Magical Drop

A stack of random colored bubbles descend from the top, and a player is defeated when a bubble hits the bottom. Bubbles can be picked up and dropped by the player's clown at the bottom, and are destroyed when three or more of the same color are put together on a single column. Chains are formed either when a single drop caused a chain reaction, or when more than one group of bubbles is destroyed in quick succession. The game is normally played with two players (one may be a computer opponent), and chains cause the opponent's stack to descend faster.

There are 24 characters, all but the Black Pierrot being named after a tarot card (although the Strength card has been represented by two characters throughout the series). Different characters have different attack patterns. The columns of the opponent's stack will descend at different rates relative to each other depending on the character chosen. This causes a disjunction of colors that may make it more difficult for the other player to clear their stack. For example, with the character Devil, all the columns will descend at the same rate, whereas with Sun, the middle columns will descend faster than the others.

Magical Drop is based on a game called Drop-Drop created by Russ Ltd, a Russian company.

In 1995, Data East released the first game in the series as a coin-operated version of this game titled Magical Drop (known in North America as Chain Reaction). Despite the arcade game being released worldwide while using the English title in North America and Europe, Data East gave the official English names of its successors the same names as their Japanese counterparts, while the home versions of the first game were never released outside Japan. The series became better known for its Neo Geo sequels, Magical Drop II and Magical Drop III, due to the popularity of the Neo Geo platform. The last games in the series released in the United States were Magical Drop Pocket for the Neo Geo Pocket Color in 1999 and Magical Drop for the Game Boy Color in 2000.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Magical Drop on their September 1, 1995 issue as being the tenth most-successful arcade game of the month. A review of the arcade version of the original game in Next Generation stated: "Chain Reaction is proving quite popular in Japan, despite the fact that this kind of game has been around now for at least five years". The reviewer scored the game two out of five stars, concluding that "it's not brilliant nor innovative, certainly not new, but it's fun and as addictive as sex after lunch... in a jester suit".

Mean Machines gave the Saturn version an 84 out of 100, with the reviewers remarking that the game is addictive and offers numerous options, but is frustratingly difficult in single-player mode. They disagreed as to whether it is better or worse than its competitor Baku Baku Animal.