Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color

Gamer's Pulse

One of the year's best surprises, offering a wonderful mixture of strategic gameplay, imagination, and colorful story telling.

GameReviewer

If you can grin and bear the sometimes overly cutesy presentation, you'll find a game with more options for customization than us lowly gamers deserve (and besides, you can make some disgusting doodles as compensation).

Deeko

A lot of fun and allows you to create and design the doodle of your dreams. While the gameplay itself is shallow, the doodling is as deep as the ocean.

IGN

The only title in recent memory that successfully combines adventure, role-playing, arena battle, and paint programming into one huge amalgamation of entertainment. Come to think of it, it's probably the only game to create such an arrangement.

GameZone

If you ignore Magic Pengel, you’ll be missing out on a wildly original concept that allows you to draw and bring to life characters straight from your very own imagination.

GamingTrend

May be a bit over a very young child's head, but much older than that and the combat system of the game may make them lose interest in it when they realize they can't assign skills.

GameNow

The drawing system is brilliant - simple sketches transform with ease into wonderfully animated creatures. [June 2003, p.50]

Official U.S. Playstation Magazine

Therein likes Magic Pengel's beauty... it's the fact that you can bring to life almost anything you imagine. [June 2003, p.106]

Gamestyle

It is a quest worth making.

Game Informer

Be warned - great skill is required to get something that doesn't just look like a Jell-O mold gone awry. [Sept 2003, p.109]

Cincinnati Enquirer

While not a perfect piece of interactive entertainment, it's enjoyable, and thanks to the way you can customize the Doodles, it's fun to play again and again.

Gamezilla!

Perhaps the biggest problem in Magic Pengel is that it relies too much on a gimmick—fortunately, the some of the game’s shortcomings can be overlooked because the gimmick is done so well.

Electronic Gaming Monthly

As a game, it's merely OK, but as a creative toolbox, it's exceptional. [June 2003, p.121]

Gaming Age

Thankfully it all boils down to a great, hour eating, and life sucking game that you won’t put down for some time. If you love to draw, Magic Pengel shouldn’t be missed.

GameSpot

A one-of-a-kind title, partially because of its art direction, and partially because of its incredibly unique character-creation system.

GamePro

It's a flawed-but-fascinating curiosity and addictive despite itself thanks to the truly awesome monster generation. [June 2003, p.113]

Edge Magazine

Magic Pengel isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, a rounded and satisfying videogame. But it is, without question, a rounded and satisfying stretch of the imagination. [Nov 2003, p.92]

PSX Nation

A jack of many videogame trades (RPG, “Mario Paint”-type paint program, “Pokemon”-like arena battles, etc.) that somehow succeeds at making a fun and coherent whole out of its many disparate elements.

GameSpy

While many aspects of it are excellent, the gameplay is flawed enough to occasionally frustrate and sometimes make Magic Pengel feel less like a game and more like a chore.

GameCritics

Its incredibly addictive drawing and animation succeed by providing a unique opportunity for your imagination to run wild, yet I can't help but be disappointed that the rest of the game doesn't meet the same impressive standard.

G4 TV

If the core battle system was more robust and there was more to do than just fight and draw, Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color could have been a landmark title.

PSM Magazine

Magic Pengel has a fantastic premise, but overall, there's just not enough here. [June 2003, p.32]

GMR Magazine

If only the battle system were as imaginative as the character creation, Magic Pengel would be one of those quirky and lovable games everyone looks back upon fondly. As it stands, it's just quirky. [June 2003, p.69]

Game Revolution

The painting is cool and the characters are likeable, but this is more about your own imagination than your own fun.