*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Magical Drop Translation Guide Version 1.0 *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~Legal Information: Please Read ~*~ This Translation Guide is Copyright (c) 2002 Alyson Carey . All rights reserved. Reproduction of this guide is allowed by permission only. Any modification is strictly prohibited. "Magical Drop" is copyright (c) 1995 Data East Corporation. ~*~ Introduction ~*~ This is my first attempt at a game guide wich is why I picked a fairly small project. I noticed a lack of information about this adorable game on the net so I figured it was a perfect place to start. Magical Drop was created by Data East. The version I am covering is for the SNES console. To the best of my knowledge there have been 3 Magical Drop games released to date on various platforms including a Game Boy Color and NeoGeo Pocket version. I believe the GB and NGP versions are as of yet the only domesticated copies. If I'm wrong about this, feel free to let me know. It is a puzzle game similar to Bubble Bobble 2. You pick characters who are based on Tarot cards and have to match up colored balloons. Please note that my translations of this game are my interpritations of the language. I'm sure there are other possible substitutes for the words that I made. If you can think of something better feel free to let me know, but I did try to keep the translation as close to the original Japanese version as possible. ~*~ The Story ~*~ I am still in the process of translating the SNES version of the story, but so far it is pretty much the same as the Game Boy and Neo Geo Pocket English versions. The Magical Drop is a precious and mystical item hidden somewhere in the world these strange Tarot card people live in. The drop has the power to grant wishes. It will either let someone live happily ever after, or help them get revenge on their enimy. The characters in the game are competing against eachother in a mad race to find the magical drop. ~*~ How To Play ~*~ The object of the game is simple. Match 3 or more of the same colored balloons to make them dissapear. Use the directional pad to move your character left and right. The 'B' button will pick up a balloon. 'A' will throw it back into play. You can carry as many balloons of the same color as you wish and move them around the board. You play a character based on a Tarot card. There are 6 to choose from: The Fool, The Star, The Chariot, The Devil, The Magician, and The Priestess. Each character has a special balloon that will cause various effects when used (some do have more then 1 special, The Star for example). Special balloons come in various colors and when matched with a group of 3 or more of its color, it causes all balloons of that color to dissapear. The gameplay is pretty easy to get a hang of and in my opinion doesn't really require much more explaining then that. With that said, on to the translation. ~*~ Opening Menu ~*~ After hitting the Start button a menu with 6 options will come up. We will call this the main menu from now on. It reads in order from top to bottom: Select Mode Story Mode Versus Mode Single Mode Puzzle Mode Options To get to Select mode you must hit up and press A. This mode lets you pick the difficulty level of Story mode. If you choose story alone the dificulty will be set to normal (3) by default. The Select mode menu is almost entirely in english so no worries here. The difficulty (game level) can be set from 1 to 5. 1 being easy 5 being hardest. In Story mode you will battle it out against the computer following a short story. Versus mode is two player mode. That should be self explanitory. Single mode is a lot like Tetris. You play alone with only the clock against you. The longer you play the harder it gets. The level you are at determines how fast the lines fall. Puzzle mode will let you select between 30 different balloon puzzles. You have a certain number of moves to clear the board. Last on the list is Options. This should need no explanation as to what you do here. ~*~ Options Menu ~*~ When you select Options a new screen will appear. You can customize your game here by using the up and down keys along with the 'A' button. The text here reads as: Sound Stereo Mono Balloon Button Pick up Drop Background Light Dark Exit Most of this should be easy to figure out even without knowing what it says. On a personal note I find the game easier to play with the marble type balloons selected, I have no idea why though. ~*~ Puzzle Mode ~*~ Selecting Puzzle mode will lead you to the character select screen, followed by the puzzle select screen. Most of this is fairly straightforward as well. There are bubbles numbered 1 through 30, moving the curser over these will show you the different puzzles you can select from. Below that it tells you how many moves you have in order to clear the board. (In # Moves) Finally, the last line tells us we can quit (redo) the puzzle we have started by hitting Select. If you do this it will bring up another menu, one that you will see throughout the game. It sports 2 options, Continue on the top and Quit on the bottom. ~*~ Single Mode ~*~ Single, Story, and VS. mode pretty much play the same. Choose your character and jump right into the game (with the exception of story wich gives you..well.. a story before you start play). The menu on the right hand side of the playing board reads as follows: High Score Score Chain Largest Chain Time A chain is when, after clearing a set of colored balloons, it causes another set to clear as well. IE some balloons fall on some others because of the set you just cleared. ~*~ Versus Mode ~*~ After selecting your characters you will be brought to the handicap menu. It looks like your characters standing on a set of stairs. Here you can choose the handicap from 1(easy) to 5 (hard) for each player. In the center of the two stairs you will get a prompt this is asking you how many rounds you want to play. You can choose 1,3 or 5 rounds. ~*~ Story Mode ~*~ Nothing new here actually. The playing board has no text on it so nothing to worry about. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ I hope this guide has helped you to better understand and enjoy this wonderful game. Please don't hesitate to send me any questions or comments, Diddlina@comcast.net. Any contributions to this guide will be credited.