week, new friend of the show Kevin in NANTUCKET took time away from being the object of bawdy

limericks to send us the Game Gear version of CLAMP�s Magic Knight Rayearth, a touching

tale of three color-coded girls trying to rescue their industry-mandated cute mascot

animal thing. And, in a move that shocks absolutely NO ONE, it�s an RPG! Again, due to industry

mandate. So grab your... um, feathers... and put your persocom to sleep... Okay, so I�ve

run out of CLAMP references. Here�s some gameplay footage.

Sorry, I should�ve mentioned that you should take something for motion sickness before

watching this video. In a move that left me completely baffled, the mechanic for battle

timing boils down to... a roulette? A roulette where full-body sprites indicate recovery

from their last attack, and close-ups indicate readyness. You can speed up and slow down

the roulette, which I�m led to believe increases or decreases your attack power... I think.

In truth, Kevin from NANTUCKET didn�t include an instruction manual, and the game isn�t

big on telling you exactly how much damage you�re dealing, so it�s mostly intuition

and guesswork. As much as we might complain about interminable tutorials in this day and

age... frankly, I could�ve done with one right here. Regardless, the combat itself

reminds one of Final Fantasy�s ATB systems, with certain characters becoming active at

different times instead of taking one solid turn. That�s pretty decent, for 1994 on

the Game Gear. What�s not decent, though, is the rate of random battles. If you ever

thought Pokemon was bad, this game will make you hug every Tentacool and Zubat you come

across. Behold: One step. ONE STEP.

But while the combat is fairly decent, the design of the quest is a bit questionable.

The first three types of enemies you face are the same exact sprite, with a different

number stuck on their forehead. Get past a forest of those jerks, and you get to a village

where you fight the SAME DUDE SEVEN TIMES IN A ROW. And you thought those freakin�

moles in EarthBound were bad. Still, if you can stomach the constant spinning, it�s

a pretty fair experience, and can be used as a placeholder if, like me, you�re still

selling off internal organs in hopes of obtaining the US release of Magic Knight Rayearth for

the Saturn. So. Anyone need a kidney or three?