Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®


Magical Drop III Magical Drop III - Japanese Logo - Katakana / Kanji

Magical Drop III - Cabinet - Video Game Marquee

Description

A fast-paced puzzle game where the object is to match three or more pieces of the same color and design.

Magical Drop III was produced by Nihon Bussan/AV Japan in 1997.

Nihon Bussan/AV Japan released 59 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1978. Nihon Bussan/AV Japan was based in United States.

Other machines made by Nihon Bussan/AV Japan during the time period Magical Drop III was produced include: Magical Drop II, Stadium Hero '96, Skull Fang, Outlaws Of The Lost Dynasty, Street Slam, and Burning Rush

Specs

Name Magical Drop III
Developer Nihon Bussan/AV Japan (United States)
Year 1997
Type Videogame
KLOV/MOG # 8504
Class Wide Release
Genre Puzzle
Monitor
Conversion Class Neo Geo MVS
# Simultaneous Players 2
# Maximum Players 2
Game Play Competitive
Control Panel Layout Multiple Player
Controls
  • Joystick: 2-way (left, right)
  • Buttons: 3 - TopThrowLower
Sound Amplified Mono (one channel)
Cabinet Styles
  • Upright/Standard

Game Introduction

Try to match three or more objects of the same color while playing against the computer or alone in two different types of games: survival mode or magical journey.

Game Play

Gameplay is very similar to Magical Drop 2 - line up three similary-coloured bubbles and they disappear. Two new additions to Magical Drop III were the countdown block (indestructible, but counts down by one for each group you destroy) and a multicoloured block that eliminates all blocks on the screen, including countown blocks, ice blocks and bubbles.

There were also a few changes in the rules from Magical Drop 2:

  • If you clear the whole screen, but are holding any blocks in your hand, you will no longer get credit for clearing the screen.
  • Juggling bubbles (throwing and catching groups of bubbles in rapid succession to fool the game into thinking they were all still in the air at once) is now a lot harder to do.
  • Juggling the last few sets of bubbles while clearing the rest of the screen no longer gives you credit for clearing the whole screen.
  • Juggling bubbles into positions where they would normally break, and catching them before they do, is now next to impossible.
  • Super bubbles that eliminate all bubbles of their own colour now count as bubbles of that colour when you are picking them up (phew!). For example, if you had a green super bubble underneath or on top of a normal green bubble and you grabbed them, Magical Drop 2 would give you the bubble on the bottom, while Magical Drop III would give you both of them.

The single-player game is also more difficult: Magical Drop 2 happily allowed players to progress as far as level 60 without becoming unusually tough, where Magical Drop III becomes very challenging around level 30.

Magical Drop III KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 4.65 (1 vote)

Fun Factor: 4.80

Overall Like 5.00
Fun (Social) 5.00
Fun (Solo) 5.00
Collector Desire 4.00

Technical Rating: 4.50

Gameplay 5.00
Graphics 5.00
Originality 4.00
Sound/Music 4.00

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Log in to rate this game!

Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter Eggs

In the story mode, if you do not collect any fire bubbles, you will not advance any spaces. You can use this to your advantage on spaces that provide very simple puzzles (the first space always works, there are others) to rack up the score.

Scores higher than 999999 (which are very achievable using this trick!) will not display correctly on the high score menu, but they will be listed in the proper order.

The following tricks can be done on the CHALLENGE mode: Play as Father Strength, Highlight Strength at the character select screen, then hold down the C button and press the A or B button different color depending on with button is pressed. Unlocking Hidden CharactersHighlight Star at the character select screen and wait for the timer to count down to 17. Then press the C button 3 times, holding it down on the 3rd press. 6 secret character will appear 4 on the top middle of the screen and one each corner of the top roll of the character choices.

Images

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Magical Drop III Census

There are 15,175 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,629 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,346 machines (6,974 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 92 known instances of this machine owned by Magical Drop III collectors who are active members. Of these, 3 of them are original dedicated machines. 2 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 87 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 3 active VAPS members with a Magical Drop III circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - No active members have added this machine to their wish list.

This game ranks a 31 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Legacy

  1. Magical Drop II
  2. Magical Drop III

eBay Listings

Click to search eBay for Magical Drop III Videogame machines and related items.

Click to search eBay for Nihon Bussan/AV Japan for machines and parts.

When you click on links below to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Such revenue helps to fund this site's operations. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

TOP WATCHED LISTINGS FOR: Magical Drop III

Ebay Compatible Application

Magical Drop III (3) Neo Geo Mini Arcade Marquee

Auction ends in: 3 days, 7 hours

FixedPrice
$9.95

Contribute

  1. Log in to contribute content to this page
  2. Please consider donating to the International Arcade Museum Library