[[quoteright:329:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/feel_the_magic.jpg]]
-> ''Rub it!''

What are ''Feel the Magic: XY/XX'' and ''The Rub Rabbits!''? The simplest explanation is that these are two games devoted to LoveAtFirstSight, even coming across in the Japanese titles (''Kimi no Tame nara Shineru'' [I Would Die For You], and ''Aka-chan wa Doko Kara Kuru no?'' [Where Do Babies Come From?]). In both titles, your character falls completely head over heels for a girl and, with the help of a group known as the Rub Rabbits, sets about winning her heart by impressing her. Which brings us to the more complex explanation.

When Creator/{{Nintendo}} released the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS in 2004, Creator/{{Sega}}'s Creator/SonicTeam was one of the companies most excited about its features, and they eagerly set up the new IP ''Feel the Magic'' (then known as ''Project Rub'', its eventual EU title) to demonstrate the system's capabilities. The result was a MinigameGame heavily similar to ''VideoGame/WarioWare'', based entirely around the touch screen, microphone, and dual-screen setup. With the new IP came the ability to get as crazy as they wanted, and boy howdy, did they ever take advantage of that.

''The Rub Rabbits!'' followed two years later after ''Feel the Magic'''s quirky humor and gameplay proved it to be a CultClassic, but probably due to the increased popularity of the DS [[OnceOriginalNowCommon making its features less novel]], Sega has effectively put the fledgling franchise to pasture ever since, save for the occasional nod in later unrelated titles.
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!!This series provides examples of:
!!In Both Games
* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Effectively the overriding theme in both games.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: For your would-be girlfriend, though you only get to see them when replaying the minigames outside of Story Mode.
* AntiPoopSocking: "Break Time!", which comes up after three levels of a minigame.
* ArtShift: Most cutscenes are presented as static comic panels. Each one has a hidden rabbit sticker used to unlock new clothes.
* BullfightBoss: You have to protect the girl from running bulls at one point, poking them to calm them down. While ignoring skiing men. In the first game, it's part of the Nightmare and the second game has robot bulls fought early on.
* CrushBlush: Often with your love interests.
* HeartSymbol: They're games about love, of course they're everywhere.
* HumongousMecha: The rival in the first game uses one during the final boss. [[spoiler:So does the girl in the second game, in the forms of a bull, a bear, and a hawk.]]
* KissOfLife: Happens near the end of both games. In ''Feel the Magic: XY/XX'' [[spoiler:the hero has to perform CPR on the girlfriend after she [[TakingTheBullet takes an energy blast for him]]]], and in ''The Rub Rabbits!!'' [[spoiler:after the girlfriend loses her strength the hero uses mouth-to-mouth to administer the poison's cure]].
* LoveTriangle: Both games. In ''Feel the Magic'', your rival shows up early and is an antagonist from the get-go, forcibly going after the girl. In ''The Rub Rabbits!'', your character saves a girl from falling into a fountain before chasing off after his own crush, making the girl fall for ''him''.
* NoNameGiven: No one in the game is given a name.
* OldSaveBonus: Plugging other Sega GBA games into the DS cartridge slot would allow you to unlock themed bonus outfits earlier than normal.
* RecycledInSpace: ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' but HotterAndSexier (and made by Creator/SonicTeam)!
* SilenceIsGolden: There's very little dialogue in the games.
* TechDemoGame: Largely the point of ''Feel the Magic''; less so ''The Rub Rabbits!''.
* TheBlank: Everyone, as part of the art style. The whole game looks like a three-dimensional [=iPod=] commercial or a scene in Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena.
* TheReveal:
** ''Feel the Magic XY/XX'': [[spoiler:You have a blue mohawk underneath your helmet. Also, the girl from your flashbacks survived, and is now your love interest.]]
** ''The Rub Rabbits!!'': [[spoiler:Your character becomes the head of the titular performance group; rabbit ears spring up from underneath his beanie and goggles. The game is actually a prequel to ''Feel the Magic''.]]
!! Feel the Magic XY/XX
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: No, your stomach is not full of water which goldfish could swim up.
* AstralFinale: [[spoiler: The final battle parodies this by having the backdrop take place in space, only for it to be revealed that the space is actually just a bunch of painted backgrounds.]]
* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: Two of the mini-game games involve a giant antlion and a giant snake that eats you. The final boss's battle machine as well, though it's evened out with your own battle machine.
* BeeAfraid: One of the early love mini-games involves a romantic walk among flower bushes while having to fend off bees every so often.
* BigBad: The magenta punk man who kidnaps your girlfriend and who seems to own a factory of some sort.
* BossBonanza: Once the Rub Rabbits make it into the main villain's lair, the last few minigames consist of a nightmare-induced BossRush, the BigBad's mecha and then a BeamOWar against the BigBad himself.
* BossRush: You're sprayed with nightmare gas near the end of the game in ''Feel the Magic: XY/XX'', causing a hallucination which forces you to take down an army of bulls, then harder versions of the previous two bosses.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: ''In-universe''. ''Feel the Magic'' starts as what looks like a movie audience watching your character passing by and falling for the girl; a man in bunny ears sees this, jumps to his feet and runs out of his row, and then appears in the movie with a fishbowl for the hero. Then the rest of the audience ''follows'' him!
* CPRCleanPrettyReliable: The protagonist of ''Feel the Magic'' keeps having flashbacks of his childhood, where he tried to perform CPR on a drowned girl but failed to save her. [[spoiler:Except, as revealed in the ending cutscenes, the girl actually did wake up, ''after'' he had run away thinking she died. That girl grew up to become the love interest of the game, who the hero needs to perform CPR on again for the final minigame. The latter scenario plays up the romance of CPR and is a simple timing game. You even get to jab [[TheGrimReaper Death itself]] to keep it at bay.]]
* CrazyJealousGuy: The main antagonist in the first game, who isn't above kidnapping the girl he lusts after.
* DelinquentHair: Your romantic rival from ''Feel the Magic: XY/XX''. [[spoiler:And yourself, as it turns out.]]
* DesertedIsland: You end up trapped on one for three minigames' worth of time.
* DontTryThisAtHome: A warning screen that introduces ''Feel the Magic''.
-->"Do not attempt to recreate any of the situations in this game."
* KamehameHadouken: [[spoiler:The final battle with your mohawked rival.]]
* ManEatingPlant: One serves as a boss fight in ''Feel the Magic: XX/XY''. You need to save your girlfriend from it. [[spoiler: It returns as the last boss of the Nightmare level.]]
* NightmareSequence: The boss rush in the first game, complete with trippy colours, distorted visuals and harder difficulty.
* OneHeadTaller: Played with in ''Feel The Magic''. The girl is half a head taller than the protagonist, but it isn't explicitly acknowledged. In the ending cutscene, he's suddenly taller than her, up to a full head in some shots... which a FreezeFrameBonus reveals is because a Rub Rabbit's holding a footstool under him.
* ScaryScorpions: You have to knock some off of the girl's back.
* TakingTheBullet[=/=]DivingSave: [[spoiler:The girl jumps in front of the rival's last electric blast.]]
* ThatRussianSquatDance: Your character during the "Dance" game of ''Feel the Magic: XY/XX''.
* TheGrimReaper: [[spoiler:You fight him away as you perform CPR on the girl.]]
* TheRival: The chunky mohawk man.
* ThePowerOfLove: You ''break out of metal restraints'' before the final boss in Feel the Magic XX/XY.



!! The Rub Rabbits
* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: Would you believe ''candles?''
* BearsAreBadNews: Though you can just hide under snow to escape them in one mini-game. One of the late-game bosses is also a mechanical bear.
* BigBad: The genius girl whose attempts to win you over involve sending giant robots to attack, abduction and [[spoiler: eventually poisoning your girlfriend with a memory erosion poison.]]
* BitingTheHandkerchief: The genius girl does this at one point while [[JealousRomanticWitness spying on you and the girlfriend together.]]
* BlowGun: Comes up a couple times, including a dramatic use [[spoiler:when your jealous crush shoots a memory-wiping poison at your girlfriend.]]
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler:The girl you abandoned brainwashes the former rivals into bringing you to her.]] Thankfully, it wears off.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: You can't get much more literal than the Rub Rabbits. They're labeled a "Super Performance Group", but it's unclear if they're actually paid to perform, or if its members hold any other jobs.
* CallBack: All sorts of them throughout ''The Rub Rabbits!''. [[spoiler:Subverted with the reveal that the game is a StealthPrequel, making each example a CallForward.]]
* ClingyJealousGirl: Your main antagonist in the second game.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: In ''The Rub Rabbits!'', your romantic rivals all befriend you after you [[MundaneMadeAwesome beat them in an epic battle of Rock-Paper-Scissors]], then graciously help them to their feet afterwards, proving once and for all you are the best match for the girl. [[spoiler:It's heavily implied they join you in forming the Rub Rabbits performance group from the first game.]]
* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[BigBadEnsemble The suitors]], who spend the first act competing with the protagonist for the girlfriend's affections, but [[DefeatMeansFriendship befriend him after being beaten]]. The genius girl then takes over as the BigBad, even brainwashing the suitors into becoming her minions for a time.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
** The opening warning screen to ''The Rub Rabbits!''
-->"Continuous stroking, blowing and poking could lead to unwanted attention in public places."
** "Goodnight" from ''The Rub Rabbits!'' has the hero pull up a sheet over his girlfriend's feet. "Skin", the scene after that, has the hero feel his girlfriend in complete darkness, though that is because they are sharing body temperatures in the cold.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The second game sets the tone for the story mode perfectly by having the main character run up an escalator to chase after the girl he loves with a remix of the Can Can playing as background music. This is also the first minigame by the way.
* FindTheCure: The Legendary Rose [[spoiler:whose petals can be ground up to cure a deadly poison.]]
* GardenGarment: An unlockable outfit made of leaves.
* GiantEnemyCrab: One of the mechas in ''The Rub Rabbits!'' is shaped like a coconut crab.
* GogglesDoNothing: You in the sequel.
* HotSpringsEpisode: With piranha!
* IfICantHaveYou: After [[spoiler:all her attempts to wipe the memories of/kill the girlfriend are thwarted]], the genius girl [[VillainousBreakdown blows her top]] and blasts both her and you with a laser. [[spoiler:Fortunately, ThePowerOfLove shields the two of you from harm.]]
* IronicEcho: The Break Times that play during the genius girl's segments are copies of some of the Break Times that play during normal segments, but something goes wrong every time in the genius girl's Break Times. (One of the normal break times has the girlfriend sample her cooking. The genius girl's version has her taste her own cooking... before spitting into a sink.)
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Eventually, the other eleven romantic rivals concede defeat and encourage you to be a good boyfriend.
* KindheartedCatLover: The girl will occasionally play with a cat during Break Time.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: [[spoiler:The genius girl uses a blowgun to poison the girlfriend, causing her to slowly lose her memory over a period of days. The only memories of concern are those she has about the protagonist, and it's not clear if she's losing any other memories. Everything is instantly restored once she drinks the cure.]]
* LawyerFriendlyCameo:
** In [[spoiler:both versions of]] "Foodstuffs" from ''The Rub Rabbits!'', the sound effect that plays when the girl gets a fruit is the same sound effect that plays when Sonic gets a ring in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog''.
** At the end of Another Story, [[spoiler:the sound effect that plays when the genius girl find the hero on her radar is the same sound effect that plays whenever Sonic touches a goalpost in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog''.]]
* LoveDodecahedron: The girlfriend has you and eleven other men pursuing her ([[DefeatMeansFriendship initially]]), and the genius girl is pursuing ''you.''
* LovePotion: The antagonist of ''The Rub Rabbits!'' often weaponizes this in her attempts to have you.
* MinecartMadness: A minigame in the sequel.
* MurderTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler: [[ImpliedTrope Implied:]] though the poison that the genius girl injects into the girlfriend in ''The Rub Rabbits!'' is specifically said to erase the girlfriend's memories, the poison seems to be taking a harsher effect near the end of the story.]]
* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles: [[spoiler:The search for the Legendary Rose's petals.]]
* NoblewomansLaugh: The genius girl does this frequently.
* RelationshipValues: Given a multiplayer treatment in ''The Rub Rabbits!'', which has a compatibility test.
* RescueRomance: One actually starts the main conflict of ''The Rub Rabbits!'', since the main antagonist develops a mad crush on the protagonist after he saves her from falling into a fountain.
* RobotMe: [[spoiler: During the VillainEpisode, the genius girl uses a robot copy of the main character for her minigames.]]
* RockPaperScissors: Referred to as "Roshambo", but there's no GroinAttack involved.
* StealthPrequel: [[spoiler:''The Rub Rabbits'' is a prequel to ''Feel The Magic'', and it ends with the protagonist, soon to be leader of the titular group, forming it.]]
* TeenGenius: The hero's jealous admirer in ''The Rub Rabbits!''.
* ThroughHisStomach: One of the genius girl's attempts to win your heart is to feed you sweet treats, along with [[LethalChef some unappealing-looking cooking.]]
* TheRival: The sequel gives you ''eleven'' rivals, who all eventually become your friend after their brainwashing wears off. [[spoiler:They're also heavily implied to be the first members of the Rub Rabbits performance group]].
* TwirlOfLove: [[spoiler:''Weaponized'' in "Bird", the final showdown of ''The Rub Rabbits!''; the hero and his girlfriend's method of attack is twirling together to create a whirlwind.]]
* VillainEpisode: [[spoiler: "Another Story" from 'The Rub Rabbits!' has you play a small story from the perspective of the genius girl.]] (Strangely enough, none of the mini-games use her theme from her mini-games in the main story)
* VomitDiscretionShot: One of the genius girl's Break Times has her sample her own cooking... before immediately spitting into a sink away from the viewer.
* WalkingSwimsuitScene: Unlike the first game's girl in her modest dress, the sequel's girl just has a pair of jeans and a bikini top for her default outfit. Obviously, you can invoke this yourself in either game [[VirtualPaperDoll by changing the girls' attire]].
* WhatTheHellPlayer: Poking the girl during the minigame descriptions will make her react in various pained ways.