Written By: JP Developers: CheeryMoya & Co. Platforms: PC, Mac and Linux Genre: Comedy Release Date: November 29, 2013 | Ah Magical Girls. For many an otaku, magical girls was their gateway drug into the anime and manga subspace. And, of course, that means it wasn't mine. My official entry point was none other than Trigun. The only time real experience I even have with anything related to magical girls is when Megas XLR spoofed Sailor Moon...which means today's task CAN be done and done well! Hey that intro worked out better than I thought: proof that Megas is often the answer to life's problems. From the people who brought your The Buried Moon, Left of Center, Night at the Hospital and other fine gaming products comes Magical Majorette Drummer Garnet: a fun satire of the magical girl genre for a game jam in late 2013. Many have enjoyed it's obvious nostalgic nods to a genre most of the team most likely grew up with (considering the mathematical averages), but that doesn't answer the question. And in 2014, that question rings louder than ever before; 'Is it good'? Let's start this year off right folks! B) Join me as we take a look at Magical Majorette Drummer Garnet Handsome Boy Blues SuperCaliFragilisticExpialidocious Knick Knack Paddywhack Give A Dog A John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt....or MMDGHBBSCFENNPGADAJJJS for short! |
Story
And that's your plot.
To be absolutely fair here the story isn't what you're coming to the dance for and this game is well aware of that. It's is more than happy to concern itself with jabbing at the various tropes and cliches that make up the genre and many of the jokes are pretty fun. Those are tied into the smaller jokes that pepper the dialogue which is the highlight here. The names of the attacks Peridot (the random bishonen evil doer) and Garnet especially, but also the small conversations with Garnet and her bird familiar are good for a chuckle. Ultimately the banter between all of the characters has a pretty good sense of timing and has great comedic promise if there are future installments.
Outside of that, the actual attempts to spoof the Magical Girl genre...just wasn't that funny.
Having some fun with the Magical Girl genre isn't new and, as I lamp-shaded at the start; it has been done successfully before. But the only way to do it well is to take the gloves off and walk a very fine line of comedy where you're not pulling punches, but at the same time not swinging for the kidneys. MMDG is played very, very safe to the point where the big jokes are just low-hanging fruit that have been riffed better ages ago. This becomes even more apparent when two-thirds of the game is basically a loop, but we'll get into that in the Gameplay section.
So while the promise of comedy is there, it is never really delivered on. And without any concrete story to help tether the audience to something more than a familiar joke: we just get a very familiar joke. That joke? Pretty boy wants to be a magical girl...yup. You can figure out the rest from there but with all of the potential and promise, you can pretty much see it all coming from a mile away. And again this could be the revered genre of everyone on the team, so anything that could be construed as cutting was taken out in post because it hit a little too close to home similar to how all of the girls in the Starswirl Academy were just so gosh-darn adorable in order to ensure wide Bony appeal.
That being said, if this is what an entire series is going to be built on; their are much better spoofs of the genre.
Presentation & Gameplay
Gameplay is...okay? The thing you have to realize about this game is that it is more of a spoof of the RPG and Shonen genres than the Magical Girl one. Earlier I alluded to the ridiculous attack names and they stack up pretty quick as Peridot and Garnet collide. On top of that the RPG-esque battle makes absolutely no sense as you do insane damage with little effect, so again it does a great job of spoofing the genre and I genuinely laughed at some of the attacks...the first time around. The battle is split into three sections that allows Garnet to weaken Pretty Boy's will to fight. However, the battles only progresses by asking Perdiot the correct question; otherwise you'll have to start all over again in what boils down to the visual novel version of a button-masher.
Because of the round-about way it was designed, the battle ends up taking up two-thirds of the game. And at that point the legitimately funny jokes at the start are repeated so much it becomes tedious. A skilled comedian knows when to move on or cut a joke short in order to ensure the best crowd reaction, and that is ultimately MMDG's biggest tripping point: there is no sense of when to stop. And because there isn't, by the game's end the fun idea just tries the patience of the audience.
This isn't something that can't be ironed out in future installments. However,more care needs to be given if these sorts of battles will be the staple of the series.
Replay Value
Overall
Final Score
5/10AVERAGE | + Good Banter Between Garnet and Peridot + Good Presentation - The Meta Jokes Wear Thin After Being Repeated Over and Over and Over - The Characters Feel Empty Without A Plot - And Over And Over And Over |