The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse is a Capcom-published action-platforming game for the SNES from 1992. This game was suggested by the handsome and generous
@Zef .
Much like Mickey Mania, I had an issue of Nintendo Power which hypes this game up. It was cool enough to be right on the cover! And hey, guess what? I still have a copy of this issue!
In fact, I have two copies, for some reason. I think someone may have donated another copy to me. This is a fantastic issue for many reasons - beyond the coverage of the Magical Quest, it's got features on two (2) Mega Man games, a Mario Paint special insert, the standalone Mario vs. Wario comic, the results of the design-a-robot-master contest, and other fun stuff.
What's more, the Mickey coverage actually lays out the entire game from start to end, even mildly bemoaning that the game could stand to be a bit longer. I used to rent this game as a kid, but I don't think I ever got past the second stage. So I figured if this game is short, and Nintendo Power has my back, I can get through it in one sitting. Right??
What It's All About
The story is utter simplicity. Mickey and friends are playing ball, and Pluto runs away. Goofy pledges to find the lost pooch, but Mickey doesn't trust his buddy's sleuthing skills, so he sets off to do the job himself. No sooner than he sets foot outside the ball field does Mickey find himself lost in the Evil Kingdom of Emperor Pete, and a mysterious wizard tells him that if Mickey doesn't find Pluto soon, Pete will curse the dog with evil magic.
How it Works
Magical Quest is a fairly standard Japanese-style action platformer of the era. Mickey runs around with the d-pad, jumps with the B button, and uses items with the Y button. He can attack enemies by jumping on their heads, or he can pick up blocks (and other objects) and throw them. In each stage, Mickey can find fruit (for extra points), coins (for buying items), hearts (to restore health), heart containers (to increase his maximum health), Mickey dolls (extra lives), and certain other special items.
Hidden in various places are also big golden treasure boxes with Mickey's face on them. These have a chain which Mickey can pull, and if he does, the box explodes with items. Each stage has a secret shop where Mickey can buy temporary and permanent power-ups.
The stages follow generally accepted platformer themes. There's a grassy stage, a forest/water stage, a fire stage, an ice stage, a "too many pits" stage, and an evil castle. Some of them have themes which vaguely call back to classic Mickey toons, but they aren't directly based on them like the stages in Mickey Mania.
Finally, at the beginning of stages 2, 3, and 4, Mickey gets a new costume which grants him special abilities. In stage 2, he gets a magician's outfit which lets him cast a charge-up magic blast and survive for a long time underwater. In stage 3, he gets a firefighter suit which lets him spray water and put out fires. In stage 4, he gets a...I guess it's a Robin Hood suit? Anyway, it has a grappling hook. The first two costumes have limited uses, and can be restored by picking up magic lamps and fire hydrants, respectively.
How it Feels
This game is polished AF. It feels like the culmination of many other Capcom properties. It's a well-oiled machine of short, punchy challenges, hidden areas, and enemy encounters. Everything feels like it's in the proper place. The game sounds and looks quite a lot like Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, down to a mini-boss who feels like Red Arremer with a Pete skin and Emperor Pete stomping around like Astaroth.
Some of the mechanics feel lifted from other Capcom properties, too - Mickey's charge-up magic shot feels more than a little bit like Mega Man's buster, and the grappling hook is basically swiped right out of Bionic Commando.
There's just enough nuance to keep it all interesting. Even at game over, you keep your extra heart containers. The shops sell 300-coin items which halve the costs of your firefighter and/or magician outfits, so you have incentives to hoard coins and seek out the shops. The only thing that feels vestigial is the point system - I suppose you could play the game for a high score, but there's no real mechanical incentive to do this other than that it feels nice to get extra points sometimes.
What I Played
I sat down to play the whole game...and I did! Just as Nintendo Power promised, it's a pretty short game. Each level has three or four sub-stages, and the maps in the magazine helped me find the hidden shops and heart containers. There are unlimited continues, with the only penalty of continuing apparently being your score resetting.
The most difficult stage was probably stage 4, the grappling hook level. The hook, sadly, is nowhere near as graceful as the one from Bionic Commando, needing quite a bit more precise timing to do it well. But, part of this was on me - if I hadn't been going out of my way to get the hidden 1-ups and shops, I probably would have cleared it a lot sooner.
When you beat the game, it's all revealed to have been a dream. Boo! Get a better stinger, writers! 0/10
Would I Play More?
If I wanted to play this game more, I could try it on the hard mode, or go for a 1CC. But honestly I'd rather check out the others in the series - there was a sequel ("The Great Circus Mystery") on SNES, and a second sequel ("Magical Quest 3") on SFC. Capcom's in-house team was at the height of their console game in the 90s, so I'm sure they're at least worth checking out.
