I predict that Feel the Magic will be the sleeper-hit of the Nintendo DS launch. The version I played was painfully short, but it left me wanting much, much more. If you like Wario Ware or any other bizarre Japanese game, you’ll pick up on the appeal of this title immediately.

Feel the Magic is controlled only with the touch screen and occasionally the microphone. The game is set up as a collection of mini-games, loosely linked by a story of unrequited love and hilarious cinema scenes. One of the distinctive features of Wario Ware is the pace set up by its music and elevator presentation. Feel the Magic has its own unique style, especially in how it sets up each mini-game’s premise. The story is mostly told in static images, which pop up one by one until four scenes are filling the screens (two per screen). Each image is wackier than the first one. The story makes no sense and seems to revel in that fact, as one absurd task after another is set up through the most implausible of circumstances. The overall effect is charming and fresh, especially with the game’s silhouetted art style.

The mini-games are longer and more complicated than Wario Ware’s “micro-games”, but they’re still pretty simple. The now-famous regurgitation game has you using the stylus to push goldfish out of the main character’s stomach. It’s pretty damn funny to watch him vomit each one as you push it out and up to the top screen. Each mini-game has to be completed a few times before you can move on, and it gets harder each time. With the goldfish game, the character starts to get backwash, which appears as a wave that sends all the fish down towards his intestines. If a fish escapes through the lower exit, you will fail the game.

Other games I played had me blowing out candles by literally blowing on the system (the microphone picks up the intensity) and carefully picking off scorpions from the love interest’s body. Then there was a boss game, which was set up as a bull fight. This game was disappointingly simple; all you have to do is manically tap the bull as it charges towards the screen. It takes several dozen taps to finish him off, so even though he eventually starts moving from side to side, this mini-game is not only easy but repetitive.

Other than the so-so boss, Feel the Magic cracked me up. It’s much fresher than the remakes that constitute most of the DS launch titles, so if you’re looking for something completely original and a game that makes good use of the DS features (not just tacked-on touch menus), this one is worth a look.