Feel The Magic was a Nintendo DS launch game that was lauded for it’s originality but criticized for its short playing time. Sega has now released The Rub Rabbits!, a pseudo-sequel to that game. Don’t worry; you don’t need to play Feel The Magic in order to become familiar with this game.

The premise of the game is a theme all too familiar to fans of the “Love” genre: you are a college boy and you found the woman of your dreams while passing her on the escalator. For some reason, at the exact time, eleven (!) other guys also fell in love with her. So, now as is always the case, you must excel at numerous mini-games in order to be the prime suitor to win her heart. Sega calls it a “love triskaidecagon.”

The way you play the mini games is all with the bottom (touch) screen. To play the game, you’ve got to move the stylus, or “rub” it across the screen. Players are reminded in the instruction manual not to rub the screen with something other than the stylus. Uhh..seriously guys, it’s a video game. Do you think I’m 12 and some cartoon woman wearing a bikini turns me on?

Seriously, I’ve seen better sexual innuendo in Rumble Roses. The manual goes on to day in addition to ‘rubbing’ you can also “touch” as in “poke her directly” or “blow it” by blowing into the microphone. Be sure to take breaks to recover your breath though. Um, ok.

Getting back to the game, the graphics aren’t bad – they look pretty good, although there’s a certain style to them that you either like or you don’t. For example, you really don’t see the woman’s face; you instead see a silhouette of her. It’s rather bizarre not seeing this woman’s face but being able to see her bikini top. Sometimes the effect works well, like in the ‘stampede’ mini-game. Other times, like during the “rose” minigame, it doesn’t.

The main mode is the story mode, but there are plenty of other options, including attack mode (beat the clock on mini games you’ve already completed), Memories mode (similar to attack but no clock), Maniac (aka the design a girlfriend mode), Hullabaloo (hot seat DS gaming action), Baby Making (hot and sexy, especially if you think babies are made by cutting cakes), and Connect (share your baby with the world).

As mentioned before, the meat of the game is story mode, where you play an endless array of mini-games to win love. Seriously, if love were this annoying, I think I’d stay far, far away. On the other hand, if all you had to do to get lucky was to win at a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors against 11 other guys, I do like my chances.

Mini-games are rather diverse and do require rubbing the screen and blowing into the microphone. One of the more clever games requires you to use a blow gun to knock out your opponents. You literally blow into the microphone to take them out.

I like the idea of ‘memories,’ but seriously, in your current relationship, do you ever say “hey, remember that time you were stressed and did yoga and I put a rose in front of your face and you smelled it to relax? Let’s relive that!”? No, I don’t think you do.

The Baby Making is rather crazy, in it you are supposed to have 2 people (but you can do it yourself if you like). First you enter your birthdates, your age, and some other questions, like blood type. You then have to cut the cake together. When you cut the cake, a baby pops out and you see its gender and some other information, like blood type (what’s with Japanese games and blood types? Can someone clue me in on this please?).