YMMV / Magic Carpet

• Difficulty Spike: Some very visible ones the first time you encounter Bees (flying enemies who rush towards you and deal a large amount of damage) and Krakens (swimming enemies that trap you with the 'Duel' spell and zap you with lightning). Let's not get started on what happens when you meet the Wyvern (immune to rebound, attacks with incredible power, regenerates its health fast). If you piss off a Griffin herd at the wrong time, well let's just say there won't be much left of you after they're done.
• Even Better Sequel: The second game improved on a number of aspects with the design, including a more involved storyline, levels with multi-stage objectives beyond "collect mana", enemy wizards with distinct designs and more varied levels which may take place at night or in underground caverns. On the technical side, the game runs much faster and smoother than the first one, with the tradeoff of abandoning 3D modeled creatures for sprites.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • Due to AI limitations they will never claim enemy towns (leaving them free for the taking unless they accidentally cast possession nearby). You can also throw down a castle on an enemy to destroy them instantly (some high level monsters are immune and this does not work against enemy wizards).
  • In the sequel, replaying a level usually does not cause experience scrolls to spawn again. However, if you replay a level that has a secret exit and take it, the secret level you enter directly after that will have all its scrolls anew.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The level of terrain manipulation the games allow is still a sight to behold today.

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