Magic Boy

The Good
Magic Boy is the story of a young boy called Little Hewlett. He is trying to become a master wizard, but to do this, he must survive four lands, including Sand Land, Wet World, Plastic Place, and Future Zone, and destroy creatures that block his way. He must complete a number of levels before he enters a new land

Gameplay: When you start the game, you are presented with a map that allows you to select only one or two levels in each area. Once you have done that, the object is have Little Hewlett kill all creatures in the level and fill up all the yellow slots in the process, which are located in the status bar. To kill a creature, all Little Hewlett needs to do is to shoot it down, Shooting it down places them in a bag. Hewlett can then grab it to throw it off the screen and get stored in one of the slots. When Hewlett fills all the slots, he can proceed to the next level where more challenges await him. Be careful not to waste too much time in a level, otherwise the creature will re-appear and you have to knock him out again.

Once he gets through all four areas, he has to get through them again, but only this time will the lands get difficult to complete every time Hewlett completes a level. For example, when he is trying to complete a land again, creatures fire at him, unlike when he gets through the land the first time. There are also other hazards and obstacles that he will come across, such as water, spikes, ice, springs, and blocks labeled ? that appear and disappear every second.

There are some blocks marked with a ! that, when Little Hewlett hits, will cause either fruit to appear, that he can collect for points, or a power-up that will help Magic Boy in his quest. Some power-ups allow Hewlett to have more than one shot to deal with creatures, while others allow him to shoot up or down to knock out creatures in those directions. All power-ups will expire after a short time. If he’s lucky, shooting a power-up block will cause an “open book” to fall out. If Hewlett gets that book, then he will be transported to a bonus level, where the object is usually to get the most fruit before the music stops.

The status bar consists of the number of lives players one and two have. Both players start out with three lives, but they get more if they collect the letters E, X, T, R, and A, in no particular order. Between the life indicators are the slots. The number of these depends on how many creatures there are in the level. When you knock out an creature, the slots are then turned into the creature you knocked out.

Graphics: The graphics consist of marvellous structures, with a spectrum-like background behind. The game also has a superb cartoon animation, which are appropriate to the game.

Sound & Music: Speaking of music, the music while you play is quite repetitive, but at least you don’t get sick of listening to it. The sound effects, on the other hand, are quite good, and are sounds that you expect to hear from a cartoon show. One sound I like is that when you knock out a creature, it will meow like a cat while Magic Boy chucks it into a bag.

The Bad
Some levels are a bit challenging, so you have to figure out how to get past a few obstacles. Also, although the game has a password feature, it would have been great if you didn't go back to the beginning of the level when you die, but rather warp to the same spot,. To make matters worse, if you die, you have to defeat all the monsters again.

The Bottom Line
This game is excellent that you have to keep playing it over and over again. Magic Boy is available on the Amiga, and also on SNES. I don’t know if there’s a PC version.

Rating: ****