition des jeux de plateforme design dessin animé de la Snes, le jeu regorge de petit truc agaçant. Que ça soit certaines collisions, les paternes de certains ennemis, l’écran qui cache par moments certains détails, ou le placement de certains pièges... Le point qui a cependant le plus usé de ma patience fut la gestion du grappin, qui est l'une des pires que j'ai pu voir dans un jeu du genre. Le niveau de glace et son passage sous timer avant le boss resteront dans mes mémoires, mais pas pour les bonnes raisons...
En bref, un jeu à l'esthétique très mignonne mais dont l'accumulation de petite frustration et de son grappin me laisseront une expérience un peu mitigé.
Magical Pop est effectivement un jeu très mignon comme le souligne sa jaquette au style magical girl enfantin. On y contrôle une petite princesse dans un univers assez léger, notre héroïne est très expressive, il y a de belles animations, c'est coloré, la musique est sympathique, et tout ce qu'on pourrait reprocher sur la réalisation serait quelques lenteurs dans certains passages surchargés.
Cependant, j'ai trouvé à coté l'expérience de jeu plutôt frustrante. Ce n'est pas un mauvais jeu, ni même un challenge vu que le jeu est généreux en item de soin, le système de magie est intéressant et le jeu se permet un petit coté exploration bienvenu.
Mais, dans la grande tradition des jeux de plateforme design dessin animé de la Snes, le jeu regorge de petit truc agaçant. Que ça soit certaines collisions, les paternes de certains ennemis, l’écran qui cache par moments certains détails, ou le placement de certains pièges... Le point qui a cependant le plus usé de ma patience fut la gestion du grappin, qui est l'une des pires que j'ai pu voir dans un jeu du genre. Le niveau de glace et son passage sous timer avant le boss resteront dans mes mémoires, mais pas pour les bonnes raisons...
En bref, un jeu à l'esthétique très mignonne mais dont l'accumulation de petite frustration et de son grappin me laisseront une expérience un peu mitigé.
Thirty-ninth GOTW finished for 2023. This game is both a banger and a frustration. When it's clicking, it's super fun. Tight platforming, cute and charming art style and character design, unique boss design, and varied spells provide for a lot of fun. When it's not, however, it's absolutely frustrating. Some of the platforming is unforgivingly tight, some of the levels are a convoluted mess, and the grappling hook (while neat in it's theory and placement) is an absolute nightmare to actually use, especially in spots where you have to swing from one to another. I think the game is too good not to be overall enjoyable, but these spots certainly weigh down an otherwise great game.
bastante bueno el diseño del ultimo nivel ngl