Are the first hours magical, or a sign of future boredom? We dig in.

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Nintendo has always been very picky with what games it chooses to bring to other territories. Such is the case with Magical Vacation; a game that many were hoping would eventually make it to the US, but unfortunately never did. Although, we missed out on Magical Vacation on the Game Boy Advance, we did manage to see its sequel of sorts land on our shores; Magical Starsign for the Nintendo DS.

Magical Starsign is what some would call an old style or traditional RPG, with beautiful 2D graphics and presentation. The design may be traditional, but the story is as far from the usual RPG fare as possible. Your game begins at the Will O’Wisp magical academy. After your teacher Miss Madeleine goes on a mysterious mission and doesn’t return, you set out to find out what happened, and reunite with your fellow classmates.

Before any of this starts, you must create your character. You choose if you want to be a male or a female lead. You also choose if you will use light or dark magic. This will factor in heavily during the course of the game. Light magic is as you may guess centers on healing, while dark magic is the exact opposite. We'll talk more about this aspect later.


Is it magical? So far it is.

As you progress through the game you will meet up with other students from the magical academy. Each student uses a specific pre-defined magic specialty; such as fire, water, earth, wood, and wind. As you can see, the magic is really standard, and not the high point of this game. In a somewhat of a Pokémon throwback, the various magic attacks will cancel each other out, so you better pay attention to those water attacks if your preference is water!

Up to this point, you are probably thinking that the design sounds like nothing new. But it is the implementation what makes Magical Starsign really unique. Remember earlier when you create a character you must choose which magic type they will use? Well, if you choose light, during the day you will be more powerful. So if you choose dark then during the nighttime will be the best time to wage an attack. Not only does Magical Starsign have a day to night timeline, but it also has a star chart that plays heavily into the design. At anytime you can check the star chart of the particular part of the galaxy you are currently located at. Each section of the Baklava Solar System contains five planets representing each magic type that was mentioned earlier. When a planet reaches a certain area in its orbit, the corresponding character magic will be vastly more powerful.

There is even a multiplayer aspect to Magical Starsign. Actually, there are two different ways to play with your friends. The first has players working together to fight through a level together. The other is far more interesting. You will hatch monsters from eggs, and their experience points will come from your friend’s character. Further the more people you have to interact with your creature, the more experience it will gain.

Magical Starsign so far is an amazing Nintendo DS title. It brings together a classic sensibility, with a fresh sense of creativity. Stay tuned as we prepare ourselves for the final verdict.

-- Stephen Smith