The Girl Who's Right on the Money: A Review of Money Idol Exchanger (PSX)

 💰Introduction💰

Last time, when talking about Magical Drop, I mentioned how I wasn’t too big into puzzlers. While I’m still not someone who actively plays puzzlers outside of casually killing time, my love for Magical Drop possessed me to check out some other games in the genre. While browsing the internet, I found a cute-looking puzzle game that almost instantly caught my attention. This game was called Money Idol Exchanger.

From a cursory glance, the game looked like something right up my alley. It was a puzzle game with gameplay similar to Magical Drop with a focus on exchanging coins into bills. The game was originally released for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system, and since I couldn’t get the Neo Geo emulator to work properly on my PC, the only way I could play the game for a while was to visit the local retro game arcade...which is an hour-long drive from my house.

It wasn’t until a bit later that I learned the game was also ported to home consoles and systems. So, I downloaded the PlayStation 1 version, booted it up on an emulator, and played it a considerable amount. The only real caveat was the fact that the PSX version was never translated into English, so I had to play the game in Japanese. That said though, while the game was quite simple, I still had a lot of fun with it and have a lot I wish to discuss and preach to the choir about. So, without further ado, Let’s Exchanging to Cash!! 

All Our Hidden Gems: A Review of Magical Drop III (PSX)

 🟢 Introduction 🟢

I’ve never been someone who’s been very interested in puzzler games; I’ll play a few rounds of Tetris or Puyo Puyo with friends in a casual setting, but aside from that, I’ve never cared much for the genre. That actually changed a few months ago when I was with a friend at an arcade. I was walking around looking for games to play and there was one small cabinet in the corner of the arcade which looked to be one of those SNK Arcade Candy Cab Machines. I don’t know the exact model, but this machine had three different games to choose from. I don’t remember the other two games, but the third one—Magical Drop III—drew me in because the art style was really cute. 

I played a few games against CPU players and found the game to be quite addicting. My friend was waiting on me though, so I only played for a bit but I remembered what the game was called. So, when I got home, I did some research on the game and downloaded a ROM for the PlayStation version. I was hooked. I was so hooked that I devolved into researching the history and lore of the series, checking out the competitive scene, looking up supplemental media, and drawing fan art. And because of that, you’re going to be subjected to another one of my schizophrenic rants— I mean reviews. So I hope you enjoy listening to me talk about my current favorite puzzler game, Data East’s Magical Drop III.