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Lostmagic Review
Written by Robert Falcon on Tuesday, May 2, 2006
Stellar multiplayer; fine gameplay
Basic presentation; frustrating quirks
It's good to see companies take a chance with more unique games now and then. Gives the game market a good kick in the pants, I tell ya. Ubisoft's been doing it with Taito, releasing the amazingly fun PSP game Exit earlier in the year, and now bringing the somewhat fun RTS adventure game LostMagic to the Nintendo DS. Not everything works like true magic with this game, but, nonetheless, it's worth look.
In the game, you take control of Isaac, a boy who has several abilities to his credit. He's able to cast magical spells with the help of drawn-out emblems, although he must recover lost mana from time to time in order to keep his energy level up to speed. He can also pull a Pokemon and capture a number of magical monsters, which he'll need the help of as he battles more and more massive enemies as the game's quest begins.
The game uses the Nintendo DS touch-screen rather heavily through two different techniques. The first involves actually drawing out the emblems for the spells that you want to use, and the more precise your drawings are, the better. However, speed also counts in the heat of battle, so you must work quickly in order to avoid getting knocked out of the game. The second part involves commanding your monster army, guiding them through a series of battlefields and levels, where they interact with enemies and strategically place themselves.
The controls work fine, but the game runs into a couple of snags in terms of affective AI. First off, the monster armies don't seem to respond to on-the-fly commands, just the first ones you give out, meaning that they can be ambushed rather easily if your command's a bit too lengthy. Also, drawing out spells is a neat idea, but the build-up of mana takes a way big amount of time, meaning that, if you're not careful, you're going to get buried quickly. LostMagic is a game just prompting you to use patience every step of the way.
The graphics don't really seem to appeal to the Nintendo DS set. In fact, without the touch-screen controls coming into play, I don't see how the game couldn't have ended up on the Game Boy Advance. Some of the art is nice but it seems rather basic. The sound doesn't really seem to fare in complexity either, with generic tunes and some garbled sound effects here and there.
However, don't fret. Despite the game's shortcomings in terms of its presentation and play quirks, it still scores in one major category- multiplayer. LostMagic utilizes the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi Connection, one of the few third-party games to do so, and allows you to battle against friends in a number of scenarios. This is a great feature that allows you to up your skills and get some unpredictable competition for a change. Bravo.
LostMagic is an acquired taste, and probably won't score with all of the Nintendo DS owners out there. But it's definitely something that should be looked at at least once, if only for its unique perspective on the action at hand and the multiplayer opportunities that await. As long as we keep getting quirky offerings like this, I don't mind seeing more imports make the arrival on our shores. I hope Cameltry DS is next in line.
posted May 3, 2006