What is Magical Whip in one word? Divine.

User Rating: 8 | Action Game: Magical Whip DS
By darksongbird | Review Date:
This game is simple but with depth. You star as one of two wizards trying to escape this twisted forest full of ghosts, bats, "gum drop blobs", evil pumpkins and of course dragons. There is a blue-haired boy and a pink-haired girl to choose from. Typically, the boy (who I picked on my inital outing) is good at attacks but stinks at magic. The girl is the reverse, wields weak attacks and powerful magic. You go from level to level having to defeat everything that's on the screen. When you finally reach the boss battles though, they only stay so long so you have to defeat them in a timely manner. However, if you don't you can still advance to the next level by taking out all of the remaining monsters, you just don't advance in your ranking.

I find that this game is fun but it could be much better once I really get the hang of it. You see....enemies have different difficulty levels based on their "HP" (which isn't displayed anywhere). You hit them with your whip until it's time for them to die or you pick them up. If you pick them up, you can throw them. You can also create combos (which sadly, I'm not the best at). Creating combos and grabbing multiple enemies at once doubles / triples / quadruples (etc., etc.) your attack power and score. The higher the former, the stronger your attacks are and easier enemies (and even bosses) become.

There are also items in the form of apples. From what I remember, the apple with the heart in the middle restores all lost HP, the apple with the skull drops your HP by 1, the apple with the poison sign drops your magic meter a bit, there's an apple to restore all magic power that has been used, the apple with the "wing" let's you double jump and there's an apple that let's you get an extra continue. Any apple can appear anywhere (except for the wing and extra continue ones which appear in predestined areas).

I may not have made this sound as interesting as I believe it to be, but trust me it's a great game. The graphics are great in all their 2D splendor, the controls are perfect and the music is suitable. Originally a DSi game, I bought it for my 3DS for a deal price of 1.99 USD. It can get quite difficult after the first 12 levels or so (50 in all) but if you have the patience, this game is worth your while. Try it some time!

+Old-school gameplay
+Pleasant 2D graphics
+Tight controls
+Not very difficult to just jump into the game right away
+Cheap

-After you get 1/3 of the way through all levels the difficulty amps up quick
-Once your "credits" (or continues) are used up, you have to start over (and they will run out fast during the harder levels!)

A great game to add to a gamer's collection. Cute at first but ultimately not really for casual gamers because of the ensuing difficulty.

Final score ------> 8/10

Written solely by Darksongbird
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