Supermagical is one of those games my sister insisted I play with her. We had a couple of weekend sessions where we’d play together and it was a lot of fun. The game itself is a variant of the match-3 orb-shooting genres. The cute graphics and sound make it entertaining, if not sometimes frustrating, to play.

The story/single player premise is you play as the youngest witch, who is cursed with being clumsy. In her attempt to show off to her warlock chaperones, she ends up opening the gates to the underworld where her seven sisters have been locked away. Her sisters represent the seven sins (e.g., Lust) and their return to the world hints at general chaos. They also capture the warlocks. In addition to releasing her sisters, she also releases hoards of minix, little orb-like creatures that must be defeated in a match-3 form of play.

Minix start on the right side of the screen and advance to the left where your character is standing. As you progress, you gain pets that provide a little bit of aid (typically at random) and warlocks that you rescue from your sisters have special powers that can make a hopeless situation seem more bearable.

There are three worlds that you make your way through. The levels get progressively harder and different types of minixes are introduced. Bombs, gray minixes that susceptible to bombs but not a type you can match-3 on, white minixes that are immune to bombs and you also cannot match-3 with, and so on. In addition to matching-3 to clear the board, if you “disconnect” a minix or a group from the base set of minix, they will flee. They are quite cowardly when not part of the “mothership.”

Levels vary in goals. Normal levels are to clear the board of all minixes. Timed levels allow you to clear as many minix as you can before they advance. Puzzle levels give you a predefined set of minixes and you have to choose (and aim carefully) your targets well. Bomb levels are boards that are largely composed of bomb-minixes. There are also “Manuel levels” which are small breaks from the minix-clearing. These levels are the memory card game in which you are presented with a set of cards face down. You can spend as much time picking up pairs of cards, but once you make a pair of skulls, it’s game over. If you’re incredibly unlucky, your first two choices can be skulls.

Upon completing each level, you have access to a shop. You can buy pets, warlock upgrades, candies (to change your minix color), ice cream (to undo your last move), and hats to name a few. Hats are an interesting addition to the game. For example, there is the Robin Hood hat, which extends the aiming arrow to help you land the minix where you want it. There’s a magnet hat that will auto-collect the coins that sometime drop. There’s also a mini-game to hunt the map for treasure bags, which contain a little bit of money.

I found the later levels became more tedious and less fun. The algorithm for selecting a minix color depends on a few factors, but primarily it will provide a color of a minix that is visible on the board. This can be frustrating when you’re constantly given a purple minix that is in the back of the board, but to reach it, you have to go through other colors (including white and gray). This encourages the use of candies (and spending money to get more candy), which I tended to keep to a minimum.

As a result, it took me a few weeks longer to actually finish the game. Mainly, I lost interest. But, having forgotten my 3DS at home while out recently, I finally finished it. I’ve heard there’s an alternate ending if you finish all of the levels with 3 stars (stars you earn are based on how fast you complete the board), but I won’t be aiming for that. I know there’s one level that’s pretty much impossible to get 3 stars in the time you’re given.

Nonetheless, it was a fun game to play. It was also fun to play with my sister in multiplayer mode. At least, we played in the same room, so we were able to communicate what to do and where to aim. There were the inevitable misses, which resulted in good humor. One thing we found is if you collect ice cream and chewing gum (clears the board when the minix reach you) in story/single player mode, then play in multiplayer, your ice cream and chewing gum count will get reset to 0. Something to keep in mind.