Any Magical Drop fans on here?

[wasilewski]

I recently downloaded the game Magical Drop II for Nintendo Switch and I love it! It makes a change from playing shmups a lot of the time.

I'm wondering if anyone else here is a fan of the Magical Drop series and if you have any tips for me? I suck pretty at this game!

[BulletMagnet]

I do enjoy the games (III is the one I've played the most of), but I am similarly terrible at them, so I'm useless when it comes to tips. I will note that the MD games are really fast-paced, which tends to overwhelm me a bit, so I tend to lean towards similar but somewhat slower titles, like Money Puzzle Exchanger and (my personal favorite) Landmaker; I'd be curious to know if you'd dig those.

[Xyga]

A cab, MDIII, a group of intoxicated friends for an improvised tournament = insanity.
Seriously once I thought we would destroy the panel.
I don't like playing alone much...

[soprano1]

I do enjoy the games (III is the one I've played the most of), but I am similarly terrible at them, so I'm useless when it comes to tips. I will note that the MD games are really fast-paced, which tends to overwhelm me a bit, so I tend to lean towards similar but somewhat slower titles, like Money Puzzle Exchanger and (my personal favorite) Landmaker; I'd be curious to know if you'd dig those.

Speaking of puzzle games, do you have archives of your articles on the matter from Destructoid? They seem to be gone, and I would enjoy reading through them again.

[guigui]

I'm also quite bad at Magical Drop, there must have been something I dont really get in the play system. But I did enjoy MDIII on the Sega Saturn, very fast gameplay indeed.
I must say I had even more fun with Baku Baku Animal though, maybe because I could get the lady to play with me on this one.

[BulletMagnet]

Speaking of puzzle games, do you have archives of your articles on the matter from Destructoid? They seem to be gone, and I would enjoy reading through them again.

Huh, weirdly, the old c-blog is still there (though the formatting is a mess), but some of the articles have apparently been taken down because they have "something not allowed" in them someplace. The puzzle series is linked in the sidebar (including the "Tossology" section that contains Exchanger and Landmaker), so hopefully you can still glean something from there...heck, the fact that you're even asking about it convinces me that more people read that blog now that it's been dead for years than when I was actively updating it.

[Bloodreign]

I'm not good at them, but I do love me some Magical Drop (especially 3, have three different versions of it in the collection), as well as some Puyo Puyo and Konami's Taisen Puzzle Dama's, and Taito's puzzlers, like Puzzle Bobble, Cleopatra Fortune, and the sort of puzzle games, Pop N Pop and Puchi Carat.

This thread reminds me I need to unlock characters in the PS1 Magical Drop 3 Wonderful Plus One game (only MD3 has unlockables, though I think World is unlocked in MD1), the One being the original arcade version, and not that charmless crap originally released on PS1/Saturn, and one more character in MD 3 on the Saturn version.

[Xyga]

One irritating thing regarding MDIII is all the people who play a romcart/emulation running the overseas version that has most of the voices gone and a few irritating ones in spanish instead, like all female characters shout VAMOS! VAMOS! VAMOS!
I refuse to play until someone sets the region to JP.

[soprano1]

One irritating thing regarding MDIII is all the people who play a romcart/emulation running the overseas version that has most of the voices gone and a few irritating ones in spanish instead, like all female characters shout VAMOS! VAMOS! VAMOS!
I refuse to play until someone sets the region to JP.

Doesn't that happen with NeoGeo Bomberman too? I think you can change the region it loads by going on the game's specific settings and changing the bios to JP or US. It's in EU by default.
EDIT: i tested it out, things don't change. I gave the history.dat a read, and it seems that US and EU got pretty neutered in terms of content from the JP version, not just the limited voices. Shame.

[soprano1]

Speaking of puzzle games, do you have archives of your articles on the matter from Destructoid? They seem to be gone, and I would enjoy reading through them again.

Huh, weirdly, the old c-blog is still there (though the formatting is a mess), but some of the articles have apparently been taken down because they have "something not allowed" in them someplace. The puzzle series is linked in the sidebar (including the "Tossology" section that contains Exchanger and Landmaker), so hopefully you can still glean something from there...heck, the fact that you're even asking about it convinces me that more people read that blog now that it's been dead for years than when I was actively updating it.

Oh, I found some cool games there when I first read it, and this thread reminded me of it. Too bad Destructoid fucked it up.

[GaijinPunch]

I always wound up breaking a controller at some point when playing these so gave up.

[Sumez]

somewhat slower titles, like Money Puzzle Exchanger

Wait what?

I personally prefer Money Puzzle Exchanger to Magical Drop, too. (it's a clone, but IMO better than the original). You need to be super fast to stand a fighting chance in that game, though. I've had some insane battles with good players. The classic American MVS cabs are not good for this, all the joystick-tapping will ruin your arm :3 A loose Japanese stick with a long throw is definitely prefered.

[wasilewski]

I do enjoy the games (III is the one I've played the most of), but I am similarly terrible at them, so I'm useless when it comes to tips. I will note that the MD games are really fast-paced, which tends to overwhelm me a bit, so I tend to lean towards similar but somewhat slower titles, like Money Puzzle Exchanger and (my personal favorite) Landmaker; I'd be curious to know if you'd dig those.

I haven't played Money Puzzle Exchanger in years, I completely forgot about that title! I really like it too and can remember a local arcade having the machine in the late 1990s and it was only 20p a game at that time. I haven't heard of Landmaker so I need to check that out.

It seems that MD III is very popular, I haven't played it either so I need to try it also!

There has to be some kind of a system to building up the balls on MD - I've watched a few Japanese players on Youtube and had to slow the videos down so I could try and figure out what they were doing. They definitely have a system it seems. Their thinking might be a little too fast for me though.

It would be cool if the MD games were released with online play. It is true that they are more fun when playing with friends.

[BulletMagnet]

I personally prefer Money Puzzle Exchanger to Magical Drop, too. (it's a clone, but IMO better than the original). You need to be super fast to stand a fighting chance in that game, though.

You may well be right, but I always found myself having to slow down a bit more in Exchanger because in Drop it's just your eye matching up like colors, as in most puzzlers; in Exchanger you have to do a bit of simple math as well, because certain "matches" need different numbers of coins to work. Then again, maybe my statement says more about my math skills than it does about the game, heh.

[BrianC]

One irritating thing regarding MDIII is all the people who play a romcart/emulation running the overseas version that has most of the voices gone and a few irritating ones in spanish instead, like all female characters shout VAMOS! VAMOS! VAMOS!
I refuse to play until someone sets the region to JP.

Doesn't that happen with NeoGeo Bomberman too? I think you can change the region it loads by going on the game's specific settings and changing the bios to JP or US. It's in EU by default.
EDIT: i tested it out, things don't change. I gave the history.dat a read, and it seems that US and EU got pretty neutered in terms of content from the JP version, not just the limited voices. Shame.

If I remember correctly, MD2 is also missing some content in the US verison. Good thing the arcade archives version on PS4 has both versions.

[Bloodreign]

One irritating thing regarding MDIII is all the people who play a romcart/emulation running the overseas version that has most of the voices gone and a few irritating ones in spanish instead, like all female characters shout VAMOS! VAMOS! VAMOS!
I refuse to play until someone sets the region to JP.

That's why I have the PS1 and Saturn Japanese versions, because the Data East collection on the Wii used the English version, and it irritates me that so much was axed out.

[bigbadboaz]

So am I reading correctly that III is the consensus best here (as it should be)?

[BrianC]

So am I reading correctly that III is the consensus best here (as it should be)?

I'm not sure which I like better, but I remember reading that some preferred two over three. I also read that the Black Pierrot boss fight is impossible to beat in 3 without using a continue.

[Jeneki]

The reason people frown on the Black Pierrot fight is because it openly and unapologetically cheats by teleporting across the screen instead of moving normally.

Magical Drop III pretty much has a dedicated slot in my MVS cab and sees multiplayer action when I have friends over. It seems to be preferred over Puzzle Bobble in my group, which I always thought was the better known game.

[wasilewski]

I personally prefer Money Puzzle Exchanger to Magical Drop, too. (it's a clone, but IMO better than the original). You need to be super fast to stand a fighting chance in that game, though.

You may well be right, but I always found myself having to slow down a bit more in Exchanger because in Drop it's just your eye matching up like colors, as in most puzzlers; in Exchanger you have to do a bit of simple math as well, because certain "matches" need different numbers of coins to work. Then again, maybe my statement says more about my math skills than it does about the game, heh.

I agree with you on this - my math skills are terrible and, after playing Money Puzzle Exchanger again, I realised how much I suck at it. MD is more simple and I can relax and enjoy matching up the colours.

[BrianC]

The reason people frown on the Black Pierrot fight is because it openly and unapologetically cheats by teleporting across the screen instead of moving normally.

That's probably true, as well, but I remember seeing the quota running out in videos when the Black Pierrot fight is first reached in MD3.

[Despatche]

I thought all the MD fans renounced the series when MDV happened and killed all their hype?

[Davey]

MDIII is great, but Black Pierrot does kind of ruin the single player experience. I'm guessing the best strategy for beating him is to intentionally keep your score low enough to dodge him. Thrilling!

Noteworthy video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIoRKIEuRsQ

Back when I played on GGPO (or tried to - it wasn't a popular game on there), I could beat basically everybody on there, although a lot of people didn't really know what they were doing. I was lucky enough to play one session with that guy, and I think our first game was close, then he presumably thought "oh shit, this guy actually knows how to play," then he actually started trying and crushed me repeatedly. It was a blast.

I was really hoping MDV would bring us to the promised land of a vibrant online MDIII community. Instead it sucked.

EDIT:
As for Money Puzzle Exchanger, it's definitely a slower game for mere mortals, but I vaguely recall a video from several years ago of a top Japanese player, and it's pretty damn fast.

[Sumez]

Maybe I'm just not familiar enough with Magical Drop (I only have the second game, but like it well enough), but I don't understand what makes MPE a slower game?

You may well be right, but I always found myself having to slow down a bit more in Exchanger because in Drop it's just your eye matching up like colors, as in most puzzlers; in Exchanger you have to do a bit of simple math as well, because certain "matches" need different numbers of coins to work. Then again, maybe my statement says more about my math skills than it does about the game, heh.

I agree with you on this - my math skills are terrible and, after playing Money Puzzle Exchanger again, I realised how much I suck at it. MD is more simple and I can relax and enjoy matching up the colours.

I'm not really sure where the math comes in, since the game does the "exchanging" for you You just gotta match colors/shapes, same as Magical Drop, and all you need to know is that if there's a 1 on the coin, you'll need five or more of them, and if there's a 5 on the coin, you'll only need two

[BulletMagnet]

Heh, we might just approach this stuff differently, but I find MD easier to play solely "on reaction" (though my reactions aren't nealy fast enough to be remotely competitive): grab color, shoot at same color, done. With Exchanger I always need just an extra second for my brain to process "wait, I need five of this one", not to mention predict where the "combined" coin will appear; it's not a huge delay, but at least for me it's not the sort of thing I can just crack my knuckles and rapid-fire the same way I can in MD. I'm sure others, including yourself, have much less of an issue with the extra "layer" to Exchanger than I do, but speaking only for myself I always need a bit more time to put anything together in MPE.

[Sumez]

That's a fair stance - I think that extra "layer" is probably why I prefer MPE to MD in the first place. I also prefer TGM2 to TGM3 because it requires more puzzle solving.

[Xyga]

yeah MD has so little puzzle in it, it is close to being an oddball/anomaly in the genre classification

[Sonic R]

I’ve played the Magical Drop games a bit.. found them enjoyable... but it’s neen a long time since I played them...
but
I very much enjoy Money Puzzle Exchanger and it’s one of my most played games on my AES.. I like the fast pace and it is addictive... much more fun to play against someone who is competitive!