Mickey Mania

Mickey Mania Console-Sega Genesis Year-1994 Developer-Sony Imagesoft Genre-Platform I’m not a huge fan of Mickey Mouse, but you cannot deny that Disney games were some of the best on the Genesis. Mickey Mania is included in that esteemed list. There isn’t really a story to the game or so it seems, but you take control of the legendary mouse himself, and go through his historical past to save ..himself… from the baddies. Pete seems to have returned as the ultimate baddy in this game. You get to own him with a wrecking ball in the face, which is pretty awesome. Anyway, as I said, you travel through time to certain stories in Mickey’s history, such as Mickey and the beanstock, Steamboat Willie, and the Mad Doctor. It’s quite amusing, especially if you know the old Mickey stories. GRAPHICS Right from the first level, Steamboat Willie, you know that this is another top-notch Disney game. The level start is entirely black and white, save for yourself. As you traverse through the level, it slowly gains colour up until the end where you’re in full technicolour! Tons of detail have been put into each level, as expected from a Disney game. The character animations are fluent and a delight to watch. Mickey’s happy skip is straight off of the paper and looks fantastic. Each level is vastly different from the others, taking place in totally different worlds in Mickey’s history. With this, each world has its own specific enemies, so you won’t see the same ones popping up later. The game is also vibrant and colourful. When you first play the first level seeing everything in black and white, you almost think that something is wrong with your tv or connections, but as you reveal more colour in the level it’s just simply amazing. Simple, but amazing. It really pulls you into the world and adds another depth to it most games don’t have. It’s hard to really say anything bad about Disney games from this era in terms of graphics, as they almost always shine and push the systems to it’s limits, with no slowdown to boot! I wish more 16-bit games looked like Disney games. SOUND As with graphics, the sound holds up to the Disney standard. Mickey has a few voice overs and they sound fairly clear, although not as stunning as say, Lion King. There was some pretty awesome tunes in Mickey Mania as well, most specifically the music where you go up/down the tower sequences. The song is played once again at the final battle with Pete. Something about it is just awesome. Most of the songs from the game are found somewhere in the actual cartoons, such as Steamboat Willie when they wind up the goat’s tale to make him play music.(Which is also the very first harmful object you find in Mickey Mania) GAMEPLAY This game is quite tight in most areas. The controls are great, and I never really had a problem with them. They can also be changed if theyre not to your liking, in the options. Speaking of options, theres three difficulty levels: easy, medium, and hard for your choosing. Theres a very simple level select code to use too, which makes up for no passwords or saving. It’s not cheating! Overall the game isn’t that hard, but gives a decent challenge in some sections. There were no super frustrating sections. Theres also a few hidden things: A secret Mickey to find, and a whole bonus story to unlock. The only real gripe I have with the game is there were only two true bosses in the game. Rather than fighting a boss at the end of each level, you just find a character at the end and that’s it. Theres a mid-game boss and an end boss and both are fairly easy. The mid-game one can pretty much be rushed and he’ll die before you die. Oh, now that I think about it, the other gripe i have is how short of an invincibility time between damage you take is. It can be slightly annoying if you accidently jump into a bird and it takes off 2-3 points of damage before you hit the ground. But these are quite small gripes, and don’t affect the overall enjoyment of the game. CLOSING WORDS Mickey Mania is a refined, fun, platformer that all ages can enjoy. It’s definetly worthy of the Disney name for the 16-bit era and can be placed high up there with Aladdin and Castle of Illusion. There was also an enhanced Sega CD version of Mickey Mania, which had cd quality music, added voice overs and some added gameplay features. Definately check this game out if you can find it, it’s a Genesis classic. Remember, this is only my opinion, check the game out for yourself and judge!