Super Magnetic Neo for Sega Dreamcast

Released: July 31, 2000
Platform: Dreamcast
Publisher: Crave Entertainment
Developer: Genki
Genre: Platform

It's not for lack of a good effort, either. Super Magnetic Neo is actually a pretty good game. It's not easy to start up a new platformer franchise. In the 90s the genre was overdone, and a lot of it didn't translate well to 3D. Even today a lot of the "newer" franchises in the genre incorporate driving and shooting to enhance the game play.

Not Neo. He was born in 3D and the game was made specifically for the Sega Dreamcast. The visuals were bright and colorful. The character were large, and developer Genki threw in a lot of Japanese flavor that has been missing from the US market (and still is). The game looks a lot like a bright cartoon.

There's a story, though it's really not all that important to the game play. It involves a professor who invented Neo and Pinki, the cutesy evil baby villain, and her gang of baddies. All pretty typical wacky, strange, and wired Japanese fare.

In the game there are four themed worlds, each has four levels that are quite varied. Neo will be dashing through lush green levels like Sonic, skidding down snow gullies like Nights, running through caves dodging boulders, avoiding lava pits, and riding in mine carts like Indy, carefully platforming on tenuous ledges in the sky like Mario, and dashing around on a horse like Link. Each level is linear, moving forward, but some turn into 3D side scrolling action. As gamers have come to expect, each world is rounded out by a boss fight.

What makes the game unique is that Neo is superly magnetically charged. He can use positive or negative polarity to repel, or entrap enemies, grab on to other object, and repel himself throughout levels. This part is crucial. Using the wrong polarity at the wrong time will fucking get your ass dead.

If you like platformers and own a Dreamcast, then Super Magnetic Neo should be in your collection. It's not up to par with Sonic Adventure or Mario 64, but among other second tier platforming games, it's a bit above the rest.