DESCRIPTION

Magical Drop II is a puzzle game that looks and plays somewhat similarly to Taito's puzzler Puzzle Bobble. The game has a singles mode in which players simply play against time, and a dual player mode in which players play against each other or the CPU to see who can stay alive the longest.

The game board consists of the player's character moving along the bottom edge of the screen and columns of balloons hanging from the top of the screen. The balloons are colored red, blue, green, or yellow, and at certain intervals that get shorter at higher levels a new row of balloons appears at the top of the board forcing the already existing balloons down. The goal of the game is to keep the balloons from reaching the bottom of the screen; if that happens the game is over.

To accomplish that task the player's character can pull down balloons from the columns and send them back up elsewhere. The character pulls all the balloons of one color from the column at once, and can pull down balloons from several different columns without sending the previous ones back up as long as they're all of the same color. When the character sends up balloons and creates a column of three or more same colored balloons all the balloons of that color attached horizontally or vertically to the column, as well as the column itself, pops. Any balloons that aren't attached to the block of balloons at the top of the screen move straight up and attach themselves. By repeatedly popping balloons players can keep the balloon block at bay. Occasionally balloons with special icons inside them appear. These balloons release their special power when they're popped, with effects such as making all the balloons of one color on the screen pop.

In versus mode the gameplay changes a little. In addition to keeping their balloons from reaching the bottom, players can actively force new balloon rows to appear on their opponent's board by scoring particularly large pops and combos. Players also get a choice of seven characters to play in versus mode. ~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide