Master of Illusion Express: Deep Psyche Review - Screenshot 1 of 2

Master of Illusion: Deep Psyche is essentially a small selection of magic tricks from the DS retail release packaged into a tidy little 200 Point DSiWare release. While the two new tricks are fun enough, once you've completed them, there's just nothing left to do, unless you want to go around fooling a few of your naive friends who haven't already seen these tricks performed before. It would also be nice for Nintendo to finally toss in a new third trick instead of the same old Vanishing Card trick we've seen included in all three DSiWare releases to date.

The first trick is called Deep Psyche. The psychoanalyst will ask you to input your birthdate as an 8-digit number. Now be forewarned; the psychoanalyst is a bit on the creepy side. In fact he looks a bit like Vincent Price with an overactive thyroid condition. Once you've tapped in your birthdate, you'll then be asked a series of multiple choice questions in which you must choose from one of two selections. There are numbers associated with each answer that will be added to or subtracted from the numbers you inputed for your birthdate. Once you've answered the four multiple choice questions, the numbers will all be tallied and the answer will be shown at the top of the screen. The number will always turn out to be 50807041, which if you turn the DSi system upside down reads "I HOLD 8DS".

Master of Illusion Express: Deep Psyche Review - Screenshot 2 of 2

The second trick is called Today's Special. The chef will present you a grid with 16 numbers in it. One at a time, you'll be asked to choose a number and then the remaining numbers in the same row and column will be eliminated. You'll continue choosing numbers until all other numbers have been eliminated in the grid and you're left with only the four numbers you've specifically chosen. The chef will then add your four numbers up which will give you a total that should match the day's date. No matter what numbers you choose, it will always add up to the current day's date.

The game even tosses in a third trick that's basically just the same rehashed Vanishing Card trick we've already seen in all three Master of Illusion releases and it's still exactly the same version of the trick.

The visuals get a slight step up with this third release, but don't expect a lot of eye candy. Other than the creepy psychoanalyst and the chubby chef, there's not much visually going on in the game. The same can be said for the music. If you've played any of the previous Master of Illusion titles, you're going to immediately recognize the same musical track they've used in each successive release and in truth, it hasn't gotten any better over time.

Conclusion

Overall this third Master of Illusion DSiWare release is probably the strongest one yet, but that's still not saying much. There's just not enough content included to warrant even the mere 200 Nintendo Points the game costs. Unless you're a fan of these stripped-down Master of Illusion DSiWare titles, you'd be much better off tracking down the DS retail release that contains all of these DSiWare-released tricks and much more.