A Japanese-Only game that is fun to play. Anyone looking for a cheap ($9) game should give this a go.
Now, the game wasn't translated at all. I found it a bit annoying because I didn't have a clue to what was going on, but that didn't stop me from playing it. The game starts off with Milon and his brother running through a forest and they find a fairy. An evil demon looking wizard flies down from the sky and takes the fairy for his own evil deeds. Milon sets out on a quest to take the fairy back from the wizard using golden instruments and bubbles. Seems odd to me, but hey, it's Japanese. It doesn't have to make sense.
The game plays like a standard platformer. You're trying to dodge enemies and get to the goal. It's simple and I like that. To get to the other side, you get the power to either jump on top of enemies or to trap them in bubbles. There are times you want to do one of there other. Knowing when to use one over the other will save your bacon more then you think. More so when you're looking for the golden stars that are in the levels so you can fix the golden instrument or whatever. I don't see how stars fix instruments, but I guess the do. There's a point in each of the world (well, Worlds 2-7) that will send you back if you don't have all the stars. This is normally right before the boss of the level. These stars are normally in out of reach places, so you'll have some looking around to do for them. This adds a bit to the short levels, but not much.
There is something this game adds to make it a bit longer, besides what I've already talked about, and that's mini-games. Yes, that's right, this game has three different mini-games, though I'm not sure what you do in all of them because the directions are in Japanese. One you have to click on a bird that is flying by. Another you count birds that fly by and tell the game how many went by, or something like that, not sure. If you do well on these, which if you haven't played it before might be by pure chance, you can earn a few music notes, clothing, or extra lives. The music notes are like coins in Mario games. Once you get 100 of them, you get an extra life. Clothes protect you from dieing. If Milon has red on, that means he'll die if anything hurts him. If he's got blue on that means he can get hit once. And if he's got green, he's got two hits. Since the levels are littered with music notes, clothing, and other power-ups (like candy that saves you from falling off the level and winged boots that let you glide around after a jump) you'll want to do well on the min-games to get the extra lives.
In total, the game has seven different worlds, and eight bosses (that includes the final boss). The game doesn't seem that short on paper, each having (technically) seven levels in each and then the boss, on paper, but you can run through each of the level in about two to three minutes, even with looking for the stars. It felt kind of easy to me, until you hit the bosses (starting with World 2). For some reason it seems that the bosses where ten times harder then the levels and this made a nice road block until you figured out their weakness. Even then, they were a pain to beat because timing was everything. Still, I found some of the boss fights enjoyable, most notable Worlds 4, 6 and the final boss.
The design of the levels and enemies seemed very kiddish, but that's where most of it's charm came from, in my opinion. The color and shine this game has, for it's era, seems to say "I can look have whatever I want to have and look like." Enemies range from mini volcanoes with faces to umbrellas falling from the sky. All of them have their set place in each World, you'll never see one that was rehashed and given a new color scheme. The cut scenes are pretty odd in the fact that they take place in what looks like a stone theater type thing. It's hard to describe, but that's how it looked like to me. They have the games normal in game graphics and, like I stated before, have text below what's going on in Japanese. Of course since I can't read Japanese, I just watched the screen for what was new in the world which is very important.
Music and sound effects in DoReMi Fantasy really do one thing, add to the charm set up by the graphics. I have no really complaint here as I found that some of the tunes where in fact catchy, most notable is the first phase to the final boss fight, though none of them will be as memorable as other games in it's era. None the less, good music is good music and this has some good music in it.
Overall, DoReMi Fantasy is a good game that seems to of stand the test of time since it first came out in Japan fourteen years ago. It's a fun game that will keep you entertained for a couple of hours. Though it has it's downsides, not being translated, balance issues, and feeling shorts, at 900 Wii Points, it's a steal. Anyone that's looking for a good platformer, or a good game in general, and doens't want to pay an arm and a leg should think about picking this game up and giving it a try.