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Magnetica is not a rip-off. The 1998 copyright on the game's title screen (next to the 2006 one, of course) will assure you that Mitchell Corporation didn't look at Zuma, Luxor, and Tumblebugs (among many other cheap or free 'net games) and decide to cash in. No, Magnetica is a spiritual sequel to the original spheres-in-a-track puzzle game, Mitchell's own Puzz Loop, released in arcades in 1998. That said, if this isn't just a clone, as Tetris was often victim of in the 90s, much should be expected from Magnetica. It should have something special, or something extra, to show the copy-cats why this version is worth $35 instead of a $20 online knock-off. Yet Magnetica fails to deliver. The stylus control is fun, but the game is nothing different from what you, your parents, grandparents, or any other member of the "Touch Generations" haven't played before at Yahoo! Games. visuals Puzz Loop tread exotic grounds in its earlier releases, using ancient Egyptian style or kid-friendly haunted castles for decoration. In Magnetica, Mitchell has decided to match the game's futuristic name with sleek sci-fi vibes, washing the visuals in gray steel surfaces accented with minimal rainbow trails that match the marbles' colors. Nary a human nor animal is to be found in the game's design, ensuring the game has a vanilla, non-intrusive feel that's also somewhat cold. While there are subtle design variations of beveled edges, non-moving gears, and various tracks for the marbles to roll along, Magnetica's 2D visuals blur together as much as the gameplay does. The simplicity of the designs ensures no distractions get in the way of tracking the marbles, but perhaps a little more variety would have been welcome, if even to challenge the gamer's concentration. The marbles, which look like solid colored paperweights with twitching starbursts in them, never change in design or appear to be rolling, making Magnetica look much more Polarium than Meteos. Sadly, there's more art direction and personality in any of the Internet copy-cats. audio If futuristically-styled graphics seemed obvious for a game named "Magnetica," then surely some catchy, poppy electronica music would have fit as well. Instead, a weird, doctor's office-like jazz/techno hybrid bops along to the gameplay. Marbles clack together just as you'd expect smacking glass spheres to sound, and pop when color-matched. The threatening dead end of every level's track-- an inexplicably fragile metal sphere hovering over a pit-- crackles with electricity. Yet that's it-- a few boppy tracks and some neat digitized sound effects. Much like the visuals, the audio is as inoffensive as it is bland. Neil Voss, composer of Tetrisphere and The New Tetris's incredible soundtracks, where are you when we need you? gameplay Magnetica's trump card over its predecessors and imitators is touch screen control. Pushing the DS's buttons or D-pad will do nothing: Magnetica is strictly stylus-based, and, aside from the annoying double-clicking required to navigate menus (perhaps a nod to the PC-based rip-offs?), flicking marbles is intuitive, fun, and responsive to the speed the stylus is moved. Steering and shooting spheres with a mouse now seems so antiquated. While there are puzzle, quest, challenge, and multiplayer modes, the objective is pretty much identical no matter what: a steadily moving chain of marbles advances toward a pit, and gamers must flick single marbles from a fixed launcher at said chain. If two or more like-colored, adjacent marbles are struck by the fired marble, the entire batch of marbles disappears with a pop. Otherwise, the marble is inserted into the chain, lengthening and pushing it closer to the pit. If popped marbles create a gap in the marble chain, and if the facing ends of this gap are like-colored marbles, the marbles will "magnetically" attract, snapping the chain back together and pulling it away from the pit. With some skill or chance, marbles that magnetize together may begin a chain of color-matched popping combos, erasing entire chunks of the chain all at once. If a single marble reaches the pit at the end of the track, the game ends. Challenge mode offers the above in an endless fashion with more and more colors to manage until the player is overwhelmed. Quest mode is a series of 99 increasingly tricky, unique track levels, with occasional boss and bonus levels that challenge a player's stylus flicking skill. The most variety in Magnetica is naturally found in Quest mode, largely thanks to the track layouts, which sometimes feature shifting track paths, multiple launchers, or even more than one track, each with its own advancing marble chain. A few power-ups help the cause: a rainbow marble will clear all marbles on the screen of one color, one clock "marble" will slow the chain's advancement if struck, and another clock "marble" will temporarily halt the marble chain's movement. Puzzle is the only gameplay mode to provide non-advancing marbles, but the trade-off is all marbles sitting in the track must be eliminated by using all of a specifically colored set of marbles. Multiplayer proceeds like Challenge or Quest, except that making combos sends your opponent environmental hazards or useless steel balls that can't be easily removed. At first this all seems like a lot to do, but the problem is Magnetica still feels bland, especially after several or lengthy sessions. That's not to say Tetris DS, Meteos, or even Puyo Pop is significantly more complicated, but Magnetica lacks the variety-- be it visually, aurally, or gameplay-wise-- to make it superior to the other stellar puzzlers already released on DS. multiplayer As mentioned above, wireless, single card, two-player versus multiplayer is possible with Magnetica. Each gamer is given his or her track and advancing marble chain. Racking up impressive combos assails opponents with obstacles and hindrances, such as non-matchable marbles, a cloud that must be blown away by blowing on the mic, and black holes that yank marbles away. The best way to measure how the other player is doing is to look at his stack of marbles, visually represented on the top screen. Otherwise, you'll have to rely on the curses and gloating of your fellow player to get the most satisfaction from pairing up. overall I've seen my mom playing Tumblebugs too often to know that Magnetica is a perfect fit for the DS's "Touch Generations" software line-up. It's easy to pick up and play, yet just as easy to put away and forget about. As a title sitting at the pricey end of DS software, the bland presentation and few gameplay modes do not justify the $34.99 price tag, especially when knock-offs that are at least more visually inspired are available for fifteen bucks less. If Magnetica were released at the more reasonable $19.99 price the popular Brain Training titles were, it'd be easier to recommend.
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