I am sure that some of
you may wander things like: “Magics
Quest II? What about Magics Quest 1?
Was it better? Does the story connect somehow?”. Well, in order
to answer your questions, there was no Magics Quest 1!
The creators thought
of doing number
2 first and leaving an opening for a prequel! Even though it seems
like a good idea, I am totally against it since, firstly, there may
never be a Magics Quest 1 depending on
the sale of number II. Secondly, I think it is a marketing tool to
trick people who purchase this
game into demanding a prequel.

Story – Atmosphere
In the game you take the role of a beautiful girl named Magic who was magically
transferred from the sunny beach where she was probably on holiday, to a
strange magical island and is probably looking for the way back. On her quest
she will pass through many challenges and will see some mysterious creatures
blocking or helping her way. You must have noticed the extentive use of the
word “probably” in the text. Well, this is because the gamer
has absolutelly no idea what is going on or what is the story of the game!
There is not an introduction in the beginning of the game and even as it
goes on, you still have no main storyline to follow. You just guess that
since you were teleported to another place, the sensible thing to do is to
go back to where you came from. Overally, the storyline is of the weakest
ever in history of adventure games. The atmosphere of the game is really
lacking. With the exception of the territory of the magical pool, not even
once did I feel that I was in another magical world.

Story: C-
Atmosphere: D

Graphics – Sound

The graphics are the strong point of this game. All areas are beatifully
designed and utilize a lot of colors and shadows. But the repetition
of many areas can really drive you to scream. In particular, a maze
in the caverns drove me insane because there were so many screens
that were exactly the same! Magic is also nicely drawn, with nice
movement and a red bikini. The animation is also great for a mobile
phone game.

As for the sound, it is
rarely used. A few sound effects now and then, a few second melodies
and that’s all. In an age that
our mobile phone speakers play polyphonic music, Magixost showed
us that she paid no attention at all to the musical themes of the
game. Even the adventure games of 20 years ago that used the pc internal
speaker, had better music.

Graphics: B+
Sound: D-

Gameplay – Compatibility
That may seem unimportant for a mobile phone game but as it turned out, it
isn’t. Magixoft made a really nice gameplay system that has hints of
how point and click adventures were brought to consoles. You control all
movements with the arrows of the phone. When you want to interact with something,
you press the main centric button which opens a cross menu with 5 options.
Up is “Look”, left is “Talk”, down is “Use”,
right is “Item Use” and in the center is the inventory. I found
the system a bit difficult to use in the beginning but after a while I got
used to it and was fine. The 10 save slots are more than enough and the save/load
system works wonderfully.

My only comment on the
gameplay is the movement of Magic. When you press an arrow in order
to go somewhere, she moves and she will never stop unless you
press the arrow again. This can get extremelly frustrating at some point
you are forced to pixel hunt and you character always gets away
from the point
you want to stop her.

My biggest problem in
the game was not the sound, neither the strange movement of Magic.
It was that Magixoft created a mobile phone game that works in
very very few phones! With the exception of northern Europe, the rest of
the world
uses Nokia phones less and less. Only one out of 20 people have a phone
compatible with the game in the UK and even less are the numbers
in Greece were it is
one out of 35! I had much trouble finding a friend to lend me his phone
in order to play the game. I really don’t understand why they made it like
this, but it really shrinks their market.

Gameplay: B
Compatibility: C-

Conclusion
Kudos to Magixoft for bringing adventure games to cellphones. Unfortunately
this move is hindered by a lot of mistakes that need a lot of improvement.
I wish Magixoft the best and hope their next game will be improved in the
areas noted.

(Note: This game was reviewed and rated as a mobile phone game and
not as a pc one. Therefor the standards used are different.)

Final Grade: D+
(find out more about our
grading system)