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Final Fight: Double Impact has just been released for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 by Capcom, and most reviews I have read seem to be focusing on the titular game in the package — and rightly so — because Magic Sword is bat-shit insane. However, I believe I should take a wild stab at trying to describe this "game" in some sort of comprehendible manner.
This is not going to be an average review. I find the game itself to be nearly indescribable, and after playing it you only end up feeling mentally and physically exhausted (though the latter is only felt in your thumbs and your loins). Any video of the game has a chance to break your hold on sanity like some Lovecraftian horror. Screenshots are akin to the visage of Medusa, and should only be viewed through a reflective surface.
Keep in mind, I have only played this game in Co-Op, so my experience of this insanity has been doubled. I also think it's the only way to play this game.
I believe a proper review of this game can only be done in analogy, because a direct description has the possibility of shorting out any electronic device used to read it. So without further ado, this is how I feel about Magic Sword.
Magic Sword is like playing Dungeons & Dragons while on speed. It's like watching Clash of the TItans in 3-D, fast forwarded, and in the front row. Every moment is like getting drunk and staring at a collage of fantasy novel covers.
I feel like the director of Magic Sword spent the whole development period huddled in a corner and commanding the hummingbird programmers to "Make it faster…Always faster…"
You know the trippy end sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey? It is just like that, except throw in a few thousand orcs, ninjas, and dragons flying at the screen.
Magic Sword is like playing Smash TV, but side-scrolling. It is like playing a bullet-hell shooter that only allows you to move back and fourth. It's akin to playing Burnout except that you cannot move left or right, but you can jump and shoot rainbow colored lasers from the hood of your car. It is like running through a crowded mall with knives taped to your naked body while juggling chainsaws.
The partner mechanic in the game is like having an extremely helpful food processor without a lid strapped to your back.
If you connected five Super Nintendo systems together and had them process as many random sprites on a monitor as they possibly could, it may look like any given moment in Magic Sword. If you had ten television screens, each of them playing a different Castlevania game and found some insane way to layer them on top of one another, it would probably end up looking (and playing) like Magic Sword. The only way to make a D-Pad and two buttons cause this much chaos at once is to connect them to the world's nuclear arsenal.
In a nutshell, you buy Final Fight and you get the equivalent of Conan the Barbarian firing lightning and hate from his nipples at a beautiful, flaming unicorn with guns jabbing out of every orifice.
If that sounds awesome, give Capcom ten dollars.