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November 15, 2012

Review – Magical Drop V

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , — Mister Raroo @ 12:52 pm

Review Magical Drop V
I find it particularly amusing that Ignition UTV saw fit to release a niche title like Magical Drop V the same week big-budget blockbuster Call of Duty: Black Ops II hit stores. But in some ways, it makes sense.

The Magical Drop series harkens back to an era when an adorable, saccharine puzzle game could happily coexist on a Neo Geo MVS cabinet alongside games with samurai warriors slashing swords in one-on-one duels, military grunts blasting everything in sight to smithereens, and brawny ballplayers swinging for the fences. And while it’s likely only a tiny slice of the total Black Ops-playing fanbase would ever consider playing Magical Drop V, I believe when it comes to the skill and dexterity needed to succeed, it is a game that is every bit as rigorous and demanding as a top-tier Black Ops session, if not more so!

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July 29, 2011

Ascending the Metatron (Or Something) in El Shaddai

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
The demo for El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron has been available on Xbox LIVE for a while now, though you may have overlooked its strange offering, as I initially did. In my capacity as an official Sugar Human, I recommend you reconsider.

The demo takes place in what might best be described as a bizarre drug induced hallucination; a world made of shadow and glass, laced together like a spider’s web. At one point, the perspective shifts to that of a side-scroller, where I leapt across rolling waves of clouds and flying rocks as the sun rose and fell, replaced by some ominous face in the background, again and again.

The demo is strange and dreamlike; sheathed in angelic armor that breaks away to reveal what appears to be some kind of surfer bro in jeans, the protagonist platforms through areas that seem only tangentially related, finding demons to fight in glassy arenas made of light and dark.

I challenged a boss, only to suddenly find myself somewhere else, platforming again, as in those strange dreams where you walk through a door to find the nature of the dream has completely changed.

It’s going to be a pretty thin summer for games this year, so it may be worth your time to check out this bizarre action entry; I played for half an hour, and though I’m not entirely sure what it is that I played, I can tell you that it was awesome. El Shaddai will arrive in North America on August 16 for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

June 8, 2011

E3 2011 – Hands-on Magical Drop V

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , — Mister Raroo @ 10:44 pm

Magical Drop V
If you’re the type of person who cries yourself to sleep every night because you miss Data East’s classic games, dry those tears! Out of nowhere, Magical Drop V has appeared at E3, and it is so bright and cute it almost hurts your eyes.

I have no clue how popular Magical Drop is with the kids these days, so I’ll go ahead and break down the gameplay quickly for you. Essentially, it’s a color-matching puzzle game that’s kind of similar to Puzzle Bobble or Puyo Puyo, but really Magical Drop is also its own beast.

There are bubbles of various colors on a playing field that periodically move downward. Your job is to pull bubbles in toward a little character you move back and forth at the bottom of the screen and fire them back toward bubbles of the same color. When enough bubbles are touching – pop! It sounds simple but it can get super hectic.

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January 12, 2011

El Shaddai Coming, Eventually

Filed under: News Feed — Tags: , , , — Jamie Love @ 9:27 am

El Shaddai Ascension of the Metatron
UTV Ignition set the Japanese release date for their alternative spin on biblical mythology, with El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron set to release there April 28th – followed up by word that a European and North American date would be announced “shortly.”

El Shaddai is of course the strange game with the stranger name, often cited as the title being worked on by people who were also involved with Capcom titles Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, and Okami.

Closer to home the company has announced the immediate consolidation of its US operations after an interesting ride over the last year and a half, into one location at UTV True Games in Austin, Texas – where work continues on the FPS Reich, and I hear the stars at night are big and bright.

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