Magic Carpet 2

Last updated
Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds
Magic Carpet 2 cover.png
European cover art
Developer(s) Bullfrog Productions
Publisher(s) Electronic Arts
Director(s) Alan Wright
Designer(s) Peter Molyneux
Programmer(s) Alan Wright
Artist(s) Eoin Rogan
Composer(s) Russell Shaw
Platform(s) MS-DOS
Release
  • EU: 1995
  • NA: September 8, 1996
Genre(s) Action
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds is a 1995 video game, the sequel to the Magic Carpet . It was developed by Bullfrog and published by Electronic Arts. It was re-released in 2013 on GOG.com with support for Windows and macOS.

Contents

Story

The apprentice's master, who died after unleashing his deadly spell, was being spied upon by the Netherworld's ruler, Vissiluth, who is now intent on conquering the world of the living. It's once again up to this apprentice to stop him, by battling this demon.

The NPC wizards are now considered to be Vissiluth's lackeys. They are all based in a city just before Vissiluth's seat of power. After the enemy wizards are vanquished, the apprentice takes an underground passage to reach Vissiluth's citadel. After the apprentice destroys the citadel, Vissiluth emerges and the two do battle. Upon emerging victorious, a volcano spews out mana in all different colours.

Gameplay

Magic Carpet 2 fixed many of the design complaints present in the first Magic Carpet. The basic concept of the game remains the same as Magic Carpet, with the player being able to build a castle, collect mana, destroy creatures for their mana and battle rival sorcerers.

It featured the addition of night-time levels, and underground levels, which not only helped alleviate the repetitiveness of the preceding game, but also accompanied the storyline progression, which was mapped out before each level. Underground levels, however, do not have rival wizards. There are also several secret entrances to reach hidden levels, where the player can gain more spells and experience.

Also unlike its predecessor, the game proceeded by completing various missions such as reaching checkpoints and destroying specific buildings/monsters, rather than just simple accumulation of mana.

The multiplayer mode supported both modem and local area network play. [1]

Development

A version for the Panasonic M2 was in the works, but it never released due to the system's cancellation. [2] [3]

Reception

A Next Generation critic assessed that despite the improvements to the interface, addition of level objectives, modifications to the game engine, and improved graphics, Magic Carpet 2 plays the same as the original Magic Carpet. Concluding that "if you loved the first Magic Carpet, this one is definitely for you", he gave it four out of five stars. [5] In 1996, GamesMaster rated the game 27th on its "Top 100 Games of All Time", one place below the original Magic Carpet. [8]

Related Research Articles

<i>Magic: The Gathering</i> Collectible card game

Magic: The Gathering is a tabletop and digital collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, Magic was the first trading card game and had approximately thirty-five million players as of December 2018, and over twenty billion Magic cards were produced in the period from 2008 to 2016, during which time it grew in popularity.

<i>Master of Magic</i> 1994 video game

Master of Magic is a single-player, fantasy turn-based 4X strategy game in which the player plays as a wizard attempting to dominate two linked worlds. From a small settlement, the player manages resources, builds cities and armies, and researches spells, growing an empire and fighting the other wizards.

<i>Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic</i> 2003 video game

Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic is a turn-based strategy video game in a fantasy setting. Shadow Magic is the third incarnation of the Age of Wonders series, and is a direct sequel to Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne. All three games were developed by Triumph Studios. The series is the spiritual successor to Master of Magic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duel Masters Trading Card Game</span>

The Duel Masters Trading Card Game is a two-player or two vs. two team collectible card game (CCG) jointly developed by Wizards of the Coast and Takara Tomy. The card game is part of the Duel Masters franchise.

<i>Mystic Towers</i> 1994 video game

Mystic Towers is an isometric platform game developed by Animation F/X, and published in 1994 by Manaccom domestically and Apogee Software internationally. Originally exclusive to MS-DOS compatible operating systems, it was re-released on Steam in 2015 with Microsoft Windows and Mac OS support. It stars Baron Baldric, an old wizard with a magic staff and an array of amusing mannerisms, who must quest through twelve towers and rid them of monsters. Mystic Towers is a sequel to Baron Baldric: A Grave Adventure, a platform game in which Baron Baldric battled an evil sorcerers ancestor.

<i>Chaos: The Battle of Wizards</i> 1985 video game

Chaos: The Battle of Wizards is a turn-based tactics video game released for the ZX Spectrum in 1985. It was written by Julian Gollop and originally published by Games Workshop. Based on Gollop's 1982 design for a board game / card game hybrid, Chaos received a positive reception and went on to influence various games, including Darwinia and King's Bounty, and spawned a sequel, Lords of Chaos, in 1990.

<i>Lords of Chaos</i> (video game) 1990 video game

Lords of Chaos is a turn-based tactics tactical role-playing game published by Blade Software in 1990. It is the sequel to Chaos and an ancestor of the popular X-COM series of games, also written by Julian Gollop. In Lords of Chaos each player controls a wizard who can cast various magic spells. The spells have various effects, for example summoning other creatures, or damaging opposing creatures and wizards. The game can be played against a computer-controlled opponent or by up to four human players.

<i>Magic Carpet</i> (video game) 1994 video game

Magic Carpet is a 3D flying video game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1994. Its graphics and gameplay were considered innovative and technically impressive at the time of its release.

The collectible card game Magic: The Gathering published seven expansion sets from 1993–1995, and one compilation set. These sets contained new cards that "expanded" on the base sets of Magic with their own mechanical theme and setting; these new cards could be played on their own, or mixed in with decks created from cards in the base sets. With Magic's runaway success, many of the printings of these early sets were too small to satisfy the rapidly growing fanbase. Cards from them became rare, hard to find, and expensive. It was not until Fallen Empires and Homelands that Wizards of the Coast was able to print enough cards to meet demand; additionally, Wizards of the Coast published Chronicles, a reprint set that helped fix many of the scarcity issues with the earliest sets.

Onslaught is a Magic: The Gathering expert-level block. It consists of the expansion sets Onslaught, Legions and Scourge. The block's main theme is creature types, and much of the game play concerns interactions between these "tribes". The story continues the saga of the Mirari from the previous block of expansion sets. Onslaught was the last block printed before the "modern" card face style was introduced.

<i>Magician</i> (video game) 1991 video game

Magician is a side-scrolling action role-playing game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was designed by Eurocom Entertainment Software and published by Taxan. There's a discrepancy of when the game was actually released. Eurocom's own website lists the release date as March 1990, but popular magazines of the era such as Nintendo Power, EGM and GamePro lists the game as being released around February-March 1991.

<i>Blood & Magic</i> 1996 video game

Blood & Magic is a real-time strategy video game released by Interplay Productions in 1996 which uses the Dungeons & Dragons license.

<i>Crusaders of Might and Magic</i> 1999 video game

Crusaders of Might and Magic is a third-person action/RPG video game developed and published by 3DO's Austin, Texas studio (PlayStation) and Redwood Shores studio (PC). Different versions of the game were released for both Microsoft Windows and the PlayStation. The protagonist Drake was voiced by veteran voice actor Kevin Conroy.

A character class is a fundamental part of the identity and nature of characters in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. A character's capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses are largely defined by their class; choosing a class is one of the first steps a player takes to create a Dungeons & Dragons player character. A character's class affects a character's available skills and abilities. A well-rounded party of characters requires a variety of abilities offered by the classes found within the game.

<i>Cadash</i> 1989 video game

Cadash is an action-adventure video game which combines elements of the platform game and role-playing video game genres. The game was originally an arcade video game released by Taito in 1989, then published for the TurboGrafx-16 in 1991 and the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1992. It is included in Taito Memories Volume 2 released for the PlayStation 2 in 2005 and the Xbox and Microsoft Windows versions of Taito Legends 2 released in 2007.

<i>Magic: The Gathering</i> (1997 video game) 1997 virtual card game

Magic: The Gathering is a video game published by MicroProse in March 1997 based on the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. It is often referred to as Shandalar after the plane of Shandalar, where the game takes place. The player must travel the land and fight random enemies to gain cards, and defeat five wizards representing the five colors. The player must prevent one color from gaining too much power, and defeat the planeswalker Arzakon, who has a deck of all five colors. Adventure and role-playing elements are present, including inventory, gold, towns, dungeons, random battles, and character progression in the form of new abilities and a higher life point total. An oversized version of Aswan Jaguar was included in the game box.

<i>Magic and Mayhem</i> 1998 video game

Magic & Mayhem is a fantasy/mythology-themed real-time strategy game designed by Julian Gollop and developed by Mythos Games. It was published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in late 1998, and by Bethesda soon after in 1999. Although the game received generally positive criticisms, it met a quiet public reception.

The rules of Magic: The Gathering were originally developed by the game's creator, Richard Garfield, and accompanied the first version of the game in 1993. The rules of Magic have been changed frequently over the years by the manufacturer, Wizards of the Coast, mostly in minor ways. However, major rules overhauls have also been done a few times.

<i>Magic Duels</i> 2015 video game

Magic Duels is a video game based on the popular collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. Magic Duels is a successor to Stainless Games' Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers and its annual sequels, released from 2009 through 2014. The free-to-play title was released on July 29, 2015, shortly following the physical release of the Magic Origins core set.

<i>Twinkle Tale</i> 1992 video game

Twinkle Tale is a run and gun video game developed by ZAP Corporation and published by Wonder Amusement Studio exclusively for the Sega Mega Drive in Japan on 24 July 1992. It was both the last project created by ZAP, as well as the only title to be released by Wonder Amusement Studio, which was a subsidiary of Japanese record label company Toyo Recording.

References

  1. "Get Wired with Online Games". GamePro . No. 90. IDG. March 1996. p. 28.
  2. "News - E3 '96: 3DO? - M2 Dream List". 3DO Magazine . No. 12. Paragon Publishing. July 1996. p. 4.
  3. "Preview - Coming Soon - M2". 3DO Magazine . No. 12. Paragon Publishing. July 1996. p. 34.
  4. Couper, Chris. "Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds Review". Allgame. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  5. 1 2 "Rugged". Next Generation . No. 13. Imagine Media. January 1996. p. 164.
  6. "Magic Carpet 2 Review". CD Player (in German). January 1996. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  7. Klett, Steve (December 1995). "Magic Carpet 2: Netherworlds". PC Games. Archived from the original on October 18, 1996. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  8. "Top 100 Games of All Time" (PDF). GamesMaster (44): 77. July 1996.