Ludography
Slightly Magic cover

1991 · Action-adventure · Platformer

Slightly Magic

Slightly Magic is a platform game not unlike Codemasters' own Dizzy and Seymour series, but is generally shorter and easier than most other games of that genre.

Released
1991
Platforms
AmigaAmstrad CPCAndroidAtari STAtari ST/STECommodore 64Commodore C64/128/MAXZX Spectrum
Genres
Action-adventurePlatformerPuzzle
Developers
—
Publishers
Codemasters
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Side view
Themes
Fantasy
Country
United Kingdom
Composers
Allister Brimble

About

Slightly Magic is an action-adventure game published in 1991 by Codemasters for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. It was written by Colin Jones, author of Rock Star Ate My Hamster (also by Codemasters).

›Story

In Slightly Magic you are cast as Slightly - mischievous nephew of legendary wizard Bigwiz, who has suddenly taken off on some urgent business, leaving his castle in disarray with dragons and magical spells running amok. One of the dragons kidnaps the princess, and now Slightly has to save her.

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The gameplay in Slightly Magic is closely related to the gameplay of Dizzy. As with Dizzy, the player starts off with no equipment and has to explore the area to find items and solve puzzles, but Slightly Magic expands this idea by allowing the use of spells to solve puzzles. The player must collect the ingredients and the correct spell word to cast a spell, which would allow the player to solve a puzzle (for example, a fish spell to turn into a fish and swim in water).

Story

Bigwiz the wizard has left the castle in a hurry and has been a bit forgetful. He forgot to pack his spare wand, he forgot to lock his laboratory door and forgot to take his nephew Slightly with him. To make matters worse, a sunburnt dragon has run off with the Princess Croak and the spell cabinet has been knocked over spreading the spells everywhere.

Reception

Slightly Magic received 94% in Your Sinclair magazine with the reviewer praising the graphics and music and claiming it was a better game than Dizzy. CRASH awarded it 78%, although they criticized some of the animation. Sinclair User gave the game 89% claiming it was worth at least three times its £2.99 retail price. Slightly Magic also claimed position 56 in the Your Sinclair "top 100 Spectrum games" as voted by readers.

When Commodore Format reviewed the game in their November 1991 issue, it was given a low score by their budget games reviewer, who said the game had sluggish controls and the screen flicked on and off many times when trying to use items and talk to people. He also said bringing up the inventory took a series of fire button presses.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Atari ST/STE31 December 1991Europe
Amiga31 December 1991Europe
Amstrad CPC31 December 1991Europe
ZX Spectrum31 December 1991Europe
Commodore C64/128/MAX31 December 1991Europe

Editions and related releases

Included in
Cartoon Collection
Remastered as
Slightly Magic: 8bit Legacy Edition

Games like this

Collections3 collections

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.