Magical Drop 2
Magical Drop II is a puzzle game developed and published by Data East, originally released to arcades (Neo Geo hardware) on March 21, 1996 in Japan and May 1996 in North America (SNK published the North American arcade release). It was ported to Neo Geo AES (April 19, 1996), Neo Geo CD (May 24, 1996), Super Famicom (September 20, 1996), and Sega Saturn (September 27, 1996), all Japan-only for the home versions listed. Critics gave the original release average reviews at the time, though retrospective coverage has been more favorable, praising the game as addictive and fast-paced.
Availability: Nintendo Switch Online — Super Nintendo Entertainment System app (Nintendo Classics)
This is a systems/mechanics guide rather than a linear walkthrough — a fixed step-by-step route isn't the useful format for a action-puzzle-versus title.
Controls
The player controls a character stationed at the bottom of the screen who grabs and tosses colored balloons that descend from the top of the playfield. The Super Famicom version's playfield is six columns wide, versus seven columns in the arcade original, and it replaces the arcade's clown-cursor visual with a super-deformed version of the selected player character as the cursor.
Rules and Systems
The player grabs a balloon and can carry it across columns before tossing it into a column where it will match with two or more balloons of the same color stacked vertically; matching three or more clears them, and also pops any other adjacent balloons of the same color touching the match. After a clear, the remaining balloons above the gap fall (rise, functionally, since the stack moves toward the player) into the newly opened space, which can create further matches and build combos. Special balloons exist in various colors; matching one of these with a group of three or more of its color causes every balloon of that color currently on the board to disappear. Chain reactions — whether from a single drop or from multiple simultaneous groups clearing — cause the opponent's stack to descend/advance faster in versus play, applying competitive pressure. Unlike the original *Magical Drop*, normal drops and special drops can be matched together in Magical Drop II.
Modes and Characters
Ten characters are selectable, each named after a tarot card: The Fool, The Star, The Chariot, The Devil, The Magician, The High-Priestess, The Justice, The World, The Strength, and The Empress; each has a unique special balloon with a distinct effect when triggered. Puzzle Mode is a single-player campaign in which the player (playing as either the High-Priestess or the Devil, per available sources) battles a sequence of CPU opponents before a final confrontation with the Empress; the game grows progressively harder as it continues, introducing Ice Chunks and reducing the frequency of Crystals and Super Balloons. Versus (Vs. CPU) Mode lets the player choose any of the ten characters to battle the other characters, controlled by the CPU, with brief dialogue exchanges shown between fights. Single Mode is a solo score/endurance mode where the only opponent is time, and the game becomes progressively harder the longer the player survives. The original Japanese arcade version also had a "Hirameki Mode" of preset puzzle challenges; the English arcade localization removed a "Flash" mode, an "Expert" difficulty setting, and voice acting present in the Japanese version. The Super Famicom version added character dialogue in cutscenes and allows players to adjust character parameters, among other console-specific differences from the arcade original.
Practical Strategy
Because adjacent same-color balloons pop when any group of three or more of that color clears, deliberately stacking single balloons of a target color near an existing three-in-a-row (without triggering the clear early) to maximize simultaneous pops is a reasonable technique implied by the adjacency-pop rule, though no dedicated strategy guide explicitly confirming this as an "advanced technique" was found. Since chain reactions speed up the opponent's stack in versus play, prioritizing setups that generate multiple simultaneous group clears over single matches is likely the primary offensive technique, consistent with the stated chain-reaction mechanic.
Still confirming
- Whether Puzzle Mode is restricted specifically to the High-Priestess and Devil characters, or whether other characters can access it, was inconsistently described across the sources reviewed and not independently resolved.
- Individual special-balloon effects for each of the ten tarot-named characters were not itemized in the sources reviewed.
- Exact scoring values and Ice Chunk mechanics in the later stages of Puzzle Mode were not confirmed in detail.