I've been playing this game in the arcades since it came out. One think I don't understand unless I'm playing a different rom is that there is 2 modes to this game: challenge which is against the computer and puzzle mode which you go for endurance and can only play on 2 settings, medium and hard. where are the scores coming from that are played on puzzle easy? Also, the high score is 41k and just from playing 1 game (very sloppy too) I got 53k. Please tell me if I'm looking at this all wrong, I don't want to submit a score under the wrong title. Magical Drop 3 is it's own catagory. I know more about MD2 then MD3. Oh yea, and how the hell do you select that secret character? I saw a recording from I believe A.R. where he got a character with rainbow icons? Something I've never seen.

Regards, Steve Krogman

-- stephen krogman (skrogman@bellsouth.net), October 11, 2000

Answers

Puzzle mode is entirely separate from survival mode on Magical drop 2, and can only be accessed if you set your Zone settings in the Dip Switches to Japan. There are three games under Puzzle Mode, and max score possible is less than 100k.

Heh, come join the Magical Drop fray if you dare, Steve. I certainly no longer hold the crown at MARP.

Selecting secret characters has something to do with the time remaining in the select screen, if I recall. There's one or two MD3 faqs out there, but they're pretty basic. Someone had a webpage devoted to the game with all the different character attacks and patterns, but damned if I can find it now...

Sincerely, Q.T.Quazar

-- Q.T.Quazar (qan@home.com), October 11, 2000.

I know that you can select the other "Strength" guy in Vs mode if you choose Strength with the "C" button. He's the guy you fight after World in MD2, and he's the guy who sets bear traps / farts on you when you land on Skull Squares in MD3 magical journey. His attack pattern is like the opposite of Sun's - It goes down the sides, and a little bit down the middle. Kind of like a weaker version of Black Pierrot's pattern.

Other than that I am in the dark as far as secret characters, but it doesn't look like anybody has used them in recordings anyways.

-- Aaron Pieper (apieper@vt.edu), October 13, 2000.

Other secret characters in MD2/MD3:

MD2: See those numbers on each of the characters? In increasing order, push your down key on each of them, then play as Empress (or Strength, or Devil).

MD3: For those of you who have read the original source of how to do the double-drop trick (meh), you'll have seen the table of numbers for each of the characters. Otherwise...

Move to either Devil (15) or Star (17), and press C three times when the timer reaches that number. (It works for all of the other characters, except for World [21], but I'm going with the two easiest ways to get into this.) Six characters will be added: Moon, Tower, Fortune, Hanged Man, Temperance, and Hermit. (Most people will have played against Hermit, Temperance, Tower, and Fortune. I've made it up against Moon a few times, and I don't know of anyone who's gone up against Hanged Man, although with some of the recordings Aaron's been doing recently, I wouldn't be surprised if he has.)

I used to play with Empress on MD2 and Moon on MD3. (I think Moon is cute... but not nearly as cute as Macky from Twinkle Star Sprites.)

-- Kaidi Echitra (peng@demongate.ath.cx), April 16, 2001.

Oh, and to respond to Q.T.'s (if he's still around and listening): Max. possible score on puzzle mode is 79,200, although that requires completing EVERY level perfectly and without taking any time off the clock. Score would be as follows:

Stage x-1: perfect, timer goes to 60, score: 300 for this set. Stage x-2: perfect, timer goes to 70, score: 600. Stage x-3: perfect, timer goes to 80, score: 900. Stage x-4: perfect, timer goes to 90, score: 9900.

There are eight sets of four stages, so 8x9900 = 79,200.

-- Kaidi Echitra (peng@demongate.ath.cx), April 16, 2001.