Magical Drop (series)
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Magical Drop
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 Title screen of the arcade version of Magical Drop (known outside of Japan as Chain Reaction), the first game in the series. |
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| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Developer(s) | Data East, Russ Ltd. |
| Publisher(s) | Data East |
| Original release | 1995 |
Magical Drop (マジカルドロップ), sometimes referred to by native Japanese users as MagiDro (マジドロ), is a series of puzzle games, primarily for the Neo Geo and Super Famicom, developed by Data East. In 1995, Data East released a coin operated version of this game, called Chain Reaction. The latest major game in the series, Magical Drop III, was released in 1997. The games are notable for being extremely fast-paced. After Data East filed for bankruptcy and became defunct in 2003, G-mode bought and currently owns the intellectual rights to the Magical Drop franchise along with several other Data East franchises and titles.
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[edit] Gameplay
Magical Drop is played in a Tetris-style box; a "stack" of random colored bubbles descend from the top, and a player is defeated when a bubble hits the bottom. Bubbles can be picked up and dropped by the player's "clown" at the bottom, and are destroyed when three or more of the same color are put together on a single column. "Chains" are formed either when a single drop caused a chain reaction, or when more than one group of bubbles is destroyed in quick succession. The game is normally played with two players (one may be a computer opponent), and chains cause the opponent's stack to descend faster.
There are 24 characters, all but the Black Pierrot being named after a tarot card (with the Strength card covering two characters). Different characters have different attack patterns. The columns of the opponent's stack will descend at different rates relative to each other depending on the character chosen. This causes a disjunction of colors that may make it more difficult for the other player to clear their stack. For example, with the character Devil, all the columns will descend at the same rate, whereas with Sun, the middle columns will descend faster than the others.
The last games in the series released in the United States was Magical Drop Pocket for the Neo Geo Pocket Color in 1999 and Magical Drop for the Game Boy Color in 2000. While Data East declared bankruptcy in 2003, other publishers have re-released the PlayStation titles Magical Drop 3 + Wonderful and Magical Drop F. Magical Drop II and III are also available on the subscription service GameTap. In 2007, the first Magical Drop game was released in Japan on the Virtual Console for the Wii by G-mode. In 2009, versions of Magical Drop for the Android[1] and iPhone were released in May and September, respectively.
[edit] Games
The following is a list of games released in the series.
| Japanese Title | English Title | System | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| マジカルドロップ Magical Drop |
Chain Reaction | Arcade, Super Famicom, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, Game Boy Color | 1995 |
| マジカルドロップ2 Magical Drop 2 |
Magical Drop II | Arcade, Super Famicom, Sega Saturn, Neo Geo CD | 1996 |
| マジカルドロップ3 Magical Drop 3 |
Magical Drop III | Neo Geo, Sega Saturn, PlayStation | 1997 |
| マジカルドロップF・大冒険もラクじゃない! Magical Drop F - Daibouken Mo Rakujyanai! |
PlayStation | 1999 | |
| Magical Drop Touch | iPhone, Android | 2009 |
