Review: Project Rub (NDS)

It's easy to dismiss Feel the Magic as a misjointed collection of clumsy minigames, and in fact, many already have done. It's possible, even, that you'll still be thinking this way once you've finally seen all there is to see and placed the game back on the shelves for the rest of its life, because it's not something you'll be going back to again and again once complete. So, if it's really just Wario Ware on acid, why the praise?

Because, simply, Feel the Magic is far more than the sum of its whacked-out parts; sure, the dating premise is totally contrived and entirely unnecessary (you could, really, be trying to accomplish anything throughout the main 'story' mode) but the games do seem to provoke a great sense of novelty, due in no small part to the clever use of the touch screen and the microphone.

The main mode is a crazy day in the life of the hero (the player) in which he falls in love with a girl, and enlists the help of local band (The Rub Rabbits) to win her heart. This, according to Sega, is best accomplished by swallowing fish, riding a unicycle along a narrow path and battling huge plants - you do have to hold her hand and bash pesky bees, though, so there's some consolidation to real life, at least in part.

What the story mode really does, though, is serve as the engine for dishing up one crazy minigame after another. We've already mentioned a few but the rest are best left to be discovered for yourself as you progress through the tale, such are the constant delights Sega have managed to come up with. Each section of the story is broken into little chunks and each slice sees a multiple-choice path as to which games to attempt; do well enough in a couple and you're on to the next stage. Between stages you'll be greeted with cut scenes - touch the screen in the appropriate spot during these and you'll be rewarded with a rabbit. Enough rabbits unlocks different costumes for the girl.

Aside from the story mode (which won't take much more than an afternoon to complete) there is the Memories mode, which allows you to replay any minigames you've completed so far, and sets increasing levels of difficulty for you to test yourself. Again, success in these brings stars which, yes, unlocks costumes too. There's sadly very little to do once you've completed the story mode and beaten all the minigames, although there are two extra difficulty levels for the main mode, and it's here that the game falls short. Despite the brilliance of a couple of the minigames, the lifespan of the title does suffer somewhat. High scores and a couple of multiplayer games would be helped massively here.

But don't let that dissuade you too much - Feel the Magic really is quite fantastic in parts and for a launch title, the graphics are impressive enough in that distinct '60s look; and the music, whilst not everyone's cup of tea, fits the mood and style of the game perfectly. We can't quite understand Famitsu's gushing reviews for the game (basically the highest scoring launch game), but we assume it'll appeal to the Japanese gamer's rather more quirky sensibilities. It's a love/hate thing, and we really think you'll have to try it for yourself.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Alex Carroll