Very sad to report that despite the lovely presentation, aesthetic, and general Dremcast-ness of this game, actually playing it isn't very good.
This is a game trying to match the precision 3D platforming of Crash Bandicoot, with the added mechanic of magnetism to add some extra challenge and thinking to it. This would be fine except the controls here are not nearly as precise as Crash Bandicoot. The jump doesn't feel great, and it along with some depth perception issues make just barely missing a platform a very common problem. There's a run button, and the game often expects you to make a running jump instead of a regular one, but the problem is that you can never immediately tell when a pit requires a normal or running jump. The run is also something that lingers longer than you hold it, meaning there were lot's of instances of running straight off a platform. Coupling it with the imprecise jump, it truly is completely unreliable.
As for the magnet mechanic itself, the way it works is that north is represented by the color red and south is represented by the color blue. The game is all about identifying what color-coded objects needs to be repelled and what needs to be attracted to. There are red bounce pads that require using the north (red) magnet on, red ziplines that require a south (blue) magnet, enemies of red and blue colors, and so on. It takes a while for the colors to really sink in, and even more than half of the way through the game I was still fucking up which magnet to use. This is mostly because when you jump off of a blue bounce pad that requires a blue magnet to use, and that bounce pad leads to a blue zipline, I instinctually go "well I used blue on the blue thing last time, I should just use blue again on this blue thing too". There needs to be a better communication of when something requires attraction and when it requires repelling, more of a visual prompt, because I really can't get it memorized.
In general this game could use a lot better visual communication. For example, the game expects you to time when you swing off one of the ziplines, as in getting off at the end will drop you nearby while getting off closer to the middle will launch you further. But this exact place to get off is very vague and, like many other parts of the game, unreliable. There are power-ups that grant you another hit, but when you get hit there's no visual or audio cue, so you could just be completely vulnerable and not realize it. Hitboxes in this game in general are real wonky, there were times where an obstacle was gone but its hit box would linger slightly longer.
It's sad that this game is actually bad because it's so charming and has a great Y2K aesthetic going on, and the premise sounds super promising, and with every level I was just hoping for the moment it would click and all come together, and that I was the problem and I just needed to learn the game, but when I made it to world three of four and still had all the same problems, I knew I just had to give up on it. Goodbye, Super Magnetic Neo, forever.
This is a game trying to match the precision 3D platforming of Crash Bandicoot, with the added mechanic of magnetism to add some extra challenge and thinking to it. This would be fine except the controls here are not nearly as precise as Crash Bandicoot. The jump doesn't feel great, and it along with some depth perception issues make just barely missing a platform a very common problem. There's a run button, and the game often expects you to make a running jump instead of a regular one, but the problem is that you can never immediately tell when a pit requires a normal or running jump. The run is also something that lingers longer than you hold it, meaning there were lot's of instances of running straight off a platform. Coupling it with the imprecise jump, it truly is completely unreliable.
As for the magnet mechanic itself, the way it works is that north is represented by the color red and south is represented by the color blue. The game is all about identifying what color-coded objects needs to be repelled and what needs to be attracted to. There are red bounce pads that require using the north (red) magnet on, red ziplines that require a south (blue) magnet, enemies of red and blue colors, and so on. It takes a while for the colors to really sink in, and even more than half of the way through the game I was still fucking up which magnet to use. This is mostly because when you jump off of a blue bounce pad that requires a blue magnet to use, and that bounce pad leads to a blue zipline, I instinctually go "well I used blue on the blue thing last time, I should just use blue again on this blue thing too". There needs to be a better communication of when something requires attraction and when it requires repelling, more of a visual prompt, because I really can't get it memorized.
In general this game could use a lot better visual communication. For example, the game expects you to time when you swing off one of the ziplines, as in getting off at the end will drop you nearby while getting off closer to the middle will launch you further. But this exact place to get off is very vague and, like many other parts of the game, unreliable. There are power-ups that grant you another hit, but when you get hit there's no visual or audio cue, so you could just be completely vulnerable and not realize it. Hitboxes in this game in general are real wonky, there were times where an obstacle was gone but its hit box would linger slightly longer.
It's sad that this game is actually bad because it's so charming and has a great Y2K aesthetic going on, and the premise sounds super promising, and with every level I was just hoping for the moment it would click and all come together, and that I was the problem and I just needed to learn the game, but when I made it to world three of four and still had all the same problems, I knew I just had to give up on it. Goodbye, Super Magnetic Neo, forever.