This is another one of those games that I consider to be a perfect rental. What made it so perfect is that someone without any prior experience of the game can rent it, play it, and finish it in two or three days. Why spend $50 when you can spend $3? Before going further, I should point out that the game's publisher Jaleco was aware of the rental market and the potential damage it could do to their bottom-line. When they localized Magic John into the "awesomely bodacious" Totally Rad, they dropped the number of continues from unlimited to just three. However, they didn't even attempt to fix a point-farming exploit that allowed players to stock up on countless reserve lives. But hey! That's exactly what I like to see in a perfect rental!
Alright, so Totally Rad was a fine way to spend an otherwise uneventful weekend, but how does it fare today? Well, it fares fine, I suppose. Aicom's output was pretty consistent, with some stand-out products like Vice: Project Doom and Pulstar. This hop & shoot platformer lands somewhere in the middle. It plays exactly as well as it needs to. There isn't an "adjustment period" wherein players must account for momentum, a strange jumping arc, or other idiosyncrasies like being unable to turn & shoot while crouching. Within seconds of starting the first stage, you'll know exactly what's expected of you. John jogs at a decent pace, hops when the jump button is tapped, and leaps when it's pressed down. His shot travels the length of the screen and can be charged to fire a powerful blast that easily wipes out most enemies. However, he can't fire a charged shot in mid-air. That's clearly an idiosyncrasy. Sheesh! I thought I could at least finish this paragraph before outing myself as a dumb liar.
Now Jake (or John) is more than just a jumping and blasting kinda guy. He's an aspiring magician trained by the mighty great Pong. Upon starting the game for the first time, you'd do well to poke through the protag's list of spells, taking note of which will be most effective for any scenarios that occur in the future. Every spell has a purpose, though some will likely see a lot more usage than others. I believe the idea was to allow for multiple playstyles, giving at least some freshness to subsequent playthroughs. The first time around, you'll likely stick to just healing magic, since an extra two or three bars of health can go a very long way. Next time, you could try the transformations, all designed to make certain sections easier to handle.
In beast form, the hero trades his projectile away for a close-range attack and receives an invincible somersault for jumping through danger. The bird and fish forms are self-explanatory. None of them are required to finish the game, which is good since MP is pretty limited. There aren't any pickups, so you have to rely on checkpoints, new stages, or the next life to get a refill. Yep. Spending all that time farming a big stock of reserve lives really helps out here. One other thing, I lied again. There's at least one time where you'll need bird form to get out of a shallow pit. On the bright side, that form is great against the upcoming boss.
Really, the only spells I never had a use for were the ones that cleared the entire screen of enemies. Maybe they're secretly great for the boss battles, but I never bothered to try. Temporary invincibility and time-stop round out the list. They're merely okay. Only in a game like this would I consider a spell that's capable of stopping bosses "merely okay". It just goes to show how powerful the options are, when almost any one of them are capable enough to carry Jake through his tubular adventure.
The stages in Totally Rad (or Magic John) are packed with the usual assortment of fiends and traps. No bottomless pits though. Pretty rare for an NES platformer. Anyway, the pool of regular enemies is actually pretty shallow, so you'll be seeing a lot of repeats in spite of the game's short run-time. There are mid-bosses, but weaker versions will appear not long afterwards, further highlighting the shallowness. Normally, this wouldn't be a huge problem, since a number of great games have made do with very little. That really doesn't work here, I'm afraid. The stage layouts tend to leave enough room for you to take down adversity before they can become a threat. Claustrophobic encounters with baddies are few in number.
The bosses are visually impressive, but their patterns are easy to figure out. Also, unless you're going for a 1-life clear, you're liable to have a ton of resources on hand. I'd say the toughest fight was actually the mid-boss before the final. Its propensity for hopping around and firing spread-shots combined with the spiked ceiling resulted in a fierce battle that took a few tries. The final boss? Pfft. He's a joke. Jump the boomerangs and position yourself to avoid getting trapped by his cannon. That's all it takes.
Whether you're playing Totally Rad or Magic John, know that you're playing a perfect rental. This is functionally adequate game that's worth a couple of playthroughs. Beyond that, you'd probably have to attempt challenge runs like minimal magic or trying to clear everything with one life. Credit where its due, this game largely succeeds at its ambitions of delivering an action-platformer with a variety of powers. Sometimes when dealing with the NES library, meeting expectations is enough.
Hmm... Now that I think about it, "Magic John" sounds like an enchanted toilet.
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