✨ Received: April 5th, 2012 ✨ Written: December 8th-18th, 2022 ✨
Alternate Title: Mickey no Magical Adventure [ ⬤ ]
Year: 1992 | Developed and Published by: Capcom
Hello, gamers and readers alike, welcome to my blog, and thank you for taking the time to tune in today, I really appreciate it. 😃 Now then, how about we work some magic!
I just want to preface that I do not own a Famicom console, I played Mickey Mouse on a 500 in 1 NES-styled plug-and-play system
On March 6th 1987, the Famicom received the very first Disney video game license on Nintendo's 8-bit console with Hudson Soft's Mickey Mouse: Fushigi no Kuni no Daibōken, which saw Mickey and Minnie Mouse journeying together to save Alice (i.e. the title character from the 1951 animated classic Alice in Wonderland based on Lewis Carroll's novel) after she had been abducted by the forces from Wonderland.
Following Mickey Mousecapade's release Capcom would develop their own Disney fare starting with video game adaptations of animated series DuckTales and Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, both of which were well received and successful laying the foundation for Disney Capcom gaming to come. Nintendo of America, for the next several years, would give Capcom exclusivity rights when it came to the American publishing duties of Disney games on their formats regardless of whether or not they worked on them.
Eventually it would sell a million units, to which Nintendo plastered a million unit seller ribbon on a rerelease
While by no means Mickey's first rodeo on the handheld (with Kemco's Crazy Castle franchise being subject to change in the West due to licensing), it was the first to be released in this format outside of Japan.
Images from GameFAQs
November 20th, 1992 saw the Japanese Super Famicom release of Capcom's first 16-bit Disney license Mickey no Magical Adventure, which would be localized for the North American and European SNES on December 1992 and March 18th, 1993 respectively as The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse. Produced by Noah Dudley (in his second Mickey Mouse license after Sculptured Software's MS-DOS game Mickey's Colors & Shapes) with Tokurō Fujiwara (credited as "Professor F") acting as executive assistant, this game was planned by Hisashi Yamamoto ("MX-5"), Kamecha, and Tomohii, and was programmed by Masatsugu Shinohara ("M30"), Yamadacchi, Typedef, and Smak.
Left: Holding on to a flying berry | Right: In which Mickey meets a wizard
In the sidescrolling action platformer The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse you take control of Mickey Mouse whom you can walk left and right, run in either direction as you move down a slope should you choose to go through with it, duck down, jump up in the air with the B button with your gained altitude based on how hard you pressed it, swim upward in the water by repeatedly pressing B (just be sure not to stay down there too long otherwise you will lose a heart), and with the Y button you can pick up (or grab) an object or stunned enemy and throw it by pressing it again.
Left: Coin bird away | Right: Pull hard on the chain to open the treasure box and collect its contents
During the course of the game Mickey will be acquiring three special outfits that will allow him to progress further by overcoming specific obstacles where you can toggle between them with either shoulder button until you've highlighted your choice and change into that outfit (if not revert to normal) by pressing the A button: the magic turban, the firefighter's uniform, and the mountaineering gear.
Left: Riding down on a tomato as big as him 🍅 | Right: Hopping and bopping from ladybug to ladybug
With the magic turban equipped you can perform magic spells by simply pressing Y or if you wish to perform your strongest spell hold down Y until you're fully charged up and then let go to unleash your magic blast on your target, also whenever you're in the water with it on a bubble will form around Mickey's head enabling him to remain underwater for a long time without threat of losing health (lest you collided with an enemy or deadly obstacle). Be mindful of how much magic you use because it does take up your energy little by little, which can partially be replenished by collecting magic lamps.
Left: Up on the treetops 🌲 | Right: Oh no, Bat is sending out his kin towards you
With the firefighter's uniform on Mickey can combat fire by spraying and dousing water towards it from his firehose by holding down the Y button (while remaining stationary, in midair, or while ducking), with the strength of the water propelled at fast speeds he can also push sturdy blocks and large obstacles ahead which can then be used as platforms. Like with the magic turban, however, the energy meter does deplete with each use which you can fill up again by gathering fire hydrants.
Left: Follow the Pete statues | Right: "Hey, that's not how you play leapfrog, that's cheating!!" 🐸
And finally, with the mountaineering gear equipped Mickey now has the proper means to scale upward with his rope and grapple in hand which he can use with the Y button. On ground, he can grab a block (or a Pete soldier's shield) from a distance by pressing Y and left or right simultaneously and like when he's in his normal shorts press the button again to throw, by pressing up and Y or simply Y he can grapple upward or diagonally above him, preferably to a grappling surface like a ceiling or a winged platform or a swinging orb where you can raise or lower yourself to a point and swing to and fro. You can even swing yourself ahead by holding the direction button and pressing Y afterward but with precise timing to hook yourself on again.
Left: Secret 2-up cache | Right: Giving starfish a literal appearance ⭐
Throughout The Magical Quest you will come across blocks and treasure boxes, the latter of which can be broken open by tossing a block or enemy at it, using a magic blast or the water from your firehose, or by pulling on its chain should it have one. Among its contents you might find coins, fruit for bonus points, small hearts to replenish your lost health by one, big hearts to augment your health capacity by one, or a Mickey doll to garner an extra life. If you look thoroughly you might stumble across a door, sometimes leading to a general store where you can purchase replenishments for your health or magic turban or firefighter's uniform, a Mickey doll, or a big heart by jumping up towards the item of your choice for a fee should you procure enough coins to purchase any one of these things, otherwise you can return to the game by exiting right.
Left: Tossing a block at Serpilante | Right: Trying on the magic turban for the first time
Each stage is divided into three to four segments, as you must also contend with enemies whom you can dispose of by hopping and bopping off of if not tossing a block at them or by using a powerup from one of your three outfits to do them in, and on occasion you might be forced to fight a midboss. If you lose a life by losing all your health, falling offscreen, or should the time count all the way down to zero (a rare occurrence), you will be sent back to the beginning of the present segment you were in when it happened. Each stage will bookend itself on a boss fight, where emerging victorious will grant Mickey access to the next stage.
Left: Testing out my magic blast | Right: It's a cocoon! 😦 With a face! 😧 Truly bizarre...
The Magical Quest is a visually pleasing game to look at with the soft touch and color palette used in each area with a solid sense of detail, all combined with a good degree of visual polish giving it a recognizable Capcom aesthetic. Mickey Mouse's first Nintendo 16-bit foray looks good, and the visuals by Natsue Ueda ("Natsuchan"), Manachan, Chu-Pon, and Chieko Ryugo ("Chiechan") are very well-done with a nice degree of atmospheric depth. The opening stage Treetops looks inviting as it begins with the beanstalks with a nice cloudy backdrop which then segues into an appealing forest with lots of green foliage and relaxing blue water once Mickey has fully descended,
Left: Taking out a leafling | Right: Leaf hopping 🍂
the second stage Dark Forest has got a lighthearted creepy vibe with the shaded trees in both the backdrop and on the foreground with the occasional creepy tree with claw-like branches bearing Pete's visage, and the fourth stage Pete's Peak is refreshing to look at as you're greeted by a sunset sky with the subtly animated cool breeze at the beginning where earlier on you get a peak from a distance of the giant nest with a giant egg where you'll fight against the giant bird. My favorite areas to look at in this game are the third and fifth stages Fire Grotto and Snowy Valley respectively:
Left: Swimming inside the large body of sap inside the tree | Right: Welcome to the general store
I love how Fire Grotto slowly builds up to a ceaselessly flaming environment filled with decrepit walls with molten floors almost resembling wax, bubbling lava in the backdrop, and how during one portion there is a large body of fire that alternates between descending down toward the water and rising away from it and the closer the fire gets to the water the surface becomes redder which is a nice detail, and Snowy Valley is a beautiful area in its simplicity with the star-studded aurora borealis sky and brightly glistening snow.
Left: "You put your grass skirt back on, this is a family game!" | Right: Time your movements properly with each clubber's swing lest you wish to sustain damage
The character designs by Tall Nob, Yoshifumi Onishi ("Toshi-Chang"), and Yuji Ishihara ("U-zie Isshie") are solid across the board and are drawn with lighthearted charm. Mickey Mouse is well-designed in his Nintendo 16-bit foray and has got solid animations when it comes to walking, running, jumping, hopping, swimming, and block tossing, and I like how whenever you have him change into a special outfit he'll make a red curtain magically appear into place where he pulls the drape to cover himself and instantly switch to another costume like a magician would.
Left: Confronting Spideron in his web | Right: Ha ha, oh you! 😄
Mickey's alternate costume designs are bright and colorful, I like the way his cape flutters whenever he's midair and the way it flows when swimming in the water any time he dons the magic turban, I like the water effects whenever he sprays water from his hose while in firefighter attire, and I like the momentum of his swinging motion when grappling from a swinging orb or ceiling as a mountaineer. I especially like how there are different stunned animations for Mickey depending on what outfit he wore when taking damage, like appearing all groggy with his magic turban covering half his face or forcibly removing his firefighter helmet that got stuck on his head.
Left: Be mindful of your surroundings for whenever a pink bat spawns from the darkness | Right: Be careful where you step whenever he does that due to the spikes protruding from the ceiling
The Magical Quest has got a wide assortment of foes for you to deal with all endearingly designed with sometimes incredulous reactions upon being ousted if not rendered stun dizzy, like the ladybugs and bees that flap their wings, Pete soldiers and archers, tiny leaflings who spring to life on the ground with their only field of vision being the solitary hole on the leaf that slowly flutters down, tree sap crab creatures, sentient flame enemies and flame bats that manifest onto the scene, sentient eggs who spring up from their tiny nests, small round fuzzballs that break free from within their icy chambers, winged helmet heads, and winged torches who react incredulously upon their flames being doused for a second before tumbling towards the ground, to name several.
Left: How nice of that window display to just so happen to have a firefighter outfit spring out from it after a mysterious block crashed it and find itself landing on Mickey right on cue | Right: Use the water to push that lumbering obstacle
The end of each stage has got well-designed bosses that are big and imposing and most of whom have got an effective buildup at the start of the battle, three of them incorporating smooth Mode 7 rotating and scaling effects. Treetops' boss, Serpilante, is a giant snake who coils and reveals its head from inside the trees and falls to the ground to reveal its size, Spideron in Dark Forest who crawls and skitters around his web menacingly thanks to the rotating Mode 7 effects bearing an equally menacing grin, Pete's Peak's giant bird swoops in from the distance as it attempts to blow Mickey off its nest and flaps its wings gracefully as it attempts to attack you by cracking open its egg to release its hatchlings or sentient yolk,
Left: "Hmmm, quite the likeness that doll permeates..." | Right: Be prepared the douse out the fire of the moving platforms the moment they become engulfed in flames prior to platforming ahead
and Emperor Pete towers over you after collecting the strength of the individual Pete ghosts that emerged after defeating the main bosses leading up to him in Pete's Castle. There's a sumptuously diegetic amount of color layering effects giving the areas you journey through an atmospheric depth and feels very polished, like the fluffy body of clouds in Treetops and Pete's Peak, the waters of Treetops and Fire Grotto, the foliage of the leaves in Treetops, and in Dark Forest Mickey swims inside a tree sap which is immersive in the way there are subtle currents here and there.
Left: Duck | Right: Uncovered a big heart under the water
The Magical Quest's soundtrack was composed by Mari Yamaguchi (who was credited as simply "Mari") with the sound effects provided by Tatsuya Nishimura (who was credited in the game as "Anie"), and for the first Disney game starring Mickey Mouse on Nintendo's 16-bit console it does a good job at lending the adventurously lighthearted atmosphere for each location and appropriate sense of tone depending on the situation.
Rockman 5: Blues no Wana!?/Mega Man V and Capcom's first traditional turn-based RPG Breath of Fire as well as the Japan-only NEC PC Engine conversion of Street Fighter II': Champion Edition. Following a long hiatus from composing she would make a return in 2010 along with other series composers for Inti Creates' Mega Man 10/Rockman 10: Uchū kara no Kyōi!! and in 2020 would serve as an artist for Square Enix and Gumi's War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.
Tatusya Nishimura previously composed music for a handful of entries in Jaleco's Moero!! Pro Yakyū/Bases Loaded baseball simulator franchise before moving in with Capcom to create the sound design and sound effects for a few of the ports of Street Fighter II* as well as their Nintendo 16-bit conversion of Mitchell Corporation's arcade classic Super Pang/Super Buster Bros., right after this game he would provide sound effects for Breath of Fire,
* The Nintendo 16-bit version of Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, the Sega and NEC ports of Street Fighter II': Champion Edition, and the Nintendo 16-bit version of Street Fighter II' Turbo: Hyper Fighting
RIP Dana Hill (1964-1996), original Max Goof VA pre-Jason Marsden, you were taken too soon 😔
Goof Troop/Gūfii to Makkusu - Kaizoku Shima no Daibōken, and Disney's Aladdin, and would compose music for Capcom's port of Westwood Associates' Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Eye of the Beholder and Rockman 7: Shukumei no Taiketsu!/Mega Man VII before briefly returning to Jaleco to lend his music composing talents for Moero!! Pro Yakyū '95/Bases Loaded '96: Double Header
During their early tenure both Yamaguchi and Nishimura would be among a group of composers who provided music for the Nintendo 16-bit console-exclusive beat'em up sequel Final Fight 2.
Left: "AH, flame bat!" 😱 *sprays* | Right: Be sure to continuously spray and douse the water on the wall boss' mouth to reduce its flame powers as its oval platform formation rotates (counter)clockwise 🔥
I love Yamaguchi's music in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts and her work in Breath of Fire, she's got a distinctive approach to her musical style that makes it recognizable plus she's one of my favorite female video game composers alongside Harumi Fujita and Yoko Shimomura. 😍 For The Magical Quest she manages to find the right musical balance that gels with the Disney flavor while adding an extra melodic layer that helps draw you in to this world. The Treetops theme at the start of the game is gleefully supercharged and sets the tone for the endeavor you're about to embark on, the Dark Forest theme has got an otherworldly and enthralling quality about it that it starts off simple until little by little it builds up to a majestic climax making it one of the best songs in the game, Fire Grotto's theme is also incredible as it is unrelentingly menacing throughout augmenting the sense of imminent threat which perfectly complements the infernal environment,
Left: "Gee, thanks, Goofy! This would be a great costume to do a cover shoot for my next game on the format, my [Designer Software's Mickey] Ultimate Challenge, HA-HA!" | Right: "Yoink!"
like the stage itself Pete's Peak's theme is a pleasant breath of fresh air after the literal hell Mickey went through to get here and is a delightfully breezy composition brimming with adventurous flair, Snowy Valley's theme sounds very beautiful with its wistful and calming melody that goes well with the ice and snow, and Pete's Castle's theme is completely foreboding as you go through the final stretch on the way to face off against Emperor Pete and use every one of your outfits' abilities. This game features four boss themes: the midboss theme for when you fight against Bat, Boioioing, and Cro-magma is playfully intimidating, the two normal boss themes are hectic and fast-paced, and Emperor Pete's theme ratchets up the do or die vibe while never straying too far from the lighthearted tone.
Left: Latching onto a swinging orb with the grapple | Right: Dealing with an egg and a bee at once
The sound effects are well-designed, like the jingle sound of the coins you gather and the latching sound of the grapple making contact with a surface, the squeak any time Mickey sustains damage, the mysterious sound that's heard throughout your swim in the tree sap, the flame bursting sound, the magic blast of the magic turban, and the whooshing sound of the wind current that I remember my sister Diana likening to a sound of hooting owl after hearing it from her room many years ago as I was playing the game, et al. The Magical Quest even borrows a few sound effects from previous 16-bit Capcom fare: the sound of the cannonball explosion and the glass breaking were both in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, and the fruit collecting jingle derived from Super Pang.
Left: That's a nice view of the mountains peaking out from underneath the clouds and that giant nest over there | Right: Secret mountainous compartment
This game has got three difficulty settings, each with their own variations. On easy you start with a health of five, on normal three, and on hard mode you only begin with two. The harder the difficulty the more enemies there are with a slightly lesser number of platforming magic blocks and the boss battles are longer with a more durable sense of resilience against your attacks before they eventually bite it. One thing to beware of is the mudfish that swim in certain waters who will leap upward the moment you jump over them but be sure they cannot reach you for if they do then they will drag you down with them automatically costing you a life. The number of continues is unlimited, but it must be beaten in one sitting. The Magical Quest is squarely a one player game, but there is an alternative two-player mode where both players could take turns.
The musical quality took a dip though, which is shocking because Makoto Tomozawa was among the composers for Rockman X/Mega Man X which I thought had a great soundtrack, I do not know what happened here. 😕 It's not terrible, there are a couple standout themes, but it doesn't have the listenability factor like Mari Yamaguchi's The Magical Quest's music did before it. I would also be a little remiss if I didn't feel like the magical element was diluted in comparison to the precursor, but despite that I do enjoy The Great Circus Mystery while it lasts and personally found it to be an improvement overall.
A year later in 1995 Sun L would work on the second sequel for Capcom, Mickey to Donald: Magical Adventure 3, which initially only saw a release on the Japanese Super Famicom, seeing the two on a quest to save Donald Duck's nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie after they get trapped and captured by King Pete inside a magical storybook. With Disney Interactive in charge of releasing Disney-related video game content in the West by this point this game didn't have a chance at localization for the Western SNES.
and with it clocking in at roughly seventy to eighty minutes is the longest game in the entire trilogy (which might either be sufficient or be deemed too long depending on who you talk to*). As a trilogy closer and the last of six Disney Capcom games on Nintendo's 16-bit machine, I personally feel this threequel went out on a considerably good note. 😃 With each passing entry the list of credits grew smaller and smaller as the cast of characters have grown bigger and bigger, with Mickey to Donald: Magical Adventure 3 only having the names of Disney producer Gary Graeper and senior producer Emiko Yamamoto before immediately finishing off with "Capcom All Staff" (it's very odd). Oh well, I enjoy playing it personally.
* On the subject, there seem to be a wide array of opinions and notions in regards to which direction The Magical Quest's sequels went depending who you talk to: they either stagnated in quality up and down, stagnated in quality down and up, progressively got better, regressed with each entry, or were pretty much on par through and through
* Or by connecting it to the Nintendo GameCube via adapter cable when it had Nintendo and Capcom's Disney's Mickey Mouse no Fushigi na Kagami/Disney's Magical Mirror starring Mickey Mouse inserted (which also came out in 2002), where finishing the main game earns you a five-character password pertaining to that game
As handheld conversion jobs go, though, Disney's Magical Quest is a serviceable port for what it is that's still got the polished magic-oriented gameplay and did away with the graphical slowdown that was present in the Nintendo 16-bit original and added certain platforming blocks to accommodate the screen crunch, but suffered a bit from the usual pratfalls of Game Boy Advance conversion jobs of Nintendo 16-bit games such as slightly reduced visibility of your environment at the risk of adding difficulty that wasn't there originally and weak sound samples that reduced the quality of the soundtrack (it's hard not to feel like Mari Yamaguchi's beautiful music was butchered a little here). If you're not too picky, though, the GBA port is fine, but you're better off sticking with the original provided you own a Super Famicom or a Super Nintendo. The sequels would also be converted to the format, with the third game seeing an international release for the first time as Disney's Magical Quest 3 starring Mickey & Donald.
The following screen captures are from The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse's prototype pages on The Cutting Room Floor
On November 18th, 2018, an anonymous user dumped and released the ROM of an early prototype of The Magical Quest, then titled "The Mystical Quest", which was showcased at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show of 1992 half a year before its Japanese release with only the first two stages being completed.
For a couple examples, the mysterious wizard originally was to have wings before they got clipped for the final release, and originally was to incorporate an aquatic enemy with a nightmare fueled design before being changed to a frog
The prototype featured noticeably altered area and enemy layouts (or barren segments before enemies were put into place), graphical sprite differences for Mickey and every other character before they were slightly or greatly touched up for the better, Mickey began with six hearts, the outfits were available from the get-go, and subsequent post-Stage 2 areas only had rough outlines, et al. Whether you're a fan of this game or retro gaming in general, it is a fascinating read behind the development process, and prototypes have always been interesting to read about compared to how the final product turned out.
Left: Be sure to hang on while the current shows up lest you get caught by and blown away by it | Right: Climbing up a winged platform block
I was eleven when I first learned of The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse, sometime in late 2002 I got Volume 159 of the Nintendo Power magazine because the Mickey Mouse from Disney's Magical Mirror starring Mickey Mouse, a game I enjoyed immensely on the Nintendo GameCube way back when, was presented in the cover; it had hints and tips not just for it but for Disney's Magical Quest starring Mickey & Minnie on the Game Boy Advance as well and I remember what screenshots they showed of that looking interesting, but I never thought of playing it at the time... I don't know why, I think it would've been something I would have enjoyed. I didn't realize it was originally a Nintendo 16-bit game until I saw a series of screenshots from that version on the internet several years later.
In retrospect, it surprises me how much this game got away with, but that's neither here nor there
so mere weeks later for my 21st birthday on April 5th, 2012 I asked for it as well as Ukiyotei's Skyblazer on the SNES, the latter of which I've grown to like more with each replay despite it largely being devoid of difficulty and lacking some of the polish of Capcom's game but can't help but be entranced by its sense of foreign culture and aesthetic design. The Game Boy Advance version Disney's Magical Quest I would catch up with on April of 2019.
Left: Hold on | Right: Be prepared to attack once the giant bird glides into place
As Mickey's first go-around on the Nintendo 16-bit console, and the first Disney game developed by Capcom for the system, The Magical Quest is a very good and solid starting point that is fun to play every once in a while. I liked the magical locations you journey through, I liked the pacing and the way each area opened up to you, the gameplay is endearingly polished, and it's got a beautiful visual aesthetic that just screams "Capcom" with a good dose of lighthearted Disney charm to boot.
Left: Snowy Valley welcomes you, brief though it may be | Right: Spray water on those stationary airborne ice blocks to momentarily create a platform for you to jump on before they shatter
With each new outfit you gain, the gameplay develops an added layer of depth as you switch to the appropriate outfit to overcome certain situations, which are all well thought-out and involve a nice sense of experimentation to come to grips with their abilities. The Magical Quest is also a game with many moments: running on top of a tomato rolling down the steep slope of the beanstalk, seeing the magic turban magically lower itself down before you prior to venturing in the Dark Forest, swimming inside the sap of a tree, descending down the grotto with spikes protruding from the ceiling until you reach an infernal landscape, dousing the fire out of sentient platforms that burst into flame upon being touched by fire, scaling the mountains and being mindful not to get caught by the forceful wind current, and trudging through the snow, et al.
Combining Mickey Mouse platforming with magic seemed to be a recurring theme in 1992, as Sega worked on the 16-bit classic World of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck/World of Illusion: I Love Mickey & Donald - Fushigi na Magic Box for the MegaDrive and Genesis consoles, albeit with different results that was also enjoyable in its own right.
Left: Taking care of the fuzz | Right: Aww, the stary night sky and aurora borealis is so beautiful!! 😍 Careful not to move towards those rubbery things lest you want to be repelled by them
Having said all that, though, I find it mindboggling that Mickey and friends would play catch in the park residing by a cliff. Why on earth would you play such a game by a cliffside? 😖 Other than there would be no game, that is. Real talk, it is a humorous way to set up Mickey's magical quest, quirks notwithstanding, and I love how Goofy moonwalks out of the scene as he waves at Mickey. 😄 In hindsight, I do feel Donald Duck has been unfairly sidelined here, waiting in the background for Mickey and Goofy to pass the ball to him (but they never do) and popping up out of a window. They don't even ask Donald to help look for Pluto, only Goofy volunteers? That feels a bit mean.
* Not just Capcom, though, other developers handling Disney content as well, for Donald would not appear as a playable character on the Super Famicom until Epoch's release of SAS Sakata's Japan-exclusive Donald Duck no Mahō no Bōshi
A Goofy that exists in a different canon, who's also voiced by Bill Farmer, but still 🐶
Goofy got his fair shot long before Donald on the Nintendo 16-bit format, in arguably one of the stronger Disney Capcom games in the system in my opinion.
Oh well, I suppose in the end beggars can't be choosers, for Donald Duck would become a playable character in Sun L's Mickey to Donald: Magical Adventure 3 on the Super Famicom and it is nice that you get a chance to play as him on a Disney Capcom game for once, though I can imagine some opining that it may have been too little too late before finally giving him his playable due. But hey, better late than never, is all I can say.
Left: Jumping upward | Right: Spray water at that walrus-like ice-skating Pete lookalike to cause him continuous damage, but be careful not to get in his way when he skates out of the frozen half-pipe
I like how Capcom scattered some secrets about, rewarding you for thoroughly searching in the present area for you never know if you might come across a hidden door or a treasure chest containing a big heart if not a life (including one found in the underside of a mountain which would have to be accessed with the utmost of precarious measures), even if The Magical Quest is largely linear in style. What's also neat is how from the fourth stage onward you have a choice to either launch magic projectiles to your bosses or continually spray them with water from your firehose, each method of is which is effective in its own right which gives this game a bit of a replay value in that regard. I think Masatsugu Shinohara, who also programmed the sequels to Capcom's Makaimura/Ghosts 'n Goblins and Mitchell Corporation's Pang/Buster Bros. games, did a solid job programming this game, and there are a couple moments that I feel evoke a real Makaimura vibe (being dragged down in the Fire Grotto and carefully weaving down on a magic carpet in a chamber confined with spikes that instantly kill you should you touch them) which I appreciate.
Left: Dispose of the Pete soldiers | Right: Welp, that's a pretty dark outcome for this family game, I think, because now that sentient spring platform is dead! 💀
The boss fights are manageable once you get their patterns down, and many of them have reasonable strategies where you could either jump on Spideron's head should it face upward or amass a powerful magic blast provided the head is facing the side, continuously spraying water on the wall boss' mouth as the platforms rotate around him, alternating between grappling on to a swinging orb as the giant bird whizzes by and changing into the magic turban or firefighter's uniform as it glides down to you, and the penultimate portion of Pete's Castle is littered with Pete statues to try to throw you off course with only one of them leading to Emperor Pete, while picking the wrong one will force you to fight against Bat, Boioioing, and Cro-magma again, et al.
Left: Don't forget the archers | Right: Careful not to collide with those sentient flying helmet heads
The Magical Quest presents the most amount of challenge on hard mode which is the preferred difficulty mode to try, even though the Fire Grotto boss is annoyingly long and fast with how often he spews out his flames. Whenever Mickey gets knocked back by an enemy or its projectile it is annoying if you're not careful, particularly if it happened while you were standing by the edge. There are a few occasions of graphic slowdown whenever there are a lot of objects on screen (like when a collection of coins or fruit sprout from an opened treasure chest with enemies and magical blocks abound), it's not as frequent an occurrence as in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts but it is keenly felt during the boss fights in Fire Grotto, Pete's Peak, and Pete's Castle when so much activity is happening at once at the expense of affecting the flow. As well-trodden as the overall pacing is, it's disappointing that Snowy Valley is so short that it could literally be plowed through in minutes, it's such a gorgeously relaxing area to look at that it saddens me that it's so brief every time. 😔
Fun fact: Emiko Yamamoto, who designed and coordinated Castle of Illusion and directed its 16-bit sequel World of Illusion as well as QuackShot starring Donald Duck/I Love Donald Duck: Guruzia Ou no Hihou, would go on to act as senior producer for Sun L's Mickey to Donald: Magical Adventure 3 half a decade later
Compared to the Disney mascot's first outing on Sega's 16-bit console (often cited as one of the best Disney games ever, if not the best one of all), though, The Magical Quest does a suffer a bit by comparison; even though Castle of Illusion is on the simpler side of things that's part of what gives it its beauty making for, in my opinion, a more fun and balanced platformer brimming with Disney charm and still holds up remarkably well.
Left: Precariously gliding down on a magic carpet ride | Right: When it just hits the winged torch enemy that its fire had been snuffed out
Of the quality Mickey Mouse platformers created during the '90s, I do personally consider The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse to be one of the weaker ones compared to its sequels (of which I played The Great Circus Mystery first), Castle of Illusion, World of Illusion, and the Genesis version of Traveller's Tales' Mickey Mania, but on its own merits I still think it's a solidly enjoyable game with a nicely magical premise and good dose of challenge on the normal and hard difficulty modes that it doesn't veer too much on the easy category like in most Disney Capcom games. I think if I played the original SNES version (or the Game Boy Advance port with Minnie in it) back when I was a whole lot younger than 21, I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more or held it in high regard, but as it is, I'm glad I caught up with it eventually and was largely pleased with Capcom's efforts. 😃
Left: Bat again, the only difference is that you've become stronger since the last battle with him | Right: Don't let Emperor Pete's towering stature and massive girth deter you, you can take him!
If you own a Nintendo 16-bit console, I recommend playing it if you'd like to see how Mickey fared in his first foray on the system or if you'd just like to play a reasonably enjoyable game with good humble beginnings, just do not walk in expecting the highest of challenge or absolute perfection even. I think Capcom did a good job with their first Nintendo 16-bit Disney venue, incorporating an appropriate level of magic and charm to the proceedings.
My Personal Score: 7.5/10
● Originally I reviewed this game on December of 2012 (ten years ago) and gave it an 8 out of 10, but with this review I feel like I've done the game a proper justice with a better grasp on research and thorough sense of well-thought out articulation... besides which, my old review is very amateurish compared to my standards of reviewing as I got older (like a lot of my reviews from my younger years, I can't even read it!). 😓 I'm way better off with how I'm reviewing games nowadays. 😔 10/15/23 Update: So I've decided to delete it, I'm sorry if there were people who liked it, but I'm doing this for my own good.
● Irrelevant to video games: at the beginning of the month I watched on YouTube (while it was free to watch) the Leslie Nielsen comedy Wrongfully Accused which was written by frequent Nielsen collaborator Pat Proft (of The Naked Gun fame) in his only directorial effort which spoofed Andrew Davis' The Fugitive among other films. So, my overall thoughts on it was that it was okay for the most part, there were a few jokes that I felt were too much (do not take a shot any time the movie's title is namedropped, and it does date itself with it parodying moments from other movies that were popular at the time) and at points there was crude CGI work. But let's focus on positives: Nielsen is still incredibly funny, as usual, his commitment to physical comedy is remarkable given he was in his seventies (RIP legend), I found the opening credit sequence to be hilarious (Lambchop even makes a cameo, RIP Shari Lewis, sorry you weren't credited in this film), Richard Crenna did his best Tommy Lee Jones impression from The Fugitive, I was surprised to see Bill Conti (of Rocky of The Karate Kid fame) as composer as I found the music with its serious tone to be quite good (despite being juxtaposed with funny slapstick), Nielsen and Kelly LeBrock have an okay chemistry, and even though I admit that I found a lot of the humor to be juvenile or stupid I thought there was an earnest quality about them due the fact that the movie was made during noncynical times (how I wish the 2020's were not so cynical a time period to live in) which at least made them amusing (to me). There were genuinely funny moments, though: the aforementioned opening concert scene, a character subduing someone with the "first draft of Titanic" (a large ream of paper), Nielsen being chased by a sentient train (that at one point goes "peek-a-boo" which is monumentally silly), and the muted news channel gag (probably one of my favorite jokes from the film, even if it's just a sight gag it was cathartic because they're all bad news today), I even recognized a gag that would be used in David Silverman's The Simpsons Movie (making me wonder if Matt Groening and company saw Wrongfully Accused and took inspiration for that gag). In the end, I found it watchable and okay, but as far as '90s Leslie Nielsen comedy movies go, I preferred Mel Brooks' Dracula: Dead and Loving It from when I watched it back in May.
Happy 30th Anniversary, The Magical Quest,
you earned it!!!! 🥳
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Thank you for reading my review, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think (neither spam nor NSFW is allowed); hope you have a great day, be a nice human, and take care! 🙂
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