Magical Spot

Magical Spot is a shooter video game published by Universal in 1980. Universal Entertainment Corporations is a video game company formally known as Universal Limited. It was established in 1969 and it majorly sold video games and slot machines to operators. In 2005, a company named Aruze, which is owned by a Japanese pachinko manufacturer acquired Universal and it became Universal Entertainment Corporations. The company owns licenses to produce and distribute arcade video games and casino slots in Mississippi, Nevada, and New Jersey. Famous game releases from this company include Space Panic, Lady Bug, Do Run Run, and Mr. Do’s Castle.

With the aid of your armed spaceship, you must battle against waves UFOs dropping from the top of the screen. The UFOs fire guns at your ship and drop larvae which are also deadly to your ship once you make contact. The larvae can fire a gun as well, but luckily, your gun can destroy them after two rounds of fire. Apart from blasting off hostiles, your secondary objective is to protect your ship so as to survive each round of the game. Larvae are best destroyed while dropping from motherships, once they touch the bottom of the field of play, they change forms and can destroy your ship when they make contact. When the larvae are in their second state, they cannot fire guns at you. In advanced levels, the waves of UFO’s become difficult to battle and it dodging larvae and enemy fire becomes harder. In these difficult levels, when larvae accumulate at the bottom of the screen, they mutate and fly back up to the play area. The mutant versions are stronger and they pose an immense danger to your laser ship. Mutant larvae also attack your ship from the front and they are filed in a line of 7. However, if you successfully escape mutant larvae attack, you score extra points and rank higher in the game.
Apart from being able to upgrade your rank, the game awards you an extra laser ship if your score total 5000 points. In the game, UFOs and larvae award different points when they are destroyed: UFOs are worth 50 to 90 points, larvae are worth 13 points when you hit them the first time and 32 points when they are finally destroyed, medium-sized UFOs are worth 60 points each. Ultramoths which are mutated larvae is worth 90 points each. It might be dangerous to leave larvae to mutate but they are very rewarding when you successfully clear them off the field of play.
Magical Spot has a sequel titled Magical Spot II which comes with more advanced gameplay. Both games were part of the biggest hit arcade titles created by Universal. The two games in the sequel are also top ten in the list of most popular Universal arcade video games.