When I was in high school a billion years ago, I wasn't exactly popular with the ladies, and after playing Sega's Feel the Magic XY XX I now know why, for you see, I never knew, while purchasing gifts and writing love letters, that all one must do to win the heart of their dream woman is to simply "rub it." Of course, I didn't have friends like the Rub Rabbits. If you're confused, don't worry, because not having a clue is part of why Sonic Team's latest is so much fun.

Feel the Magic's a whacky dating game for the Nintendo DS that makes excellent use of the system's abilities. You play the role of a young man who spots the girl of his dreams in a crowd but doesn't know how to approach her. However, he soon gets over his shyness after meeting the Rub Rabbits, a group of men who wear blue rabbit ears. Encouraging him to make a play, our hero must complete 20+ mini games to win her heart, and that's where you come in. Using the stylus, the microphone, or sometimes both, you'll need to act fast and keep your cool in order to move onto the next chapter/series of games. These include using the stylus in numerous ways, such as tapping scorpions off your date's dress, knocking out a stampede of angry bulls before they trample you and your girlfriend, maneuvering through the belly of a giant snake, and forcing goldfish up through a man's esophagus and out his mouth. You'll also need to blow into your DS to snuff out candles, and yell as loud as you can so the love of your life can hear you.

The game's extremely weird and doesn't make much sense, but that's part of its charm. The mini games can be over in seconds or a matter of minutes, but they're all fun and there's a true sense of accomplishment when the girl takes a romantic interest in our hero, even though she's extremely demanding and has a tendency to get captured all of the time, but the game does a good job of making us feel for its main character, which transcends the various challenges. The more you play, the more you'll want them to fall in love.

Another reason why you'll want to play Feel the Magic is because of its spectacular visual style. Everything about this DS launch title, from its character design to its fantastic use of color, really makes it stand out as a unique graphical achievement, similar to Rez, which is another one of Sega's classic games. It also shows brief glimpses of what the DS can do, as some of the game's 3D characters take up both screens. No doubt many consumers will scratch their heads in confusion at the game's graphics, but it doesn't take an art major to appreciate what Sonic Team's done. You'll also be dazzled by the music, which, despite there being only a handful of tracks, is extremely catchy.

As you may have already figured out, Feel the Magic isn't a lengthy game. In a couple of hours you'll have seen just about everything it has to offer, and sometimes twice over, as the designers decided to have some mini games repeat. This brings the enjoyment level down a notch, but doesn't really affect its fun factor, as going back and replaying the games will keep you busy for a little while, and if you own select Sega Game Boy Advance games, you can unlock special items by inserting both the cartridge and game chip into the DS at the same time, and then selecting to play Feel the Magic. You can also dress up your date via Maniac Mode, and search for hidden blue rabbits during each mini game's "demo" cut scenes.

If this were a perfect world, Feel the Magic XY XX would be the catalyst that sends numerous dating games to America. Now I highly doubt that's going to happen, but I give Sega serious props for standing by their game and bringing it to the states. It's a tad short, but like your favorite juice, it's good to the last drop. Not the DS's best launch game, but it's still a must buy, if only for the permission it gives you to "rub it" in public.