AMN’s Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don’t waste your time. This is why we’ve split our reviews into four sections: What the Game’s About, What’s Hot, What’s Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game’s About
More like a training tool than an actual video game, Master of Illusion teaches you how to perform simple but clever magic tricks using two different props: the DS itself and a deck of playing cards, which comes with the game. Labeled a “Touch Generation” game, Master of Illusion is in the same vein as the Brain Training titles, although it isn’t quite as portable (since it required using playing cards for some of the tricks). Overall, there are over 20 different tricks in the game.
What’s Hot
The best reason to check out Master of Illusion is the most obvious one: it’s a great way to learn some new magic tricks. With over 20 different tricks to master, it’ll keep you entertained for a while. What’s more, similar to other train-your-brain games, Master of Illusion encourages you to revisit the game on a daily basis. At the start of the title, only a handful of tricks are available, but you’ll earn points by learning news tricks, which in turn unlocks even more tricks. However, there is a maximum number of tricks you can unlock each day, so it’ll take you several days of playing the game to unlock everything.
There is a good variety of tricks here. The game uses two primary props, the DS and a marked deck of playing cards. Some tricks involve using the DS to create illusions of magic, while others require you to use a combination of the DS and a stack of cards. While none of the tricks are mind-blowing – it never teaches you how to make the DS system disappear into thin air, for example – they are admittedly clever.
What’s Not
First off, if you’re not at all interested in magic or the art of illusion, then Master of Illusion isn’t for you. Stop reading, close the page and go home.
The downside to Master of Illusion is that unlike other Touch Generation and train-your-brain DS titles, it’s not very portable. Many of the magic tricks require a deck of cards and, ideally, a table to lay them out on. In other words, it’d be difficult to get a gaming session of Master of Illusion in on the subway.
Other than that, going back to it being an illusion-teaching tool, Master of Illusion is targeted at gamers who long to be a magician. So, if you’re not entertained by doing magic tricks (who isn’t?), there’s not much here for you.
Final Word
Master of Illusion is a well-designed tool for teaching magic – or illusions, rather. Some of the tricks here are more impressive than others, no surprise, but that’s okay. There are over 20 tricks to master, which will take you a while. And, thankfully, most the tricks are clever, and smart, even. Of course, whether or not that’ll entertain you depends on whether or not you’re into doing magic tricks.
