PlayStation 2

Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color

The yellow and red dog-like creature with the green antennas sticking out of the top of its head is called Beefy. It bounces up on the cobblestones that make up the arena’s ground and sends a shower of lighting bolts at the purple and green mass that looks something like a vampire bat with a baseball bat for a tail. Suddenly, the bat -- called Stanley for some strange reason -- flops back in defeat as the colors begin to fade right off of it. This is Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color and Beefy is a creature I designed and brought to life to do battle on my behalf. Sounds unusual for a PS2 game? It is and if you love to let your imagination run wild, like I do, you’ll love every second of it.

Runner-up in the IGNPS2 Best of E3 2003 awards for Most Innovative Game Design, Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color isn't devoid of creativity in the least. Formerly known as Galacta Meisaku Gekijou: Rakugaki Oukouku, this unusual effort from upstart developer Garakuta-Studio is one of the most unique pieces of software for the PlayStation 2 so far.

Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color is a lighthearted RPG-ish rock-paper-scissors-ey duel-o-rama featuring a slew of colorful pokemon-esque critters that battle it out in various arenas. But this game has a unique gimmick. One that, as far as I know, has never before been used in a videogame; you can create your own 3D combatants using a simplistic in-game Paint program. So the characters that you see onscreen, fighting and casting spells and such, are entirely your own creations. Although it must be said that unless you are extremely artistically inclined, your “doodles” will hardly consist of Picasso caliber works of art. Nonetheless, it’s a novel premise that is executed quite well, and the end result is a bond with your fighting designs that will push you to keep playing well after you’ve realized the overly-primitive structure of the game.

If nothing else, Agetec's Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color can be described as quirky. Magic Pengel is a one-of-a-kind title, partially because of its art direction, and partially because of its incredibly unique character-creation system. Whether or not you'll take to Magic Pengel will hinge largely on your tolerance for the game's simplistic fighting system and your appreciation of the game's bizarre, distinctly Japanese style.

Despite its flaws, the game’s actually pretty fun. It’s not too long, so you could feasibly rent it and beat it in a weekend if you put some good time into it.

As a result, the amount of fun players will get out of Magic Pengel is pretty much directly porportional to their creativity. Those looking for a great RPG need to look elsewhere, but those looking for something quirky and unique will probably find Magic Pengel to be at least worth a rental.

Here's a creative Pokemon-style game with an awesome draw-your-own-monsters concept at its core - but how long does it take for the color to wash out of this quest? Of all the cool video game ideas ever conceived, the concept at the center of Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color (formerly Color Quest, before an unfortunate legal issue forced a name change) easily ranks among the coolest. So what if the game built around that idea doesn't quite do it justice?

As its title is sure to tip off many people, Magic Pengel is an odd game ... er, half-game. As part game and part toy, the toy part greatly exceeds the somewhat tacked-on game part. While many aspects of it are excellent, the gameplay is flawed enough to occasionally frustrate and sometimes make Magic Pengel feel less like a game and more like a chore.

Maybe you think Pikachu would look better with some big tentacles. Perhaps you want to create a mighty dragon named Trogdor to burninate some villagers. Or maybe you just want a walking, dancing pair of butt cheeks.