 When it comes to 16-bit games that never left Japan, you won't find much better than Magical Pop-In on any platform. It's an action platformer that calls to mind everything from Super Metroid to Rocket Knight Adventures to even Willow the Arcade game. The developer is a company named Polestar, it's hard to find any info on them, and it's the only game they developed for the Super Famicom. But Magical Pop-In has the same high-quality feel to it that you might get from a Konami or Capcom game, just, you know, from the 90s. And when I say high-quality, I mean every aspect, from the pixel art and the soundtrack to the level design and the feel of the controls. You play as the princess of Toa'al, out to recover the Mystic Legend, not to be confused with Mystic Quest Legend, which was stolen by the evil mage Zayasu. So yeah, the story isn't all that important here, but there is a translation patch available. You travel back and forth through six long stages, unlocking new magic abilities which enable you to backtrack and unlock new portions of each level, recalling games like Demon's Crest and the aforementioned Super Metroid, but more the latter, since this game cuts a much quicker pace and doesn't require that much backtracking. It's also very easy to flip between all your abilities, which helps just use the L&R buttons, no menu screen or anything, which I really appreciate. There's six spells you can obtain, and they're all unique and all serve a purpose. Nothing's there just for the sake of being there. There's your default attack, plus a handy grappling hook, a fire attack, an ice attack, a spinning attack, and some good old-fashioned bombs. Your magic meter is represented in stars, which you can find pretty much anywhere. I rarely came close to running out as I played this one. Even better, each spell has a bigger, more powerful secondary attack that costs 10 stars. The number of stars each normal spell costs is represented beneath the spell icon up top. You can also increase your health capacity by finding extra hearts and chests, usually in hidden areas. The princess's standard attacks are nothing to slouch at either, since she can slide and do a downroad and upward thrust. So as you can see, Magical Poppin is one of those action platformers that's like setting you loose in a room full of toys. There's so much stuff you can do in different ways you can do it. But a game like this is only going to be as good as the level design and structure it places you into. Because after all, what good are all these fun and exciting abilities if there's not inappropriate place to use them. And that's where Magical Poppin stands out. The game structure and level design is perfectly balanced here, not just in terms of difficulty, but in giving you tons of stuff to do. There's branching paths here, which enable you to approach this game in multiple ways. Do you want to sprint through it as fast as you can, or do you want to unlock everything and experience the entire game? Magical Poppin lets you do it either way. I also appreciate how well the difficulty is balanced here. Sometimes when you're overpowered to the gills like this, the game can either feel too easy, or it'll resort to cheap tactics like one hit deaths when you do so much as touch the side of a spike. I wouldn't call Magical Poppin difficult, but it's not easy either, especially the last level. But like I said, if you want it to be more difficult, you can control that by choosing if whether or not you want to upgrade your health, and by what paths you want to take. The visuals and music have to be commended. I know the stage settings are the usual stuff you'd expect, like a forest, a fire stage, an ice stage, but everything here looks great and unlike any other game on the system. The princess sprite in particular is vibrant and full of life. The music fits the game nicely, and I gotta point out that this has some of the best boss music ever. There are voice samples here, voiced by the late Aie Ijima, for any time the princess takes damage or casts a spell, and that may annoy some people since this game usually takes a while to complete, but it didn't bother me too much. I do have to point out a couple flaws in this one, first and foremost being that there's no map in this game, which can be kind of frustrating for a game predicated on exploration. For me personally, this really only became an issue once I got to the last stage, but hey, if I can manage, so can you. There's also no saves or passwords here, and this game usually takes a few hours to complete, so when you sit down to play this one, be prepared to play it for a while. There are at least unlimited continues. One other surprising thing I have to point out is that there is some big time slowdown that shows up in the final level, so that's disappointing. When I last mentioned Magical Poppin on this channel, it was part of my 13 best games to never leave Japan video from a couple years ago, and since then I've only gotten to enjoy this game more. I love wide open games like this that not only give you a ton of options and different paths, but everything has a purpose, and everything is accessible and easy to use. Magical Poppin is just really well made from start to finish. Highest recommendation for this one.