This week, Gamasutra's regular Critical Reception column, summing up the views of the video game press on one particular game, takes a look at one of the titles of the second wave of
Nintendo's recently branded 'Touch Generations' series, fiendish puzzler
Magnetica for the DS, developed by Japanese developer Mitchell and published by Nintendo.
As the column explains:
"In giving it a relatively low 50% rating, 1UP's Jeremy Parish explains his sentiments: "It's fairly fun, but it's not particularly deep -- nor is it especially compelling. The mark of a great puzzle game is that "one more time, dammit" feeling you get when your screen fills with blocks in Tetris, or when you just barely lose to your Super Puzzle Fighter II opponent."
"Polarium had it; Magnetica doesn't. The two games are polar opposites in many ways: where Polarium had shockingly minimalist graphics and an intricate, addictive design, Magnetica has garish visuals and a simplistic design that doesn't hold up well to repeated play.""
You can
read the full Gamasutra column for more, including the overall ranking for
Magnetica and more on the game's reception from consumer review sites GamesRadar and GameSpy (no registration required, please feel free to link to this column from external websites).
