Magical Chase

Magical Chase is a horizontal-scrolling shooter game. The story revolves around Ripple, a mischievous apprentice witch at a magic school. One day, Ripple's teacher asks her to stay alone at school. However, Ripple breaks her promise by opening a forbidden book called Sleeping Demons; in doing so, she accidentally releases several sealed demons into the outside world. Remembering that her teacher would turn her into a frog if she disobeyed, Ripple, along with her star maiden friends, Topsy and Turvy, embarks on a quest to return the demons back to the book.

The player controls Ripple, fighting enemies and avoiding obstacles. Topsy and Turvy fly around Ripple as support, providing additional firepower. The player can adjust the firing direction and the position of the stars. These also act as shields, protecting Ripple from bullets fired by smaller enemies.

Magical Chase was the first PC Engine game from Palsoft, a Japanese third-party publisher for the PC Engine and Sega Mega Drive. The game was developed by the same team at Quest Corporation that would later work on Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, and Final Fantasy Tactics. It was designed by Hiroshi Minagawa, who also served as art director. The Quest staff wanted to create a shooter, as shooters were popular at the time, but they also wanted to do something unique within the genre.

When development began, the team had specific ideas for the characters, but the enemies were still undecided. Production of the game took a long time, as the staff wanted to explore how far they could push the PC Engine and were meticulous about details such as timing the appearance of enemies with the background music in the third and fifth stages.

The Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine ranked Magical Chase fifteenth in popularity in its March 1992 issue, and it received a score of 26.77 out of 30 in a 1993 readers' poll conducted by PC Engine Fan, ranking among the top five PC Engine titles at the number three spot. The game also garnered generally favorable reviews from critics.

Jacques Harbonn and Rocket of Consoles + applauded the game's graphics, highlighting the artwork in each stage, sprite animations, smooth scrolling, and lack of slowdown. They also praised the soundtrack and the shop system, but noted that the overall presentation was its weakest point. Consolemania's Giancarlo Calzetta lauded the game's audiovisual department and its fast-paced gameplay, but found it too easy. Electronic Games' Laurie Yates found Magical Chase to be a solid shooter, praising its crisp graphics, enjoyable sound, and high playability, but noted that the controls could be frustrating. Although the fact that Ripple, Topsy, and Turvy were female seemed out of place, as shooters are typically a male domain, Yates felt they were presented in a way that belied their cuteness.