Hocus Pocus

Fans of "searching" games, rejoice! Fans of "searching" game and magic, rejoice even more! Magic Academy combines the two concepts into a very well made, very enjoyable little game that will you keep you occupied for hours. At first, I thought the game was simply ripping off Harry Potter. It's not uncommon for games to "borrow" elements from major franchises in an attempt to cash in on its popularity. However, the more I played the game, the more I begun to question my initial assumption. In fact, I think its entirely possible the this product may be parodying the Harry Potter property. I may be misinterpreting what it's doing, but if it is indeed poking fun at it, than my hat goes off to them!

Eagle Eye

I've played several games of this type, but this one really takes the cake in terms of difficulty. Never before have I strained my eyes so much while hunting for objects. That's not a complaint, mind you. A lot of these type of puzzlers can be way too easy and the lenient difficulty ends up sucking all of the fun out of the game. So it's refreshing to have to put so much effort into finding something as silly as an escaped mouse.

One of the best things that Magic Academy has going for is it the amount of variation in the gameplay. While most of it revolves around locating objects, it's covered in more than a few different ways. Some levels will present you with a standard list of objects to find; other levels will show you outlines of the objects instead, forcing you to hunt by shape, which can be a lot harder than it sounds.

One level that I came upon was a "spot the differences" puzzle. I was given a split screen and everywhere I would point my pointer on one screen, a green reticule would sort of "shadow" it on the opposite. The control system worked very well and while I was still pouring my eyes of the screen in the same manner, it was an entirely different method of searching.

Some levels will require you to find several instances of the same object, such as escaped mice or lost keys. While these are minor changes from the standard format, they're still welcome changes.

Finally, in one of the later levels, I was given a picture that was seperated into a grid, and I had to rotate each square until it matched up and formed a bigger picture.

That's a lot of variety in one simple concept, and it really serves to make this product one of the best of its kind.

A Missing Sister

The storylines that are found in computer games are oftentimes terrible and obvious attempts to string together the gameplay. That's not to say that there aren't good stories to be found. The story in Magic Academy falls somewhere in the middle. It's not terrible, but it's not going to blow your socks off, either. It revolves around your quest to find your missing sister and it will take you all over the school, where you'll meet all kinds of faculty members.

Worth Picking Up

If you're a fan of this type of gameplay, than this one is definitely worth picking up. And if you're not a fan, this just might change your mind!