Super Magnetic Neo
Throughout September, I had the chance to cover the Teslagrad series, courtesy of Rain Games. While the first game was a bit rough around the edges, Teslagrad 2 expanded its original concepts and improved them. Both games featured magnetism as a core element, specifically the usage of north and south poles to repel and attract the protagonists to otherwise inaccessible locations. While playing Teslagrad 2, the various puzzles felt nostalgic to me as this wasn’t the first experience I’ve had with “magnets” in a platformer. There was one niche game that was a Sega Dreamcast exclusive which attempted to do the very same over two decades ago. Super Magnetic Neo is the game that we’ll be taking a look at today and see if it holds up over twenty years later.
Released in 2000, Super Magnetic Neo was developed by Genki, the very same developers behind the Tokyo Xtreme Racer series. Genki developed several titles outside of the racing game genre, with Jade Cocoon being one of their more notable projects. Super Magnetic Neo serves as an outlier, perhaps due to its exclusivity and niche audience on an already niche console. The Sega Dreamcast was no stranger to hidden gems and Neo certainly had the charm of a children’s platformer.
The story involves the nefarious “Pinki Gang,” featuring the leader, Pinki, and her two henchmen Yasu and Gasu. Neo, our titular hero, is activated by the Professor in order to save Pao Pao Amusement Park, which in turn saves the world for some reason. It’s revealed early on that it’s the professor’s favorite vacation spot and Neo has to ensure that the park isn’t taken over by the bad guys.
If I mentioned that Shockman’s plot was as nonsensical as a “children’s Saturday morning cartoon,” Super Magnetic Neo certainly takes the cake. It’s important to mention that it takes several cues from other 3D platformers at the time as well. Beginning with the Jungle world, Neo must travel through the Ancient, Cowboy, and finally Future worlds in order to thwart Pinki’s plans. Each world consists of four levels and a boss room at the end, for a total of sixteen levels and four boss fights.
The objective is to reach the end of the stage with a static behind-the-back camera all the while collecting crystals—Pinki coins, and Wumpa fru–I mean, Zenni coins. Yeah, it’s no mistake that Crash Bandicoot was a huge influence in Super Magnetic Neo in terms of enemy placements, level aesthetics, and even within its gimmicks. There are levels where Neo rides a mine cart on rails for example and several where he rides on a wooden mechanical horse. The latter gave me flashbacks of Crash 3 Warped, specifically the stages with Coco Bandicoot and her tiger, Pura.
What is unique to this game is the magnetic system as mentioned earlier. Color-coded based on the Sega Dreamcast controller, the North pole represents the B button while the South pole represents the A button, blue and red respectively. Opposites attract and similar poles repel, which means using the same color on a colored pad will propel Neo forward.
This is his main form of travel, however, there are pulleys that Neo will attract himself to if you use the opposite pole. A blue-colored pulley would mean that Neo would need to attract with red, for example. Switches are also opened this way as well and for the hard-to-reach areas, attraction to an out-of-reach platform of a different color will magnetize Neo to places he wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise.
Super Magnetic Neo has a challenge mode accessible from the beginning that consists of a hundred puzzle-solving levels. These are also used in bonus stage minigames at the end of each level in which players can attain 1UP extra life tokens. I highly recommend attempting the challenge mode as the game does an intentional job of not telling the player what to do in certain scenarios.
While not a difficult game by today’s standards, critics at the time complained that the game was “too hard” because it wasn’t holding their hands. The first level and the Challenge mode serve as an adequate tutorial although this isn’t the gripe I have with this game. Neo’s movements are far too slippery that even when I jump, I barely miss the gap and I’d frustratingly lose more lives than I should. The player has to prematurely jump before reaching the edge or else they will not have enough momentum to slip. It’s a momentum-based platformer in that the faster Neo travels, the farther he will propel from magnetized platforms. They even gave him a dash from the beginning that helps the cause, but once players get the hang of it, players will be flying through levels in no time.
While Super Magnetic Neo hadn’t aged well at all, it was thanks to this game that I was shown that platformers were more than just “running and jumping.” Crash Bandicoot 4 introduced several masks that altered the gameplay to levels that require the player to think outside the box.
Both Teslagrad titles were frustrating at times, but they also forced me to think in a way the game didn’t expect me to handle otherwise impossible scenarios. Super Magnetic Neo may not get a remaster or much notice anytime soon as Genki isn’t doing much as a developer these days. However, fans of unique platforms and a challenge will find themselves attracted to an otherwise polarizing experience.
Super Magnetic Neo was released on the Sega Dreamcast.