Review #715: Disney's Magical Quest Starring Mickey & Minnie

 Thankfully, the game is much better than the title.

 So as not to break the trend, here's another port of a SNES platforming game, Disney's Magical Quest Starring Mickey & Minnie is another fantastic game brought to us by the magical partnership of Capcom and Disney, everything these two made was great, and this first entry into the Magical Quest trilogy is a perfect example of that.

 Short story even shorter, Pluto goes amiss and Mickey sets out to find him, an adventure that will take him through magical lands of danger. Six levels worth of lands, each one with a different theme. It is a fairly short game, like 2 hours long, but boy is it fun. Unlike the SNES original, you can play as either Mickey or Minnie in this game, although both play exactly the same and have access to the same costumes. The game's main gimmick are the costumes, which you can swap out at any time, each one giving your mouse a different set of abilities. There's a bonus Party mode, which can be played either in single or multi player, that features a different challenge themed around each different costume. Climb as high as you can with the climber outfit, get as many points as you can with the fireman outfit, etc. It's fluff, but on a handheld game I think it's not a bad extra.

 Basic Mickey and Minnie can only jump and grab/throw objects as well as stunned enemies. After you finish the first stage you'll be granted the Turban outfit, which lets you shoot magic projectiles and grants you underwater breathing, not too bad. After the second stage it gets spicier, you get the fireman outfit that lets you shoot water, which doubles as an attack or as a tool, since it can put out fires or even create temporary bridges if you shoot water against ice orbs. Getting to the third stage nets you the climber outfit, which can grab objects from the sky, and then throw them like basic Mickey/Minnie, or climb onto higher platforms or swing from the ceiling. I'm not gonna lie, it's not like each outfit is a 'completely different gameplay style', but it's an interesting mechanic and I would've liked a few more stages requiring smart use of each ability to progress. Most of the time, proper costume-use only nets you bonus coins.

 While you could play each stage by simply going left to right, there's quite a few secrets hiding in every stage, secrets such as hidden shops, in which you can spend your coins for goodies, or even permanent health upgrades. Seems I was quite bad at this, since my pre-owned copy's savefile had about 8 bonus hearts, while I only found 2. While there are a few cheap deaths here and there, the one-hit kill fishes being particularly nasty, there are infinite continues and the game is quite easy, once again, I only had 2 bonus hearts, for a total of 5 hit points, and I managed to beat the game without much hassle. I saw quite a few game-overs throughout my playthrough, but it was just a matter of learning patterns.

 The game is so good that it's short length is actually quite a disappointing matter. The game looks beautiful, and once you get the hang of it, plays quite well too. I think the costume mechanic could've been a bit more fleshed out, but what we've got here works well, and if you decide to explore alternate routes you'll probably find a reward or two. Does the game contain a ton of Disney lore and winks to its series? No, not quite, but it's a blast to play and, I think, that's what matters most.
 8.0 out of 10