 Most Super Nintendo Disney games pretty much all followed the same kind of formula, 2D side scrolling platformer with one game mechanic to help it stand out. For instance, Mickey's Magical Quest has you changing costumes to use different abilities, bonkers has a speed meter that has you charge into objects and enemies, Lion King has you solving those infuriating puzzles using monkeys and hippotails, ugh… But Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow is really something different. For one thing, you've got a Disney character in Donald Duck playing a fictional character named Maui Mallard, who's a private investigator, and has an alter ego named Cold Shadow, a skilled and ruthless ninja. Donald, I mean, Maui is out in the Caribbean when a mysterious idol goes missing, which is bad because this idol is protecting the island from being blown up, I guess. So Maui sets out to investigate, and of course things go amuck from there. So yeah, Donald Duck is portraying a character who is portraying a character. As Maui, you shoot stuff, and as Cold Shadow, you use a bow staff, in all sorts of different ways to defeat enemies and progress through the game. And as you can see, what makes this game stand out is not only the stunning pixel art sprite work and backgrounds, which are obvious to anyone watching this, but it's how dark this game is. There's zombies, ghosts, and all sorts of weird supernatural stuff. And it's a bit unusual for a Disney game. But yeah, the sprite work here is unreal. Everything is constantly in motion, and they did an incredible job with the Donald sprite, having a move in all sorts of different ways, in both forms. Even if you leave Maui alone and don't press anything on the controller, he's got like four different things he'll start doing, like looking at a map or pointing his gun around. They left no stone unturned here. Even the most minute, easily defeated enemy is given a little bit of personality. There's eight long and distinct levels to go through with a password system to save your progress, so it's easy to skip ahead so you can see the whole game. Okay, this game is gorgeous looking, that's a given, so how does it play? While the Super Nintendo version anyway is a little hard to get used to, it's almost like the screen is too busy at times, which can make it hard to see enemies. Also if you're used to playing stuff like Mario, this game will get you out of those habits quickly, because the camera here is really sensitive, shaking around at even the slightest press of the d-pad, so that takes a little while to get used to. Other than that, this is a really fun action platformer, yeah it's kinda lousy that it's not until the second level that Maui earns the ability to change into cold shadow, but once you do, this game is awesome. I should note, the amount of time that you can stay in the cold shadow form is dictated by a meter in the upper right, you keep that meter filled by collecting these yin-yang icon things. Cold shadow is super fun to control as, but even Maui is fun too, since you can eventually power up your gun. The go-to comparison is Earthworm Gym, and that's fair, although I think those games have better level layouts than Maui Mallard. This game provides much busier environments like I said, while Earthworm Gym gave you more space to play around in. But yeah, the games are structured very similarly, where you're searching around looking for the exit in each stage before running into the occasional boss fight. The thing is with Maui Mallard is that you have to collect a certain percentage of loot to move on to the next stage, but that's never really a problem. There's lots of inventive sections, like where you have to float up this pipe organ here, or parts like this where you shrink down to get into certain areas. It's just one of those games where you can tell the development team had a lot of fun coming up with weird ideas for levels, and most of them work well. Sticking with the Earthworm Gym comparison, I would say that that game has better controls, since Maui has a bit of a floaty jump that you have to get used to, but that's certainly not game-breaking or anything. Maui Mallard is perfectly fine in its own right. Of course, I have to point out that Maui Mallard was originally developed for Sega Genesis in Brazil and Europe by Disney's own brand-new in-house development studio Disney Interactive. North American Sega Genesis fans didn't see this game until it was broadcast on the Sega channel. The Super Nintendo however received a physical release, although it should be noted it's a port from the Genesis version, done by Eurocom Entertainment. This game is definitely a case where the Sega version controls better due to having a more stable camera and a wider screen resolution, but at the same time, the game looks and sounds better on Super Nintendo, as you might expect. So yeah, Maui Mallard on Super Nintendo is worth playing today, even if it was originally developed for Genesis, because I mean, have you been watching the video? Then you can see how much work went into the visuals here and how great it looks. This is Yoshi's Island level great, and it might be one of the three or four best looking games on the Super Nintendo period. The gameplay is the type where it takes a little while to get used to, and I know some people hate when that's said, because let's face it, you can brain-watch yourself into liking anything if you spend enough time with it. All I'm saying is that I think this game is worth the time, and that the controls aren't perfect, but there's nothing game-breaking here. So I would check this game out any way you can. And I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.