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The Magic Obelisk
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Graphics & Sound:
When I think of the word "obelisk" I immediately flash to The Adventures of Asterix, where the diminutive Gaul's sidekick was named Obelix. Readers of the series know that Obelix's name was a play on "obelisk," because of the big man's penchant for carving these oddly shaped towers from stone, toting them around, and throwing them at any Roman brave or stupid enough to invade. The obelisks in The Magic Obelisk also dot a colorful, fantasy landscape, but they stay solidly planted in the ground. Instead of feisty Gauls, you'll find brave Wood Spirits and their compatriots, pitted against ghostly creatures that are more funny than scary. The Magic Obelisk has strong puzzle-game DNA, reminding us immediately of a scaled-back version of Zack and Wiki, more than anything else. The setting here is even simpler, with bite-sized challenges that grow in scope as you progress through the game. The idea of using light and shadow isn't new to gaming, but the usual implementation is sneaking in dimly lit places. The Magic Obelisk takes sunshine as its active puzzle element, throwing in time and enemies that patrol the shadows to up the ante.
The presentation is hampered by a static camera that will have you craning your neck at times to see around objects blocking your view. The decision not to allow levels to be rotated fully or partially is strange, but there have been limitations imposed on the developers because of the shadow-casting mechanic. In this static environment, you are limited to a few options for casting shadows, and this influences how you can set up puzzles. The downside is that you are often pulled too far back from the action, and can't see the interplay of shadows. We also weren't in love with a few of the design elements in the game, such as the ice blocks that make it hard to distinguish when an enemy is patrolling in or out of the darn thing. The incidental characters you run into during The Magic Obelisk are a funny bunch, and animated in a sort of super-deformed style that draws from games like Animal Crossing and a cut-paper style that goes all the way back to something like PaRappa The Rapper. Kids will enjoy watching the game, but its mechanics are a notch above what the younger kids will be able to handle. So, the ideal demographic is older kids or adults that can appreciate a heavy dose of "kawaii." |
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Gameplay:
Partnerships in puzzle games run the gamut from inspired to plain bad. The Magic Obelisk makes a good name for itself in building a partnership that will really stretch your imagination. The main character, Lukus, is who you will guide throughout the game. He's a Wood Spirit, which means he can exist in a boyish/elfin form while he stays in the shadow, but will revert to his true tree form if touched by sunlight. The idea of questing when you are allergic to sunlight sounds more like the setup to a vampire game, but The Magic Obelisk makes its mythology work, with lots of little snippets that tell the story of Lukus and his kind. As enticing as it may seem to adventure by shadow, this isn't Thief or something similar - you won't even be directly controlling Lukus, after all. The other main character you'll get to actually control is named Popo, a Light Spirit that accompanies Lukus. As a small ball of light, it becomes your job to create shadows for Lukus to traipse through. This is a somewhat drab premise, but The Magic Obelisk actually makes this an interesting experience.
The catch is that you'll need an obelisk to cast shadows, and each obelisk possesses special properties. There are also environmental obstacles, switches, and items to collect before you can escape to the next challenge. The pacing is decent, and you'll learn new skills along the way to master The Magic Obelisk. Popo doesn't do anything special other than shine his little light, but where and when and how he shines it is the point of the game. Certain towers will cast a heated shadow, while others make ice. One tower casts shadows that cause you to levitate, and there are even clock towers that advance the time while you rest in them; as time goes by the sun moves across the sky and changes the natural orientation of shadows... You'll find that most puzzles are tied to using a combination of shadows you create, with shadows that appear naturally in the level, all the while avoiding any enemies. The enemies only push you out of the shadow, which forces you to start over again at a checkpoint. The save system is level-by-level, and you'll find most puzzles very concise and each to pick up and put down. The replay value is limited, since there aren't special achievements or secondary challenges in these levels. You'll at least get your 500 points of value from The Magic Obelisk, plus the added benefit of playing something new. |
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Difficulty:
We griped about a few puzzles that seemed to be made more difficult because of camera issues, whether this was intentional or not. Moving Popo around and casting shadows is surprisingly unintuitive, considering that you hold the Wii-mote in classic, NES-mode and only have two buttons to fool with. The timing required to juggle multiple shadows points this out especially. The actual challenges in each level range from ridiculously simple to positively knotty. We didn't always get the learning curve, but it's clear that the developers were trying to introduce new gameplay mechanics gradually. Learning what each of the obelisks do is how things start, and you eventually get into combining them for multiple effects. Some kind of hint system would have been great, but nothing like that can be found here. The waypoints in some of the longer levels are handy, because you'll almost certainly do some trial-and-error learning. The attempt to pack lots of challenge into a small package was successful, but we would have liked a more gradual progression. The effective age for The Magic Obelisk is probably in the 10+ range, but there's no telling whether a precocious youngster with good spatial-temporal reasoning would rock out on this thing.
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Game Mechanics:
Simpler mechanics are hard to find, even when you compare The Magic Obelisk to some of the arcade classics for download on the Wii. One button push casts a shadow, and you get a chance to orient the shadow and find the ideal placement before pressing the (2) button again to set it. A set shadow will eventually expire, slowly drawing back to its source. You can manually pull the plug on a shadow, and move it into a new position, but the controls feel a bit clunky. Moving the shadow points out a missed opportunity to have the Nunchuk in action, where you would have had the analog stick. Instead, you only have the option to push up and down, moving the shadow in a clockwise or counterclockwise fashion. Moving up/down to rotate something is where you get back into unintuitive territory, as you might imagine. Learning to use the different obelisks doesn't require special controls, just a sense of when and why to cast special shadows. It's a bit strange, not being able to cast shadows from other objects, but there are a few puzzles where objects in the level become part of the path Lukus takes. You can, in addition to the shadow-casting mechanic, press the (1) button to summon Lukus to a point on the map, as long as he is in an adjacent shadowed area. This turned out to be a frustrating feature, because Lukus ignores you most of the time, or runs straight into enemies as you try to help him sneak past them.
The Magic Obelisk is a neat concept that could have been more polished in several areas. True cooperative gameplay, where you controlled both characters, would have been interesting. More flexibility in the camera would also have made for a more enjoyable play experience, but we can imagine the design team was concerned with creating a specific experience and needed to dictate some shadows. The controls and some of the ramp-up for learning the game's mechanics didn't work well for us, but it's probably as much about personal taste as it is about hard and fast rules. The biggest observation is that even though the visuals are cute, don't think this is a game that young kids will enjoy. It's fun for them to watch, but many of the puzzles are quite challenging. Fans of unique puzzle games like Zak and Wiki will enjoy The Magic Obelisk, and there's decent value here for the money. |
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-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock |
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