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DETAILED DESCRIPTION:
A late 1996 / early 1997 puzzle game co-developed by both the third party licensee
Saurus and the well known publisher Takumi. The Play mechanics consist of matching 3
blocks of the same color to clear them. Gameplay is heavily dependent on utilizing the
added technique of forming chains. Two player head to head competition is also available.
The games story centers around a special magic school where a teacher by the name of
Plycila mentors students in the art of magic. The 8 students are grouped into 4 different
areas of study. The RED or FIRE magic students are Kai, a young sorcerer in command of
flame magic, and Peule, a merry sorcerer belonging to the order of the flame. The BLUE
or WATER magic students are Ripple, a cute little witch belonging to the order of the
water, and Azul, an attractive maiden witch in command of water magic. The GREEN or AIR
magic students are Hazuki, a ninja excelling in the skills of air, and Gas Borot, an
entertaining robot character capable of aerial magic. Lastly the YELLOW or LIGHT students,
which consist of younger brother Ray, a sorcerer belonging to the order of lighter, and
older brother Zero, the most powerful sorcerer of the school in command of light magic.
It is still unknown which software product number was assigned to Brick Block. This was
literally the last and only remaining unanswered question that RoU did not answer. There
are 3 possible locations where it could reside. (NGM-099, NGM-204, and NGM-226). The most
logical and accepted theory is position NGM-204 with Sunsoft's Hebereke at NGM-226. But it
could very well be the exact opposite. And the last of the 3 unconfirmed positions, NGM-099
is believed to be Quality People (QP) by Success.
Saurus developed a total of 9 games for the NEOGEO sytem, only 7 of which were officially
released. It was not uncommon for them to co-develop software with other companies. For
example, they teamed up with System Vision for Ragnagard, and with SNK for Irritating Maze.
It is unclear as to why this particular game went unreleased, but perhaps the bigger mystery
is why they limited Ironclad Brikinger to only the NEOGEO CD system.
It was not until September of 2022 that we learned of the English title for this game.
It had been assumed that Mahou Jouku was the Japanese title and Magic Master was the English
title because it is the subtitle on the Japanese title screen. However, the English title is
actually Brick Block. And although we had seen Brick Flop appear on several neorage rom lists
in the past, we had just assumed it was the alternate title for Sunshine since the pieces are
"bricks" and they can "flip and flop" in the game.
INFORMATION TIMELINE:
-- January 1997 -- According to the unreleased game list, Magic Master is location tested.
-- February 1997 -- Magic Master is shown at the 1997 AOU show in Tokyo, Japan.
-- March 1997 -- Game Machine runs a full page advertisement with artwork and screen shots.
-- March 1997 -- Gamest Magazine publishes an article on Magic Master with screenshots.
-- January 2005 -- Emulated shots surface which prove the games rom data has been dumped.
-- September 2022 -- More emulated shots, videos, and English/USA titles are found.
CURRENT STATUS: SAFEGUARDED
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