 Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz That's drunk! When it came to mascot platformers, Mickey Mouse was pretty reliable. He starred in two fantastic games for the Sega Genesis, in Castle of Illusion and World of Illusion, and some really solid games on Super Nintendo like Magical Quest, The Great Circus Mystery and Magical Adventure 3, the latter sadly staying in Japan. It certainly helped that Mickey was popular enough that only the best quality developers were reserved for making these games, with the illusion games being made by Sega themselves, and the three aforementioned Super Nintendo games were created by Capcom. Then in 1994 came a game called Mickey Mania made by British developer Traveler's Tales, who at that point had only made okay-ish at best games like Toy Story and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Huh, that's kinda weird, so what's the deal? Does this game measure up to the lofty standard set by Sega and Capcom? Well, not quite, but Mickey Mania still has lots of great qualities, albeit with some annoying flaws you gotta deal with. Yeah, I've talked about this game briefly in the past, but this one is worth talking about more in-depth. For one thing, this game just looks incredible, and it should, considering that actual Disney animators provided over 1,500 original drawings to make the game look authentic. The idea here is that Mickey travels back in time to six of his old cartoons, even as far back as 1928's Steamboat Willy, along with other classics like The Mad Doctor, Moose Hunters, Lonesome Ghosts, Mickey and the Beanstalk, and 1990's Prince and the Popper. And sure enough, this game looks like you're actually playing through the cartoon itself. The sprite animation, the backgrounds, the enemy design, the color palette, everything here is startlingly accurate. It is really cool to see. That's really the primary appeal of this game. I caught myself just openly gawking at the screen at times. So, how does the game play? Well, that's where things get a bit dicey. Mickey can take up to four hits and has four lives and unlimited continues to get through six levels split up into about four or five stages each. On the surface, this looks like just another run to the right hop and bop style platformer, but Mickey Mania is much more of a puzzle platformer, if that makes sense, where not only do you defeat enemies as you go, there's other stuff you gotta do in order to progress. Like for example, right away here, you gotta go out of your way to ring these bells for some reason, which extends this bridge before you get locked into an area with these boxes dropping bombs on you. Do I destroy the boxes? Do I do something with the bombs? Nope, you destroy the gears on the left and right sides. The whole game is like that. It's not always clear what you're supposed to do to advance, and it's one of those things where you either have a certain intuition for it or you don't, and even then, the game still puts up signs telling you what to do. Sometimes it works out well and sometimes it's kind of a pain in the ass. Complicating things a bit further is that Mickey's movement is momentum-based. In other words, he takes a bit to get up to full speed and takes a bit to slow down, which can be frustrating for some folks. It's one of those things where the visuals take priority over the actual gameplay. Sure, the sprite animation and artwork is incredible-looking, but it's gonna wind up and wind down, so to speak, before Mickey actually does what you want him to do. It definitely takes some getting used to, but it is at least consistent throughout the game. The weirdest thing about Mickey Mania is that it has loading time? What? Is there a CD inside the cartridge or something? It's really strange, and it's really only a few seconds between stages. The longest I counted was about six seconds, but hey, I guess Mickey has to reticulate splines, synthesize gravity, and set advisor moods or something before continuing his adventure. I was half expecting this guy to show up to yell at me about cutting back on funding. Mickey Mania was also released on Sega Genesis, Sega CD, and PAL regions even saw a release on PlayStation. I've really only spent time with the Super Nintendo and Genesis editions, and picking the better game is an easy call. It's the Genesis version. It has more levels, more music, and it's a textbook case of the Genesis's wider resolution, lending itself to a better experience since you can see more of what's ahead of you and what's behind you. Oh, and there's no loading time. Must be all that blast processing. But yeah, while the Genesis version is better and offers more content, you really can't go wrong with playing either game. Mickey Mania kinda gets lost in the shuffle a bit considering there's like seven other 16-bit Mickey Mouse games, but this game is solid once you settle in with the controls, and of course, it helps set the game looks awesome, as you can clearly see, and the music here is also really good. It has a real Capcom vibe to it, and it kinda reminds me of Super Ghouls and Ghosts in that way. Another neat thing about this game is that if you're into collecting cartridges, this one has stayed at around $10 over the years, and it's a solid pickup if you see it available. All right, I wanna thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.