Magicland Dizzy

In Magicland Dizzy the player guides Dizzy, an egg-shaped character, in an attempt to rescue his six friends who are held captive under the influence of various magic spells. The locations are all located in the titular "Magicland" and are fantastical in nature, many inspired by fairy tales. They include a field of standing stones called Weirdhenge, a witch's island and Prince Charming's castle. Movement from one screen to the next is enabled through flip-screen such that when Dizzy touches the outer edge of one screen he is transported to the next.

The individual screens consist of platforms and ladders with Dizzy able to both walk and jump to navigate the maze and its obstacles. Dizzy can collect up to three items at once which are then used at specific locations to solve puzzles and advance through the game. At the start of the game the player has three lives and a health bar which can be replenished by finding and collecting diamonds scattered throughout the maze.

The Evil Wizard Zaks, the primary antagonist of the series, whom Dizzy defeated previously in Fantasy World Dizzy, has returned having "made certain arrangements against his premature demise". He has cast spells on six members of the Yolkfolk, egg-shaped friends and relations of Dizzy, and transported them to Magicland. At the beginning of the game Dizzy teleports himself to Magicland and must set about lifting the spells from his friends.

Following their introduction in Fantasy World Dizzy, this game again features the Yolkfolk. Each of them has had a spell cast upon them by Zaks: Dylan is transfigured into a thorny bush; Denzil is frozen in ice; Dozy is put into an enchanted and perhaps everlasting sleep; Dora is turned into a frog; Daisy is enlarged and imprisoned inside Zaks' oubliette; and Grand-Dizzy trapped inside a magic mirror.

Magicland Dizzy was the first Dizzy game that was not fully designed and coded by the Oliver Twins, the creators of Dizzy. After Fantasy World Dizzy they had started working more closely with Codemasters, developing games for the American market where the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was quickly capturing a large audience. In order to continue the Dizzy series, which remained popular in Codemasters' home market, the Twins had to bring in others to do the majority of the design and coding. This gave them time to concentrate on their other projects. The coding of Magicland Dizzy was contracted out to Big Red Software.

Initially Magicland Dizzy was only available as part of a five-game compilation called The Dizzy Collection which also featured Dizzy, Treasure Island Dizzy, Fantasy World Dizzy and Fast Food. The game was later released separately.

Magicland Dizzy was met with a largely positive reception, although some magazines did not review it upon its inclusion in The Dizzy Collection. Writing in Your Sinclair, Rich Pelley gave the Spectrum version a positive review, describing it as "addictive" and "a bit of a spanker". Crash described the Spectrum version of the game as "one of the best [Dizzy games] so far" and an "essential purchase". The gameplay was described as being very similar to the previous games in the series though the Crash review still praised the addictive nature of the game and the colourful graphics and sounds. Writing in Amstrad Action, Adam Waring described the Amstrad version of the game as a "challenge even to those who've completed all the other Dizzy games".

In their review of the Commodore 64 version of the game, Zzap! noted that the slower pace of the game compared to the Spectrum version made "exploration a bit tedious at times" but still praised the game overall. Your Sinclair's Rich Pelley described the game's "annoying menu system" as a minor negative point. In his review in Amstrad Action, Adam Waring noted that the background music "becomes annoying" and that "not as many gameplay enhancements" had been made compared to previous games in the series.