Hands-onMagical Vacation

The team responsible for Square's Secret of Mana has formed its own company called Brownie Brown. It has been developing Magical Vacation for the Game Boy Advance for quite some time now. Immediately, you can see that this role-playing game has similar character designs and general style as the Secret of Mana series. Even the smaller things, such as part of the battle interface or how magic can be acquired through cute-looking elemental gods, also seems to be inspired from the Mana series. The playable version at Space World 2001 allowed us to pick from one of three characters. The battle formation takes up two rows with three members in each row. Magic spells can be cast by any of the members, since this is the primary weapon during battle, rather than swords and daggers. The text is often difficult to read, since there are no text windows during battle. Fortunately, when you are in towns and villages, windows do appear on dialogues. The graphics are artsy and colorful, though the special effects during battle seem to need something more eye-catching and spectacular.

With the relative lack of role-playing games on the Game Boy Advance, the title should be a welcome addition to the handheld's library. Magical Vacation is due on December 7 in Japan.