Miracle Girls (SFC)

Pub: Takara | Dev: Now Production | 10.22.93
Pub: Takara | Dev: Now Production | 10.22.93

Miracle Girls is based on the Japanese manga by Nami Akimoto, which made its debut on July 6, 1991. It was later translated into a 51 episode anime series from January 8 to December 24, 1993. Along the way, there was even a video game adaptation, made exclusively for the Super Famicom.

MGManga

MGAnime

MGAnime2

MiracleGirls

Select either Tomomi and Mikage Matsunaga (twin girls with supernatural powers) and traverse platforming stages with mini games thrown in for good measure. You begin with 3 hearts and up to 5 can be stored by collecting fruit. The levels are so colorful you just may go blind.

MiracleGirls2

Miracle Girls is a very simple game. There are only 2 buttons at play: jumping and throwing candy. As you might have deduced from the visuals and source material, this is very kid friendly. Instead of killing enemies, you throw candy as bait, which then allows you to safely evade bad guys who are busy getting diabetes. They chomp for roughly 5 seconds and can’t harm you in this altered state. Otherwise, touching them deducts a heart.

Animals cant resist sweets. FACT
Fact: animals can’t resist sweets
Cute animations abound
Cute animations abound

While they’re busy chewing, you can stand on their heads to collect otherwise unreachable items and power-ups.

MiracleGirls6

There is a dreamlike atmosphere to Miracle Girls that sort of hearkens one back to the days of Capcom’s Little Nemo: The Dream Master.

One of the coolest box art covers of my youth
One of the coolest box art covers of my youth

MiracleGirls7

Besides the bright colorful graphics, one thing that stood out was the aid of your twin. She’ll pop up from time to time to provide some helpful tips.

MiracleGirls8

Your twin sister will help guide you through perilous sections. Her speech is in Japanese but thankfully there’s only two voices and you’ll quickly be able to differentiate the two. One indicates orange while the other denotes white. Before long you’ll learn two Japanese words! Whichever color she yaps is the flower color you want to hop on. The other will drop, sending you to an early grave if you’re unlucky enough to be standing on it.

Cue Van Halens JUMP
Cue Van Halen’s JUMP

MiracleGirls11

There are also mini-games scattered throughout, as well as a mini-game mode on its own and a 2-player mini-game mode. After the first level you play water tag with a bumblebee. The overhead action looks somewhat similar to Super Bomberman. My advice is to hit him ONCE and then RUN LIKE HELL. After firing your water gun, you’ll need to recharge before shooting again. Thankfully, you’re not left completely vulnerable as there’s an umbrella cover defense that lasts for half a second. Use it wisely!

MiracleGirls12

Bubbles begin to roam the field halfway through. If contact with said bubbles is made, that person will lose 1 point off their score (whether human or computer controlled). It helps to keep players honest by limiting one’s ability to “babysit” and wait things out. Whoever has the most points at the end wins.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Mikage says until next time, good nigh!
Mikage says “Good night…”

Miracle Girls isn’t too shabby; it’s certainly playable if not enjoyable. However, it may be way too cute for its own good. I can see how the source material may instantly remove it from playing contention for certain gaming connoisseurs. However, if you can look past its extremely cute exterior, there lies a decent platforming game underneath. Just don’t expect anything too fancy or mind blowing and chances are you’ll have a decent time with this one.