Shōnen Ashibe (SFC) Review

Received: April 1st, 2013 / Written: December 30th, 2015-January 3rd, 2016

Year: 1992 | Developed and Published by: Takara | [|O|]

Hello everyone, StarBoy91 here; passionate about video games, big retrophile, and fan of all things 16-bit!  <=)  And welcome to the year 2016, yay!!!  Let's start with a bit of background:

on May 31st, 2012 I bought a Retro Duo which enabled me to play both NES and SFC games on it (even a couple PAL SNES carts); it was such an exciting moment in my gaming life as it had helped open up a doorway for me that many years prior to that I would've only wished in the past: I could import and play Super Famicom games from Japan and since then I gleefully imported many games from the Land of the Rising Sun and there was no stopping me--but then the SFC slot on my Retro Duo stopped working in the end of October 2014 altogether (but the back NES one still functioned).  I was at a loss at that point and I just couldn't believe it: after all this time of importing my SFC gaming days had been put on hold.  =(

And for a few months I had wondered: "What did I do wrong?"; but I did get over it afterwards, but in the back of my mind I still wanted to go back to enjoying Super Famicarts again.  So at one point I had actually considered modding my NTSC SNES console since both the NTSC and JP models of the Nintendo 16-bit console run at 60 Hz speed, and if done right then it would mark the best of both worlds.  And, no lie, I almost went through with it--but I just couldn't do it.  The SNES console that one of my cousins loaned to me two days shy of 2009 holds a lot of sentimental value to me (not to mention it's one of the very consoles I grew up playing whenever I visited some of my relatives), and I didn't want to risk ruining it for good if I did it wrong.

So I decided not to worry about it for awhile, but on Christmas '15 something surprising happened:

Introducing the game I'm reviewing today  =)

first off, this past Christmas was great.  Among all the gifts I got, I got much to my surprise a Super Famiconsole (with a few games).  When I actually saw it and carried it that day, I was amazed; never in a million years did I expect to actually see an SFC console in person, let alone own one, yet here it was!  <=}  As much as I liked the Retro Duo when it worked between 2012-14, the sole reservation I had with it was that it had no eject button (which meant I had to carefully pull the cart out by hand); something which I'm grateful the SFC console has.  And seeing that it works great and is much more preferable, it makes me wish I got a Super Famicom console years ago.

And to complete the package, it also came with a Super Famicom controller along with it, as it should've appeared worlwide.  Goodbye awkward NTSC purple concave/convex buttoned controller with a long wire length, hello Japanese Super Famicom controller with Super Mario World's red-blue-green-yellow color theme with a short wire length!  O.O  Wait, what??  Bottom line: it's perfect!  =D  Thanks, Santa!

Now, seeing as the New Year has just started it is a time for new resolutions.  The last six SNES video game reviews I made probably did not sit well with retro-loving readers because the aspect ratio was stretched as opposed to square on account that my old laptop will not load up properly and my videos from my video camera will not play on my new laptop (but my snapshots taken from said camera can be opened in said new laptop... it's complicated).  So, for the most part when it comes to future SFC/SNES reviews I will try to take my screenshots while my TV is on Normal mode (I don't own a capture card for my TV), and if I can't--well, what you see is what you get.  Just a bit of fair warning.

Left: How I usually view SFC/SNES games on my TV, on Wide setting (I'm accustomed to it)

Right: How SFC/SNES normally look like, on ... err, Normal

If you wanted to have a proper idea of what I'm talking about, here it is for the sake of comparing and contrasting.  I make this sacrifice for you as not just a reviewer but as a friend as well.

Roaming on a brightly colorful plain

I'm not too familiar with the (manga?) series this is based on to be perfectly honest with you (as there were games based on it made for the Famicom and the Game Boy as well), but I do recall having first heard of the NIntendo 16-bit adaptation of Shōnen Ashibe on my friend RVGFanatic's website long before I actually started importing video games in general several years ago.  I liked having read his impressions on it as they had me intrigued, and I thought that based on the screenshots he presented that it looked like it could be a bit of fun.  =)  Back when my Retro Duo was still working in 2012 I was excited for it helped broaden my horizons and opened up a new world to me: the world of the Super Famicom (which I will from now on play on my Super Famicom... wow, that wording was bad), and sometime early in 2013 I considered wanting to play Shōnen Ashibe (my twelfth Super Famicart) as I had still wanted to play it after years of curiosity.  And when I received it (no, that date is not a joke), I was quite pleased with it.  So how did Takara handle this game?

Try shooting some baskets there using your head

In Shōnen Ashibe there are two different viewpoints: the topdown overworld with all the islands yet to be connected, and the sidescrolling sections which form the meat of the game.  In the overworld you move in a square pattern as you must enter caves, mansions, tents, and other openings on your journey.  From time to time you'll get to converse with characters as a boy, and if you tried walking to the areas the white sea lion (that's you) has left his mark on you have a choice to explore them again or bypass them entirely.  More on the overworld segments later, on to the most important part of the gameplay: in the form of sidescrolling.  =)

"Ooomph!"

During the sidescrolling segments you control an adorably small white sea lion whose main objective is finding eight of certain particular items or animals (i.e. apples, squid, canaries who look like they've sprung up from The NewZealand Story, et al) and reaching the goal when you've gathered them all in each stage, but it's not as simple and straightforward as I make it sound.  As the seal you can jump up platforms with the B button and bounce ahead and/or bump into props with the Y button; while some of the particular items/animals will appear in the open, there are plenty of them that are hiding behind props which the seal can bump his head in to reveal them or nothing.  It's best to exercise caution though, as sometimes bumping a prop will make a child or a creature appear, and you don't want them to get too close to you.

*breathes* I'm a sucker for all Aurora Borealis
in the sky  <=)

There is also the matter of area design as well.  While only a small handful of them are ever truly straightforward, the vast majority of the stages are quite open-ended in terms of design which allows for a good sense of navigation; and the goal for when you've gathered all eight things/animals might not necessarily be at the far right end of the area.  Nothing overwhelmingly complex, mind, but it was nice of Takara to create wide and spacious areas that are not too simple when it comes to searching what you're looking for.  =)  Some of the ways in which you progress far are by pushing blocks to make room, jump from moving platform to moving platform, or by bouncing high on bouncy surfaces such as trampolines or in a few instances by swimming.

(Are these critters really worth all this trouble?)

Shōnen Ashibe's pastel-toned visuals are charming and appealing, and the vibrantly quaint color selection throughout really helps.  The outdoor areas look inviting and I liked the gradually moving clouds in the sky and/or the water on the ground; the cavern areas have got an in-depth look and feel to them with the quasi-parallax scrolling with the rocks and stalactites (some with relaxing blue color layering effects with bubbles for when you're swimming underwater); the haunted mansion areas look abandoned (with a bit of lightning flashing outside) which sometimes have eerie mist surrounding it all.  One of my favorite visuals from the game is the snowy environment; the way the snowcapped mountains look are incredibly photorealistic for 1992 (especially the way they scroll smoothly), and I liked the Aurora Borealis set up in the sky (they look just like curtains) as it lends a good sense of atmosphere.  =)

"EEEEK, A GHOST!!!!!!"

The character and enemy animations are pretty basic in this game, but that's okay because they're still sufficient to look at with their anime charm.  The white sea lion has got smooth moving and swimming animations, and he is very cute and appealing with all his motions (his life icon has his eyes blinking from time to time).  I like how he cheers and dances standing upright on his tail when he reaches the goal with all eight items/animals accounted for, and his expressions are adorable even when he's being idle or when he's in precarious situations (like when he's sliding down on his back, for instance).  The items and animals that you're trying to recoup have minimal animations, while the enemies that you're trying to avoid touching--comprised of girls, boys, specters, bears, moles, bats, and various fish to give some examples--are simple in terms of design but have quaint animations to their benefit.

*BONK*

The music is very bouncy, lighthearted, and upbeat throughout, and I really enjoy listening to their nice-sounding compositions.  The areas next to the water have a very relaxing and inviting feel to them in terms of sound, the cavern segments don't sound complex and yet they have a fascinating aura about them, and the underwater segments are slow and quaint even as you swim underwater.  =)  The sky area theme is exciting even with the brass instrumentation, and the mansion sounds lightheartedly menacing (though I'd be remiss if I didn't feel that at times it would threaten to sound like stereotypical circus music early on).  The sound effects are decent yet limited: I like the bonk sound for when the seal hits his head on a hard surface, the sound for when an enemy comes into contact with you is interesting, and the little white sea lion's high pitch squeaks he sometimes makes are so adorable.

But it's not all platforming in Shōnen Ashibe as sometimes you get to do stuff on the topdown side:

Oh no, it's Alex Kidd all over again, RUN!!!!!!!!!  D8>

Never mind that little to no one actually likes Sega's first mascot's games, or Alex Kidd as a character  =<

for instance if you talk with a kid who's got a part of his head shaved off he will challenge you to a game of Janken (the equivalent of Rock, Paper, Scissors), and if you beat him you'll get a free life.  But that's very optional.

What's not optional is that you must talk with certain shady characters in order to partake in events where you must swim on the surface of the water and try to either reach the goal, or try to get just enough things said shady characters throw at you and then reach the goal when you've got enough.  But be careful because there are obstacles and whirlpools in your path that you need to avoid.  I'll explain shortly why these events are mandatory.

"If you stray your foreflippers from harming me, I
promise to have Yooka-Laylee released far earlier
than October this year"  =3

The overworld is interconnected by small islands, and the only way to access the bulk of the playing field is by reaching the goal in each stage.  While plenty of stages just have one goal, many in question will have two; which means that depending on which one you take you might either make a path should you succeed or reach a dead end if you chose the wrong one.  Good thing for trial and error and playing these stages as many times as to your heart's content, unless you feel you're done with them and can just bypass them by selecting "no".  In certain stages you might have to press a switch in order for something important to happen, and sometimes paths in the platforming segment that are seemingly blocked by rocks (or if there are just rocks) can be smashed by having your seal smash it with his head.  Just a few examples to bear in mind.

*squeak*

Occasionally in the overworld you get to talk with people, most of them giving you brief conversations while certain people will give you a simple sixteen character password (comprised of letters and numbers) so that you can continue your progress later if you've taken a break.  At the very center of the overworld is the final stage, which you cannot just access the moment you get to it; the only way you'll be able to access it is after you've cleared all the stages and partook in all the shady characters' surface water events.  It might take a bit to clear some stages due to their vast spaciousness, but in the long run when all is said and done these stages will all have to be done for you to enter the very final stage.

"Ice Bear heard a sound.  Ice Bear's going to
scout it out."

If I had to make a comparison when talking about this game I would probably compare Shōnen Ashibe to Good-Feel's Kirby's Epic Yarn.  And honestly, that comparison's pretty apt in terms of structure: you don't lose a life if an enemy touches you, but you do lose one or more of what you gathered in the process which you can recoup by heading where said items/animals got spread out; and both games are very easy in terms of difficulty.  The only difference is that while in Kirby's Epic Yarn you never lose a life, your main enemy in this game is time, and if it counts down all the way to zero before you managed to get all you needed to look for only then will you lose a life and will have to start the stage over again.  Aside from that, there is another thing both platformers have in common: they're both very lighthearted feel-good entertainment.  <=)

"Yo hey, don't try to nuzzle your head against me;
that would not be good for my system!"

Aside from the usual controls there is one control that I feel is worth mentioning: you can hang off of blocks.  If you're really near an edge (whether facing out or inward) then the white sea lion will show that he's almost on the verge of falling.  I know it doesn't seem like much, but it can be a lifesaver on certain occasions.  If there's really a downside in Shōnen Ashibe it occurs during a handful of enemy respawning moments.  You know how in the first two Ninja Gaiden games there would be inexplicable enemy respawning from enemies even though you turned around and then refaced the other direction again (despite having ousted them)?  Well in this game there is a similar case where if you move only a few steps away from where the enemy came from (to the point where their position is offscreen) and then you came back a few steps (where said enemies are now onscreen) then they would reemerge once more (namely flying enemies like bats and seagulls).  It's a bit distracting, but fortunately it does not permeate throughout the whole deal and only during a couple instances.

Well, now I've seen everything

Shōnen Ashibe might not have much difficulty (or length) going for it, but on the whole it's a fun game to play once in awhile and it is largely relaxing.  =)  I like the sense of atmosphere when it comes to perusing these stages and I like how trying to find all eight important items/animals is not entirely straightforward as you must do a bit of searching here and there.  It is also a very charming game with its fun lighthearted nature and its very cute protagonist, and for that reason among others Shōnen Ashibe is not just a solid game on its own merits but solid feel-good entertainment as well, and I think Takara did a good job crafting this amiable sidescroller.

Hurray!  ^-^

If you want to play a good platformer then this game is not a bad option as it is quite enjoyable.  If you're looking for something (overtly) challenging, you won't find it here; but if you want to take a break from a challenging game and want to play something easier (but not necessarily simple) then Shōnen Ashibe is good.  If you're feeling down and are looking for something to lift your spirits up, then this game is absolutely perfect for the job as it's well-done feel-good entertainment, and if you search for it on eBay it doesn't cost much.  =)  It might not exactly be great, but for what it is it's good.  There are admittedly better licensed games you could play on the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo, but you could do far worse.

My Personal Score: 7.0/10

<( ^o^)^TO EACH THEIR OWN^(^o^ )>
P.S. I look forward to talk about more Super Famicom games in the future.  ^~^

P.S. 2 And speaking of feel-good entertainment: oh, Yoshi's Woolly World, where have you been for the past two decades?  <=)  This is seriously the best Yoshi platformer since Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island twenty years prior!
Thank you for reading my review, please leave me a comment a let me know what you think.  Happy New Year, and take care!  =)
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(Aagck!!!  Why did I have to be so cute???)  T_T

Magical Pop'n (SNES Repro) Review

Received: July 2nd, 2015 / Written: December 13th-18th, 2015

Year: 1995 | Developed by: Polestar
Published by: Pack-In-Video | [|O|]

 

Hello everyone, StarBoy91 here; passionate about video games, big retrophile, and fan of all things 16-bit!  =D  It's time to get back to business and talk about a quality title I'm excited to talk about!

During this Summer (for reasons that would take too long in this review to explain) I had come to the realization that the Super Famicom had a much more superior and fascinating library than the Western Super Nintendo; which don't get me wrong, does have games worth playing, but its collection pales in comparison to the Japanese counterpart.  So because of this (and because my 16-bit importing got put on hold) I decided to try something I never tried before: buying an NTSC SNES repro cart of a Super Famicom game, import without actually importing.  And while the process of converting SFC titles to SNES carts attributes to their costliness, the good news was that their prices all varied (plenty somewhat below $50).

And given that the repro cart movement inspired a vast array of SFC-to-SNES games, naturally there was a wide selection to choose from.  One of my first choices was actually Magical Pop'n, which normally costs an outrageous amount to buy in its original format (for reasons I have a feeling I know the answer to) boxed or no, but there was a copy I saw on eBay that was roughly $46!  That was quite a bargain all things considered, but sadly by the time I came back to it that cart was gone.  But I wanted to try a repro cart as soon as possible, so when I saw a repro cart of Lenar's Ganpuru: Gunman's Proof (a game I had been curious about for awhile) I went for it without hesitation.  And I'm glad I did, because that lightheartedly quirky Western equivalent to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past quickly became one of my favorites, and was a great way to start this year's Summer.  <=)

But even though I had lost the opportunity with Magical Pop'n I did not give up on wanting to purchase it, because I knew that I would have another chance.  So once in awhile I checked to see if there were any repro carts for it; sometimes yes, sometimes no.  But luckily that late June I saw a copy which had cost roughly a dollar less than the one I glanced at a month prior, which was perfect--and this time I bought my own copy for sure, which arrived in early July.  This highly sought after platformer is often clamored to be one of the best Super Famicom games ever made by the retro video game-loving masses, but does it live up to that hype?  Let us talk about my second NTSC SNES repro cart: Magical Pop'n.  8-)  We're in for quite a ride here.

 

In the magical realm of To'ahl magic flourished and peace had prospered for awhile, and in it lived a young hyperactive princess named... er... "Princess" who's been rendered bored not just by peace but by the lessons her wizardly grandfather is bestowing upon her.

But during one lesson that he's in the middle of teaching, Gramps is shocked when he sees the crystal ball on the table flash a bright blinding light, which gives him a bad feeling and sees it as an ill omen.  And he was right, for that night a legion of monsters and henchmen serving the Demon King have decided to attack the kingdom and wreak havoc upon the once peaceful land.  With her highness being the only one who's got the skills to take on the evil forces on the land, will she be able to save To'ahl and become a better monarch/sorceress in the process?

Up on the rooftops

Magical Pop'n is a 2D sidescrolling platformer with some rather involved gameplay, so please bear with me as I describe the controls: as To'ahl's unnamed princess Princess you can run left and right, look up above you, and duck (you can even crawl as you hold down as you go left or right); jumping is done with the B button (like any reasonable SFC/SNES game, and how high or low you jump depends on how hard you press it), sliding down thin platforms by pressing down and B, doing the slide attack by pressing the lower diagonal left and right direction and the B button simultaneously, using the sword (for attacking and deflecting purposes) with the Y button (on the ground, in midair, lunging it above you, and while you're ducking), using your sword as a pogo stick as you press down and Y at the right moment (like DuckTales and Shovel Knight), and with the A button you use any one of the six magic abilities you can choose from, which you can alternate with the left and right shoulder buttons; and finally by pressing the Select button (yyyyeah, that's obscure button placement there) on any one of the abilities you're currently using you'll be conjuring a desperation attack against your foes.

Daaah, demon rabbit!  Kill it!

The magical abilities that you use cannot be used indefinitely (so it's best to use your magic sparingly), for you need the requisite amount of star power to conjure them at your leisure (many times more for your desperation moment), and scattered throughout each stage there are stars that can be found and located; some of them appear in chests while certain stars will appear after certain enemies have been dealt with.  The beauty of your magic capabilities is that they're not just a good way of disposing of enemies without going physical with the sword, but they are also a perfect way of bypassing particular obstacles in each stage (i.e. fire melts ice, rope magic lets you swing on magical hooks) should you locate and find said magic.  =)

Explosive toss

The controls are really responsive and easy to get into, and one of the best aspects of the game is actually how vast and widely nonlinear each stage is.  =)  Magical Pop'n is not a straightforward and linear platformer, for there are moments when you occasionally have to backtrack or reenter certain rooms if there was an obstacle you previously could not clear, and sometimes two separate rooms would lead to a room that is connected (like Super Metroid).  Thorough exploration is also a necessity if you wish to find chests with vital items inside and/or the magic spell you need to clear past particular obstacles; which is great because it ends up lending this platformer plenty of atmospheric depth.  =)  I'll elaborate more on it later.

"Magicaru Bomba!"

Each of Magical Pop'n's various areas look really good, with a good sense of detail here and there in both the foreground and the background.  I like how in the introductory stage it starts out raining and thundering at night, but then after passing through solid-looking interiors of both houses and underground sewers, you're treated to an amazing parallax scrolling sequence of houses as you're on the rooftop which gives it lots of depth.  =)  The forest stage, simple though it may be from comparison, has got soothing chartreuse hues during the day sequence, and its foliage looks so pretty.  Even the wavy effects of the fire cavern and the ice palace with its calming interiors look great!

Pushing to the left

The main character you control looks and animates very smoothly, and I liked the cute anime charm about her.  Her running, jumping, attacking, ducking, crawling, sliding, pushing, and even idle animations are great to look at; but what's really great about her is the expressions when she does any of these things.  =)  Among the enemies you encounter are piranhas, blobs, eerie creatures with extendable arms, fire-breathing pyro creatures, trolls, and even a literal army of penguins (if not regular ones); some of the latter even drive tanks in the first stage.  The enemies are all well-designed and animate nicely.

On the (mid)boss side of things, they are all huge by comparison, and all have varying designs (some with a very ominous look and feel to them).  One of them is a Janus-head style boss with each of the four sides having a head, and one of them is a giant-sized anthropomorphic fruit with bug-eyes (I think), to name a couple; the rest are good too and I'll leave a surprise.  When you face the final form of the Demon King the design is grotesquely menacing (do not highlight unless you've played the game: makes me think of the designs of the late H.R. Giger), and the backdrop for when you face him is visually nifty.  =D

"Take that!"

The cutscenes in the beginning and end of the game are simple yet appealing in terms of design, and the bright colors are very well-chosen during these instances; I especially adored the markers that introduced the stage you were about to start embarking.  The simplicity of the in-game cutscenes is a rather stark difference from the very detailed cover art that was attached to the game (designed by Takami Akai)--which don't get me wrong, the latter is visually striking in its own right, but the difference between the cover and in-game design of the character Princess is keenly felt.  Bottom line is, the visual art of Magical Pop'n is really good.  =D

Embracing the sunrise in the midst of battle

The music in Magical Pop'n is really great for it not only does a fantastic job of lending the numerous areas of To'ahl their sense of atmosphere but their own sense of identity too.  =)  The music ranges from lighthearted (To'ahl Castle) to atmospheric (Mystic Forest) to intimidating (Dangerous Keep) to epic and inspiring (Cloudy Ice Palace, my favorite song in the game), and they all work perfectly well (especially the intensifying final stage theme).  Even the bouncy and upbeat title theme is pleasant to listen to, and the (mid)boss themes aren't so shabby either.  The rest of the music is great, and I like hearing the short fanfare for when you successfully cleared each stage, not to mention that the soft cue for when you find a new magic spell is very comforting to hear.  =)  Even better, the music can be listened to in the sound test (yay!).


♫ Let it snow!  Let it snow!  Rain the icy flakes
down my enemiiiies! ♪

The sound effects are decent (the sound for Princess' sword too), but I feel it would be unwise to talk about this game without mentioning what I feel was its major selling point: the main character talks.  While nowadays voice acting is common place when it comes to video games, when it came to the Nintendo 16-bit games of the '90s  if there were to be any digitized dialogue put in it would only be used occasionally, once, or not at all; in Magical Pop'n Princess speaks frequently, which gives this game a sense of uniqueness (among the SFC/SNES library).  Princess was voiced by the late Japanese media personality and AV actress Ai Iijima, in her only contribution to video games (to the extent of my knowledge), and the multitude of lines she provided helps breathe life into this game, and personally if Princess didn't utter a single word in-game then this platformer would not have felt the same.

... Still a better platformer than anything Sonic-related in
the past decade and a half
Given the way she looks when she spinjumps

Iijima passed away in 2008 at the young age of thirty-six from pneumonia, which is sad to hear as from what I've looked up about her she seemed like a very nice person.  May the voice of the Princess rest in peace.  =(  When I say that the main character speaks throughout the game, I'm not kidding: she speaks when she attacks with her sword and when she takes damage, she says the magic spell aloud (mostly during desperation magic), she moans when she loses all her health, she cheers when she finds a vital item or a magic spell and when she defeated the end of stage boss, and even the title is spoken out loud by her ("Magicaru Pop'ūn"), and they all sound crystal clear.  =)

Now that is one big breath of fire

The six stages in Magical Pop'n are all layered in a way that certain turns you make will lead to different parts of that stage, but if it leads to a dead-end at least it's possible to backtrack; you never know if a particular door or path will lead to something good.  Occasionally you will stumble upon treasure chests, and depending on what's inside you will find a star for your star count, a heart that will augment your health capacity (health can regularly be replenished by candy and sweet food), and a life icon, but be careful because some of them might contain bombs (and when that's the case you should clear out from it within seconds).  Part of what adds to the challenge is that in this game you must find three life icons in order to gain a new life as opposed to one like in most games of the genre; and that I find quite clever.  =)

Spinning in action

Just like Princess' health is represented by hearts, the (mid)bosses' health is represented by, fittingly enough, skulls.  Polestar devised many ways of challenging you in this game; for example, on several occasions are doors that will have to be unlocked by the press of a switch, and later on in those instances you have an unspecified amount of time to reach that door and enter it before time runs out and you have to go through it again.  Once in awhile you'll have to avoid the beaming and fiery projectiles from the wall enemies, even as you must jump on (a series of) moving platforms.  Do you remember how you had to properly time your jumps on the disappearing/reappearing platforms in Mega Man?  Magical Pop'n has one moment like that during one stage, but don't worry, it's not as tasking here as it is in that aforementioned 8-bit platformer.

Penguins are my enemy in this game

Quite honestly as far as difficulty is concerned it's largely normal for the most part (especially when confronting enemies and bosses); what makes it worthy of challenge for me are the stages' sense of longevity.  The area layouts are complex, which gives you a solid chance at trial and error as far as navigation is concerned; the first time you play it you don't know where a path might lead you until you take it, and after the midboss fight you can only progress forward from there.  Don't worry, these stages are not as nightmarish as I make them sound, for they are fun and manageable to navigate (with plenty of challenge to boot); where it might feel overwhelming in terms of size (even after the first time) are the maze-like final two stages, especially since this platformer must be beaten in one sitting.  Spoilers: Magical Pop'n has to be beaten in one sitting; but it's not so bad since it can be beaten in roughly an hour or an hour and a half if you stick with it.  =)

Nearing the tale's end

It's too bad Magical Pop'n remained Japan-exclusive (officially speaking), but I do understand the reason for it: while it is possible to translate what little of the story dialogue there was during the beginning and ending, the voice would've remained the same regardless.  Voice acting doesn't come cheap, you know, as it is a very costly process, and I can't imagine the pint-sized heroine speaking in a language that is not Japanese.  That is one of the many reasons I consider Polestar's platformer to be very fun until the very end, as well as for the versatile control scheme, complex area layouts, and likable boatloads of anime charm.  Also, thank you, Polestar, for not adding a score on the HUD (who says all platformers need them?)!  =D

What a beautiful statue

Magical Pop'n is a very enjoyable and highly endearing platformer through and through, from the likably outgoing character Princess to its well-made structure to its varying ways of challenging you to the very fun lighthearted nature.  When I received the game this July I was excited, and because I was so invested in it and because I was willing to persevere I wound up beating it in less than twenty-four hours (give or take a few breaks from it when I didn't succeed).  Gamers all over often regard it as one of the best Nintendo 16-bit games ever made, namely Top 10 material, but is it really?  I don't know, Magical Pop'n is a very great game, there's no doubt about that, but as much as I like the game I don't think it's quite that high in terms of quality (for me it ranks more in my Top 30 than anything else); but then, in the long run it might depend on your personal taste and preference.  =)

Swinging on by

Do I recommend this game?  Absodamnlutely!  If you want to play a platformer with complex area layouts and a grand sense of fun and challenge then Magical Pop'n delivers in those regards.  True, it must be beaten in one sitting, but the ending will be very rewarding should you bypass all the obstacles and challenges thrown in your way.  With the original Super Famicart, from what I looked up, you'd be lucky if you stumbled across a copy that cost way less than $100; with the repro cart edition that has popped up in years past, that is now possible, and if you can afford it then I say go for it!  =)  I guarantee you'll have a very great time with it!

My Personal Score: 8.5/10

<( ^o^)^TO EACH THEIR OWN^(^o^ )>

P.S. Did I get any more repro carts after Magical Pop'n?  Yes, I have; the next one I got months later was Human Entertainment's The Firemen (my third repro cart); now does that game live up to the hype?  Stay tuned for my thoughts on it sometime in 2016.  I'm sorry to say that you might be disappointed as to what I have to say about that one.  =(

 

P.S. 2 Huh, all these years I've been pronouncing Konami's vertical scrolling cute'em on the Super Famicom wrong: it's not Pop'n TwinBee ("Pop'in TwinBee") it's Pop'n TwinBee ("Pop'ūn TwinBee").  And people say video games don't teach you anything.  XD

 

HAPPY 20th ANNIVESARY, Magical Pop'n!  ^(^o^)^

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I don't know about you, but this snowman doesn't look like one who wants to wish you a happy birthday.  Which reminds me, I should probably watch Rankin/Bass' Frosty the Snowman again which is... okay, I guess?  There's also Frosty's Winter Wonderland which is... ummm?  =/  Or how about Frosty Returns which itself is...... ummm?  =/  I haven't seen his crossover features with Rudolph, I wonder how they are like?

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Thank you for reading my review, my kind readers, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think!  Have a very Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!  =D