The storyline, along with the cast of characters, is definitely bizarre. Pinki (who is a mere infant with a pacifier and PJs) and her evil gang of losers have taken over the Pao Pao Amusement Park and it's up to Super Magnetic Neo to set things right. A robotic superhero with magnetic powers, Neo can shift his polarity at will to push or pull objects and enemies, swing over bottomless pits, and launch himself into the air onto higher platforms. Not quite the "save the princess" affair we are used to.

Visually, Genki went with a "more is less", approach. The graphics contain a mixture of somewhat detailed textures and smooth gouraud shaded polygons, with a moderate amount of polygons throughout. Nothing exactly mind blowing, but more than adequate for what it is. The most impressive aspect of the visuals is the almost perfectly solid 60fps framerate. The weird cartoon-like art and character designs are quite amusing, and they give the game a lighthearted, non-threatening look. The soundtrack and sound effects follow a similar formula as well. Boppy, happy music plays throughout the stages, and there are plenty of wacky slide-whistle samples mixed in with the action.

For the most part, gameplay is very similar to what was found in the Crash Bandicoot series. You run "in to" or "out of" the screen, and are more or less, led by the hand in the direction you can travel. There are a few standard and bonus stages in which you play in either a totally side-scrolling, or in a force scrolled, fashion. The 3D segments, as usual, causes a few problem with judging distances. Many a time I plunged into a bottomless pit, or collided with an enemy, either by jumping way too late or a little bit too early. Of course, the fact that Neo can only normally take one hit before kicking the bucket, doesn't help. As long as developers refuse to go back to the tried and true, old school 2D style mechanics and viewpoint, these problems will never be totally eliminated.

The main problem with the Japanese version of SMN was it's insane level of difficulty. You were required to navigate practically an entire stage in a single life. Some of the more difficult to judge jumps and boss encounters, would cause you to fling a controller at the wall upon losing a life. Thankfully, Crave addressed the situation. There was no real simple way to make the game's difficulty easier per se, because the problems were mostly due to the general configuration of the stages. Instead, "continue" checkpoints were added throughout each stage, usually right before a more difficult section. Upon losing a life, Neo is no longer sent all the way to the beginning, and that seemed to have done the trick. Besides one or two still painful sections of certain stages, Super Magnetic Neo's level difficulty seems just about right now.

Crave took a leap and decided to bring Super Magnetic Neo to the US. The weird Japanese humor may not be for everyone, but overall I feel that platformer fans at the very least, will enjoy it.