Magic Girl

alpha5099 · Post by **alpha5099** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:26 am

I didn't want to derail LoneSage's thread: http://forum.shmups.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=24756

Thanks to Sega-16's staggeringly comprehensive list, I've been exposed to several interesting Genesis shmups, some that had meh reputations and others I had never heard of.

I had seen mention of Magic Girl before, but never took it seriously. Some super-rare unlicensed game, and it seemed like no one cared for it. After reading the synopsis on Sega-16 and eyeing some screenshots, I decided to check it. And I was quite impressed.

Very simple twitch gameplay. The enemies are the same in every level, all that seems to change are the backgrounds and bosses. Lots of bullets, more than I think I've seen in any Genesis games.

I can only assume the actual game costs an arm and a leg, it just has to be super rare. Probably not worth hunting for a real copy, but it's certainly a blast to fire up in an emulator.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

TVG · Post by **TVG** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:34 am

yes! one of the best genesis games, along with X-dazedly ray and action 52 in 1.

its up there with bermuda triangle by snk as one of the best shmups ever done.

(die, you)

alpha5099 · Post by **alpha5099** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:38 am

The vagrant wrote:yes! one of the best genesis games, along with X-dazedly ray and action 52 in 1.

its up there with bermuda triangle by snk as one of the best shmups ever done.

(die, you)

I'm ... not kidding. I'm liking Magic Girl.

TVG · Post by **TVG** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:46 am

that was the last thing id expect someone to say, i tought everything about it was hateable, and i mean everything.
oh well, whatever floats your boat.

alpha5099 · Post by **alpha5099** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:52 am

The vagrant wrote:
that was the last thing id expect someone to say, i tought everything about it was hateable, and i mean everything.
oh well, whatever floats your boat.

What about it is so wretchedly bad? I mean, it's nothing stupendous, but I'm surprised it's considered to be one of the worst shmups on the Genesis.

It does seem like its universally reviled. That guy on Sega-16 seems to be the only positive opinion of it I can find.

TVG · Post by **TVG** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:59 am

nothing's wrong with it, other than being a big pile of shit i guess.
seriously the worst shmup i ever played, and one of the worst games period.
i dont mean to offend your tastes however, im just saying what i think about this "game"

overdrive · Post by **overdrive** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 1:37 am

I own a Macintosh with OS9.....meaning the only emulator I really can use is DeGen, which doesn't have the best compatiibility. With Magic Girl, the backgrounds don't come through (only leaving you with a plain gray surface which makes you think you're playing a blah NES game until the boss comes). Not the sort of thing that gives a great initial impression.

As for the game, it's not the kind I hate, but it is the sort I don't really like. I don't have the greatest of reflexes, so I prefer the ones that are more deliberate (I really dislike manic shmups). For me, it's not bad to be assaulted from all angles if your weaponry is always capable of handling those attacks — but in Magic Girl, I didn't feel that was the case.

Just not my personal kind of game, but if you like the manic style, I can see why you'd like it, as it's as intense and psychotically manic as any on the Genesis.

alpha5099 · Post by **alpha5099** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 3:06 am

Did the game randomly freeze during gameplay when anyone else played it, or is this an issue with emulation? If it's a problem with the actual game, then yes, that's a pretty fucking major strike against it.

I still stand by my initial opinion though. Hell, it's kind of fun to be the only person in the world who likes a game.

EDIT:

PS - Mac Power!

Melf · Post by **Melf** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 3:19 am

Glad you liked the article!

I really like it, as it kind of reminds me of Keio Flying Squadron. It's quirky and colorful and never tries to take itself too seriously, which can easily fool you. I went in thinking it was a cute, fuzzy little romp and promptly got my ass kicked...bad.

Fight the hate! Magic Girl is a fun game.

BTW: I never had any problems with the game freezing or anything. Played like butta.

alpha5099 · Post by **alpha5099** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 3:37 am

So, Melf, you are the great Ken Horowitz? I was literally considering writing you a thank you letter for exposing me to some games I probably never would have given a chance. Not just Magic Girl, I also really dig Fire Mustang. Plus, what a great site, very cool stuff. Sega.

I also wanted to contact you to be sure that you're synopsis of Magic Girl wasn't intended to be ironic and I had missed the joke. It was nice knowing I had a kindred spirit somewhere out there, but I was definitely a little paranoid.

But I've fired up the emulator several times this evening, and I keep playing Magic Girl, and everytime, it's a blast. I have found some things to gripe about, but nothing I'd consider a deal breaker. I wish the character was slower, as it makes it really hard to effectively dodge. The lifebar is definitely there to counteract this; lifebars are almost always implemented to compensate for flaws that really should be ironed out. And I truly hate the second boss, it seems impossible to not take major damage when his ring of spikey balls expands. Some more variety in enemies would be nice.

But all in all, not too shabby.

overdrive · Post by **overdrive** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 4:04 am

It never froze for me. My emulator just couldn't handle the backgrounds for some reason. DeGen is just a weird one......it can handle Thunder Force IV and Eliminate Down with ease, but it horribly botches up simpler games like this.

Personally, I love my Mac.....I just need to eventually upgrade from my iMAC to an eMAC to get the OS X and the greater power. It's rare to find emulators that still make upgrades to anything less than OS X AND with a lot of systems (MAME, NES, Gen....), I've found that none of the OS 9 emus are perfect. I've downloaded a lot of arcade and Gen Roms that didn't work at all on my emulators AND with the NES, a few don't work on iNES or RockNES (Just Breed -- strategy RPG), some work poorly or not at all (Dragon Warrior IV) and some only work on one (shmups Crisis Force and Gradius II only work on RockNES).

Ah, well.....it's a hard-knock life....

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 4:25 am

GOOOOOOO... Curse! I know how you feel alpha, i picked up Curse from someone on the Sale thread for a few bucks and i really like it... although i'm sure at this point you will say you hate Magic Girl to prevent association with me.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 4:36 am

I really like Magic Girl as well, although few others on here seem to.

overdrive · Post by **overdrive** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 4:39 am

Personally, I didn't hate Curse.....I did feel it was pretty mediocre with no elements I hadn't seen done better before, but definitely not one of the worst shmups ever as some have said.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 4:55 am

I love Curse as well; very well done and addictive hori, IMO. And VERY cheap too!

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 5:31 am

I thought Magic Girl was long, boring, horribly animated, and incredibly, incredibly monotonous. Seriously, the stages made be drowsy. Comparable in quality to crappy Earth Defense I'd say.

Nothing against Curse except the poor hit detection. The box looks a lot cooler than the actual game though...

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 8:01 am

I am one of those who really dislike Magic Girl. The background graphics are horribly repetitive, but I couldn't care less about that. But fighting the same enemies that pour in in what feels like random formations gets old really quickly. The game gets incredibly easy once you obtain the homing weapon, but with every other weapon it's rather difficult. Talk about balancing the extra weapons. Worst of all: All levels feel exactly the same. There's no difficulty curve whatsoever, just an endless stream of random enemies. (I know they are technically not really randomly picked, but they feel that way because of the total absence of level design in the game.)

To finally say something nice about the game: I do like some of the cute bosses, which are not quite bad.

Oh, and everyone who likes Curse must be out of his mind. Curse would be a bad game if it ran flawlessly, but with all the slowdown, frameskipping and flicker going on it's simply horrible. Not to mention the awful level design.

I would play a round of X-Dazedly Ray anytime over either Magic Girl or Curse. And that says something.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 8:28 am

I wasn't impressed by Magic Girl. The patterns felt rather unspiried and the animation is jerky. I'll stick with games that have much better patterns like the Twinbee series or Parodius for my cute 'em up fix.

TVG · Post by **TVG** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 2:57 am

i just played, or should i say endured, magic girl a bit more, even went to level 3 without falling asleep, and that's a feat.
now i know opinions are like assholes and all that stuff, but let's be honest, if you like magic girl, there's something wrong with you.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 3:24 am

The vagrant wrote:i let's be honest, if you like magic girl, there's something wrong with you.

QFT.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 3:28 am

Magic Girl. Magic Girl. Twitchy? Yes. Good? Not really. Honestly though, my main gripe with the game was the framerate. Seriously...it made my head hurt.

TVG · Post by **TVG** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 4:31 am

god awful framerate?
boring, bland levels made of random waves of ennemies throwing random shit at you (galaga did that better)?
insanely ugly graphics?
cheezy, wanna be dramatic intro made with MS paint?
garbage unbalanced weapons?
sound that makes you want to cut your ears off?
bosses with shitty patterns, either mindlessly easy or just undodgeable?
overal shitness x1000?

magic girl has it all, and more.

i wouldn't say that the game is twitchy...seizure inducing is more like it.

imagine you popped in action 52, you wouldn't be surpsed to find magic girl insinde, it's so bad it would belong fine.

and if that's not enough, the dirty feeling you get from playing this, which comes from the fact that this game was obviously catered to dirty otakus, is nice if you like guilt.

now it's all fun and games, but do you people realise some poor japanese dude paid full price for this back in the day?
i should tie you to a chair and force you to play thunderforce 3 (or anything half decent) until your eyes bleed.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 5:46 pm

So, how much does Magic Girl usually go for? Too bad so many Mega Drive games cost a bundle-at least on Ebay, but I have yet to find a good online store that carries Mega Drive games.

segasonicfan · Post by **segasonicfan** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:21 am

I absolutely love it and it's my all-time favorite unlicensed game. Through some miracle I managed to trade for a copy off someone who found it on the Brazilian black market...lol.

I think it might be the rarest MD game ever...

-Segasonicfan

Fighter17 · Post by **Fighter17** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 9:58 am

The game is on the same suckage level as X-Deadly Ray, Master Of Weapon and Curse. Fuck those games, I could spend my money on something better.