Found 9 ratings (with comment) on this game

Very pretty game. Fun to play, lots of safer feeling long shots, some big ramps and cool ball locks mech hands on the ramps. I got to play multiball on it at Pinfest 2023 but didn’t get much further. Beautiful looking game.

Good first impression and I feel lucky to have had the chance to play one - I asked and was told there is only about 15 known to be playing/working and just under 100 totally made.

A real pleasure to play this as the UK Pinfest show. Such a beautiful machine that looked like the best of the 90's with the best of the current technology. It played very well and was one I wanted to come back and play again. If you can find one, even if you have to queue a while, it is well worth it.

An honour and a privilege to play this game recently.

There are lots of subtle references to Popadiuk's previous titles.

The ball locks on the ramps were particularly good as was the spinning disk on the outlane.

The machine has really good flow and is a stunning looking machine.

Well done to Jim and Eric for resurrecting the game.

Here is a video of my first impressions.

https://youtu.be/NmNHvo5hpf4?si=zZ4uywaIfJSIxmMd

I had the privilege to play four games of Magic Girl #18 at UK Pinfest 2023 with the Dutch team.

It’s a beautiful pin with a colourful LCD screen. Mostly, I came away with the impression that I wish it had gone into wider production as it was one of the most fun pins I played at the event. It has simple, but entertaining, Bally-Williams-era rules, some great shots, and a greatest hits of the design from other pins by John Popaduik. It’s also packed with fun features, which don’t impede the gameplay, including a magma save and magnet flippers. I really enjoyed the pseudo-upper playfield, which was reminiscent of 80s pins.

A true highlight of my experience at Pinfest. IF YOU HAVE SKIN, USE IT NOW!

I also had a chance to play Magic Girl at Expo this year, finally completed by @applejuice and the Dutch team and am very glad to have had the opportunity. Obviously, this is a fully working machine that is, for the most part, complete. The most important thing is it was fun to play! With long lines, I didn't get as much time on it as I would have liked, so I can not go into much depth on this review, but I also stayed and watched gameplay by others and I can honestly say, this is a pretty immersive experience that I feel has that play it again feeling. I am not a Circus Voltaire fan though I do like TOTAN and Theater of Magic well enough, and there is kind of that feeling here.

What I liked:
Art package, especially the Backglass
Callouts
Flipper feeling
Levitating ball (which I didn't get but saw others get)

What needs work:
Still some work on base code/modes. With just a few working of these around, that will probably be a while coming. There were some ball hangups as well.

Mixed feelings:
Heads up display instead of in the BG. The kind of thing you need multiple plays to get use to I think.
Extra Buttons for Magna Save/Reversing the disk - just like the heads up, will need multiple plays to get use to these.

Overall Impression
If this had been the delivered product originally, I think it would have been a hit. Not sure if where modern pinball is today and the history surrounding this machine makes it viable in production - but I would definitely play it on route. Buy it for my home collection? Maybe - price would be a factor, further code updates, tweaks to address ball hangups. I have to say, though, HATS OFF to the team that brought Magic Girl to life! A very worthwhile project and I was thrilled to have a chance to play it!

UPDATE Oct 2023
Had the chance to play this again this year at Expo. The kickout kept putting the ball SDTM, and the heads up display is very hard to see. Adjusted rating slightly downward, the kickout can be adjusted but the more I played the more I found the display location annoying.

Since many may not ever have the opportunity to play this machine, I will provide an objective review based on both personal gameplay and history.

The game was "under development" for 5+ years.
It had three major periods of change and ownership including the licensing.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on trying to "jumpstart" the process from 2011-2017.

The direct end result:

The theme is outstanding and a combination of the features of ToM, TOTAN, and CV, but...

The game still does not work properly.
Physically the game shot flow is still clunky.
Mechanically the game needs redesign.
The game does not have completed code.
The current game has incomplete major features, and is missing playfield assemblies.
The simplest example, is multiball is impossible, because there is no means to lock balls, even virtually.
Not a good start.
The only thing that keeps this game from getting a "1 out of 10" is the artwork and baseline design, which you cannot rate as a low score.
People are being a bit non-objective, out of jealousy, anger, lack of experience or stupidity.

The artwork is the standout in all areas, playfield, translite, and cabinet.
These are all superb, almost breathtaking.
Animations and LCD images are also very good, but incomplete.

Sound quality and music is excellent.
Sound calls are incomplete.

The bottom line is this remains a prototype game, barely out of the whitewood stage, not much further progressed than the original prototype which was debuted in 2011. It simply was never fully playtested. American Pinball still rushed it out the door to not look like fools, close their involvement with Mr. Popadiuk, and try to provide a product as promised. There was not much else they could do.

In fact, there are LESS features that what was originally included, some of which previously existed, and somewhat worked.

A person cannot evaluate the original prototype to this game, and I say "played the game back in 2011", pintard reviewers, it is not the same game!
Also, rating anyone rating game BEFORE it was released and no one has played except a dozen people locked behind closed doors in the past 2 years is a complete bell ringer, a person is uninformed, and should not be believed.
In essence, that person is announcing to the world, "I am a pinball monkey spanker, hear me, hear me LIONMAN!"

Back on point.
Without significant overhaul by both technical mechanical engineers and programmers, the game is not a fully functional pinball machine, but a little more than an extremely expensive Christmas tree.

Original owners are selling the game for a multitude of reasons, but mostly to get their money back while the hype is alive.
I would.

Ultimate value of the game for pinball history is unknown at this time, but I would suspect between $20-25K for the next 5 years by "deep pocket" collectors who want to have bragging rights, not the original owners. It is hard to see respectable long time collectors who were not part of the original boondoggle to be proud of this title in their collection. It does have bad karma.

My nickname for this game is "The albatross of pinball".
When Ri¢hie Ri¢h is a better pinball game than this title, that is fairly indicative of the situation.
It will always have its place in pinball history, but not every story is a good one.

Incomplete pos.

An incomplete pipe dream by scam artist John Popadiuk that was used to extort over a million dollars of capital and sweat equity by people of all walks of life. Why someone would want to tarnish their name and ruin their small legacy they established designing a few cool games in the past by spreading so many lies and misinformation in an effort to defraud the pinball community he once legitimately made his living off of is beyond me. Whoever did the artwork did a decent job. The rest of the game was haphazardly assembled by a team of die hards who were either trying to get the game finished for the fans, or trying to help the fraud continue. I'm not sure what the real answer is there. But I'm told what appeared at the NW pinball show was nothing more than a complete and utter failure and embarrassment with most everything turned off, not functioning and a mylar overlay that wasn't done right or well at all. Disgusting.

I PLAYED this game at the Northwest Pinball show. After all the hype behind this game I was really looking forward to seeing and playing the game in person. At first glance the game looked phenomenal, the artwork and theming was beautiful and the animations on the LCD display were fantastic, but that's as good as it gets. The playfield is a Mylar overlay that he'd not been secured properly and made playing a game nearly impossible. Most of the major toys were missing and parts of the playfield he'd been purposely blocked off so the ball could not enter areas that would cause the game to lock up. The skill shot was so frustrating that I eventually gave up and dropped the ball into the flippers so that I could start the game. All in all the game felt like more of a working piece of art rather than an actual pinball machine