The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse

Hello and welcome to ToriJ's Video Game Reviews. Allow me to introduce to you Disney's Month! A time set aside where we look at various video games through the years based on memorable Disney's characters that we all know and love. And what's better way to start than with the mouse that started it all, Mickey Mouse!

The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse is the first entry to the “Disney's Magical Quest” franchise developed by Capcom for the Super Nintendo. We were going to get a Sega Genesis version, but for whatever reason that got abandoned. Next time, baby. Next time. Until then, let's see what Mickey has to offer us.

  I think the bird could have chose a safer place to sleep.

Mickey Mouse is your basic 2D side-scroller where you can collect points and there's a time limit on each stage. At first all you can do is jump on enemies and grab objects, but once you get the other costumes you can unlock more variety. There are four costumes overall: Default, Magician, Firefighter, and Mountain Climber. As a Magician you can shoot magic, Firefighter can put out fires (duh), and the Mountain Climber can scale up obstacles to get to high places.

You can switch between the four costumes at any time during the game (once you have all of them that is) and each one provides their own advantages, but it's only the final stage where you need to switch between them a bit more. Otherwise, the game makes it obvious which one you need at what time. Certain bosses are more vulnerable to a set costume and there's a magic and pump meter for the Magician and Firefighter respectively.

I'm the king of the world!

The game has six stages that are divided up in four parts. Some of the stages have mini bosses you can fight and then the main boss that comes alive in part-4. Despite the difficulty levels there to force you to invest more time to it, the game is still pretty short. I was able to beat it in less than a day and it was only my first time playing. That's short even by retro game standards.

First couple of levels are kind of generic, but serve their purpose. Level design picks up at the third level when it feels like you're descending into the bowels of hell! And knowing Disney that's probably intentional, the sick fucks. Then you have the mountain and ice levels which are a lot of fun. The final stage with the castle gives me Mega Man vibes since you can run into a lot of the bosses you already faced.

  Emperor Pete? Yeah, that's a name that inspires fear into the hearts of your enemies. Pete.

Our story centers around Mickey's dog Pluto being kidnapped by the evil Emperor Pete, and it's up to the mouse himself to rescue him. Points for not making the damsel the girl in this, but I have to ask... Who kidnaps a dog? Seriously. Is Emperor Pete that desperate for companionship he couldn't chip in for his own pet?

Apart from that, and the occasional scene with the wizard in the image above and Goofy, there isn't much story as you're most likely to expect. The game has a lot in common with Mario in terms of gameplay, and it wouldn't surprise me if Capcom used those games as a point of reference. Even the plot is more or less the same, but at least nobody says, “Your dog is in another castle!”

  I hate this boss with a passion, and apparently so does Mickey. Just look at how angry he is! He knows this stage is pure bullshit.

Most of the bosses you encounter are creative and as fun as they are challenging. The first couple of bosses aren't much to look at, but once you get to stage three things get interesting. You encounter a monster who shoots fireballs at you and raises up the lava to ram you into the spike ceiling above.

Stage Four has a giant bird that charges at you from the background and you have to literally hang on for dear life to survive. You also need to take away her eggs and use them against her before they hatch and create baby birds you have to worry about. Reminds me of Queen Gohma a little bit.

On the fifth stage as seen above, you have this guy who will skate from the left and right platform shooting snowballs at you. You can jump on top of him for a hit and either freeze or dodge the snowballs. The thing is he always spends more time on the left platform, but you never know when he's going to stand on the right.

He skates over to the right only to go back to the left, and when he finally does land on the right it's too late for you to react. You keep getting hit every time. You can also run out of energy for the pump and only have the Magician left, but magic doesn't do jack shit against this guy. All you have left is the jump and good luck with that.

Then there's Emperor Pete himself. Holy fuck, this guy is tough. It's like he heard all the jokes you made at his name and was hell-bent on making you pay for each one. First of all, there are minor enemies that attack you during that provides power ups when you beat them, and Pete fires electricity shit at you.

I lost count of how many times I had to hit this asshole before he finally went down. I wasn't even sure if I was causing damage as he kind of just flickers in and out. For all I know that was a glitch or just a regular effect or something. It wasn't until he started changing color that I knew his health was going down. After you beat him you find Pluto and the game comes to its conclusion. Let's check out the ending.

  A dream? A dream!?

The last couple of hours I spent chasing that stupid dog around was all just A DREAM?! I ran across an entire world map for that dog! I literally made a descent into hell! I climbed a mountain! I went ice skating and kept falling off shit! I went through a castle, ran out of water pump, and had to start the whole level over again! I spewed out so many profanities that every single church in my city burned to the ground! And you're telling me that it was all just A DREAM?!

FUCCCCCCK YOUUUUUUUUU!

Okay, I might have overreacted just a tad – Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you – I am at peace. I'm on a sunny beach with birds singing and blah, blah, blah!

The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse! What more can you say? It's fun, it's challenging, it's a disturbing insight into what goes on in Mickey's head. If you like Mickey then you may enjoy it, but if you're looking for something a little longer you may be left disappointed. I'm ToriJ, and I haven't even gotten started. See you all next week!

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