The Duck and Mouse Universes in video games

[alquackskey]

Nov 11, 2020 23:58:49 GMT bats said:

Nov 11, 2020 23:47:24 GMT alquackskey said:

Ah, fair enough! My experience with Atari is fairly limited outside of the more well-known subjects surrounding it.

I didn't mean to discount the concept of educational games entirely - just those on the Atari.
Of course, that idea carries some bias in it... I have a love of retro gaming, but I just can't deal with Atari for some reason. Even the more well regarded games just don't sit well with me for some reason.

Bit of a departure from the general subject, but if you're interested in getting more exposure, I heavily recommend this Youtube video series, which presents highly in-depth retrospectives on the Atari VCS games in chronological order:
www.youtube.com/c/AtariArchive/videos?sort=da

That's actually really cool!

I've only gotten the chance to look into the first episode so far (The new Kingdom Hearts game has stolen me!), but I enjoyed what I watched - it was really informative, and definitely puts the timeframe into perspective. Hearing some of those hardware specs in modern times... wowie. Not to mention, the fact that some release dates are lost to time - it's amazing how much the world of gaming has progressed since the earlier days.

[alquackskey]

One of my favourite Disney games in more recent years was Disney Infinity, Disney's foray into the world of toys to life.
For those that didn't follow, toys to life was a genre where you'd get a figure of some sort and scan it into the game. Disney Infinity was a massive Disney crossover game playing with the concept. The first edition was all about Disney characters, the second began to add Marvel characters. and the third had begun to add Star Wars characters. Sadly, all of the stories (Or playsets, as they were known in-game) were restricted and didn't really allow for franchise crossovers. Many characters were only playable in the Toybox, which was essentially a massive sandbox where you could create worlds to play around in.

Obviously, going into detail about every Disney character would be undoable, so I'll mainly focus on the topic title: The Ducks and Mice.


The first game had Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey (Who had a Crystal variant as well), the second game introduced Donald Duck, and the third introduced Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
The game also had Power Discs; they were available mostly in blind bags (with a few exceptions) and had a variety of uses. Some (as seen in the picture above) were vehicles or mounts that you could ride around on, some would change the terrain and skybox to match a certain theme, and some would alter the character (Either by changing their stats or giving them a costume).
The above image show's Mickey's Car, but there were others:
One that might rile up a few fans here is "Scrooge McDuck's Lucky Dime":

Sadly, Scrooge himself never got the chance to be playable. This power disc is a passive one, just increasing the amount of sparks you got.

Donald got an outfit change to be Musketeer Donald from Mickey, Donald and Goofy: The Three Musketeers. The more divisive one was Mickey's costume change to King Mickey from Kingdom Hearts:

As you can see in the image, the release was limited to the D23 expo that year, which upset many fans. It's unknown for sure if it was ever going to be made available to the general public, but the game was cancelled before that could happen either way.

Sadly, the game was cancelled just as it was hitting its stride; the profits weren't enough, so Disney pulled the plug with very little warning. Sets that were in production (or even just about finished) were dropped and all of the content planned for 3.0's release, as well as all of the ideas for 4 and even 5 were discarded. This includes Peter Pan, who was just about finished (to the point that it's possible to find Peter Pan figures online, though they don't actually work in-game) and, to go along with the above characters, the much requested Goofy.



There's so much more that could be said about the game (I haven't even actually talked about the gameplay itself, and will save it for another post ) but the game was made with a lot of love, and it was such a shame to see it go, especially when the team were finally getting a clear understanding of what their aims were with the franchise overall.

[bats]

This one I'm sure a LOT of people have played,

The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse for the Super Nintendo:


It's a platform adventure with a fairly simple plot presumably inspired by the classic short The Mad Doctor, where Pluto has been lost in a mysterious area full of dangerous monsters and Mickey has to brave the various dangers to find him. The game takes place across 6 levels mostly based around very standard video game locales - after the initial Jack and the Beanstalk-inspired one the rest are a forest, a cave, a mountain, a snow mountain and a castle respectively. What makes the game stand out, however, are the various costumes Mickey can get,which grant different abilities. In his initial form, he can pick up and throw blocks and enemies that have been stunned from a jump, but on the second level he's given a magician outfit that gives him the ability to shoot magic blasts that damage enemies and destroys blocks, which can be charged up to make them more powerful, on the third he's given a fireman outfit that gives him the ability to shoot a stream of water that likewise destroys enemies and blocks, and on the fourth he's given a mountain climber outfit that gives him the ability to throw a rope that can stun enemies and grab blocks diagonally above him. All these costumes have multiple additional uses as well, like the magician being able to breathe underwater and fly on magic carpets, the fireman's water stream being able to move indestructible blocks and create ice platforms by hitting balls of frozen ice, and the climber's rope obviously being able to grab onto platforms and grappling points. Since the two costumes that give Mickey projectile weapons increase his offensive abilities as much as they do, these also come with depleting power gauges that must be replenished with certain items to prevent the player from using them too much.



The game got two sequels, but aside from adding a two-player mode, they don't really live up to the first one, with the new costumes having increasingly gimmicky abilities. This first one has a very well balanced set of powers, well designed levels full of secrets worth exploring around for and fun boss battles. One of the best Mickey Mouse games out there.