Magician/Gameplay

Genre
Magician is officially a role-playing game, but it fits better the definition of game. Think of  series: they are officially action-adventure games, but they fit the definition of role-playing game far better than Magician.

The two characteristics that distinguish role-playing games from adventure games are freedom of exploration and character progression.
 * 'Freedom of exploration: Magician'' lacks it completely. It is made of six well-separate level, and backtracking is impossible, even if you missed an important item. Most levels are in a straight side-scrolling line, with minimal branches (more akin to ' action games).
 * Character progression: role-playing games offer a large choice of equippable items (weapons, armours, accessories), but Magician includes none. Also, player characters in role-playing games have a series of attributes that improve with game progression, but Magician only has one: the mana (spell points) total.

Therefore, Magician is better described as an game, that are characterized by an emphasis on puzzles. In fact, this game provide three varieties:
 * 1) Item puzzles: find an item (or a spell), then use it at the appropriate location.
 * 2) Puzzle rooms: they are just trial and error until the correct path is found.
 * 3) Combat puzzles: fighting consists of knowing the enemy's strength and weakness, then prepare the appropriate shield and attack spells, then mash the attack button; otherwise, the player can simply decide to avoid the fight by casting Fleet Foot or Jump.

Apart from bosses and sub-bosses, combats provide no rewards at all.

Similar games
Another adventure game with a similar quest is Tangled Tales, released the previous year for home computers. That one has more role-playing elements, though.

There are very few adventure games released exclusively for the NES:
 * (1984) Princess Tomato in Salad Kingdom, a graphical text adventure made in Japan.
 * (1990) Magician, this game.
 * (1991) Wurm: Journey to the Center of the Earth, a multi-genre game, with some text adventure sections.
 * (1992) Stanley: The Search for Dr. Livingston, a game made in the United States, with interface and many mechanics similar to Magician.