My Top 100: #53 – Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse

1992 - Capcom (Super NES, Game Boy Advance)

 

Capcom was really on it with their Disney games.  Aside from TailSpin, I played and greatly enjoyed all of the NES Disney games released under the Capcom banner.  From Adventures in the Magic Kingdom to DuckTales (and even The Little Mermaid), they knew exactly how to take a brand name and run with it.  You know, like LJN did, just the opposite in terms of quality.

By the time the Super NES came around, I had outgrown some of the cartoons Disney produced.  Aladdin was the only animated movie of theirs that I showed interest in, since it had a cool setting, and Robin Williams was awesome as the Genie.  There were two great (and very different) Super NES and Genesis games based on the movie, and I enjoyed them both tremendously.  Aside from that, though, the house of Mickey had been dead to me for a while at that point.

Regardless of the subject matter, though, Capcom still knew how to crank out a great game.  With Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse, they did just that.

 

 

Although the game was an absolute masterpiece, it actually reminds me more of the 44th issue of Nintendo Power, which was their 1993 New Year’s issue.  Aside from having the game on the cover, it was jam-packed with content, including a Mario Paint stamp guide, Star Fox paper plane cutouts, and best of all, a 16-page Mega Man spectacular!

I believe the Angry Video Game Nerd touched on that a bit in his Nintendo Power tribute episode…  it was amazing.  But, I digress.  Back to the game!

Mickey, Goofy and Donald Duck are playing catch in the park one day when Pluto goes to fetch an errant ball.  When he doesn’t come back right away, the group of friends find that the faithful companion has gone missing.  It’s up to the titular hero to brave the elements, and save his best buddy from the evil Emperor Pete.

I guess Pete was just hanging around in the bushes, just waiting for his moment to pounce on poor Pluto.  What a bastard!

Magical Quest plays like a basic platformer for the first little bit.  Mickey can pick up items and toss them at foes, or jump and stomp on them for a quick kill.  In the levels that follow, Mickey gains a few abilities that really change the way you play the game.  A magician’s uniform allows him to charge and shoot magic (a nice little nod to Mega Man 4‘s Mega Buster), a fireman’s outfit gives him a hose to shoot water with, and mountain-climbing gear gives him a grappling hook, à la Bionic Commando.

The levels never get tiresome and offer lots of variety, and the game offers a nice, fun challenge.  The graphics look great, and take on a style much more vivid and artistically interesting than Sony Imagesoft’s Mickey Mania, a massively hyped game released a few years later to coincide with Mickey’s anniversary.

I never owned this game, so aside from the magazine, my memories of this one are pretty limited.  I’m definitely hoping to find a copy of it soon!

 

Best. Issue. Ever.

 

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