If there's one thing I love about the strategy game genre it's that there are so many sub-genres within it, probably more so than any other genre out there.  There are turn based strategy games, RTS (Real Time Strategy) games, Card Battle games, and even Life / God simulations that can fall under the Strategy game genre.

Magi fits nicely into a few sub-categories of the strategy genre.  It uses an active battle system which is a mix of Turn Based and RTS style strategy games while baring similarities to Fantasy Card Battle games such as Magic the Gathering.  Instead of controlling numerous units though you control a single mage and remain stationary within a small playing arena where your mage duels in a battle to the death against other mages, one at a time.  It's a simple premise but there is great intensity to the gameplay because gamers can choose one of ten different playable characters while utilizing dozens of different elemental and status effecting spells and abilities.  Each of these characters has their own unique spells on top of some standard spells as well.  No matter which characters you choose or spells you decide to use, the objective remains the same, destroy your opponent.  The strategy comes into play when the duel begins and both mages must decide on which attack and defense spells they are going to cast.  Spells require magic power and it's tempting to want to stay on the offensive casting spells that constantly deal damage to your opponent.  This would be a grave mistake though since it also leaves your mage wide open for counter attacks and also prevents your mage from gathering more magic power necessary to cast their own defensive spells and, more importantly, some of the more lethal spells such as poisoning your opponent and other negative or positive spell effects that can change or enhance either mage and their combat performance.  Last but not least, there are spells granted which allow you to summon powerful creatures to aid you in battle.  The pace at which each battle plays out can become pretty intense because players will need to pay close attention to their mage, his health and status, magical power, and the condition of the opponent, since the fight doesn't end until one of these duelists lay defeated.

Mechanically, Magi works like a charm.  There is no character movement and the controls are limited to selecting spells making for an uncomplicated experience while keeping the player involved.  The only gripe I had in the beginning is that spell selection could be very confusing at first.  Memorizing spells, abilities, and their effects, become necessary if you want to become good at Magi.  Fortunately things don't get out of hand and there is a short tutorial to help train newcomers in the art of magical combat.  Once gamers have figured out the different spell effects it's time to start playing strategically since it's the only way you'll defeat the more difficult enemies you encounter, and believe me, the enemy does become progressively more difficult.  Each of the selectable characters has unique spells that they can utilize so strategies will be slightly different from one character to another.  This also means that you can make multiple attempts at playing through Magi while exploring different strategies and experiencing different ways of dealing with the enemy a number of times.  There are also achievements (awards) that can be unlocked by the persistent gamer giving players an extra incentive to reach for, even after they've completed the game.  Yet another  feature I would have liked would have been a multiplayer mode because Magi is the type of game that just begs to be played against a human opponent and could certainly lead to more intense battles while further prolonging the replay value.

By design the game appears unostentatious, however, once combat commences the game lights up almost as if watching a spectacular fireworks display.  The graphics in Magi are a mix of simple sprite based characters and some spells that result in explosive, brightly colored particle effects.  In the end it's almost like watching two wizards duel to the death inside your computer monitor... oh wait a minute, that's what it's supposed to look like.  Once things get rolling and spells start flying it looks brilliant.  The sound fx and music are also top notch.  The sound track is very nice and the music teeters powerful and ambient.

It's definitely worth your while to try out Magi since it offers an innovative style of gameplay that has been fitted into the molding of several types of strategy game elements, while remaining surprisingly simple and fun without becoming too complex or too difficult for the average gamer to learn and enjoy.