My experience with Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse prior to completing it in 2021 was a single weekend in the early 90s, when my mom rented it (and an SNES to play it on) along with an insane anti-drug cartoon crossover PSA. Slimer and the Bugs Bunny taught me weed is bad, but wanton media consumption? Well, how could that be harmful to a developing mind?
In all honesty, I find it a bit hard to tell if my nostalgia for Magical Quest has anything to do with the game itself, or if it's because of what I watched alongside it. You have to understand, Cartoon All-Stars was the 90s equivalent of End Game, I might only remember the opening level of Magical Quest because I also watched Michaelangelo and Kermit the Frog guide a troubled youth through a drug-fueled nightmare. I was the sort of kid who unironically liked the third TMNT movie, and I'm the kind of adult who will tear up and hold his hat over his heart when the Muppets sing Kokomo, I am without hope and my mind is poisoned. As I built my Retro Bucket List, I added Magical Quest with the theory that I may only remember it for that reason, and not because it - as a singular piece of media - was worth committing to memory.
Compared to its sequel - which I accidentally played first, speaking of my memory problems - I think Magical Quest comes out on top. This is mostly due to the fact that Magical Quest is designed around being a single-player game. Sure, there is multiplayer, but it's the kind that requires you to hand off the controller, so its impact on the game's overall design is negligible. The main gimmick here, much like Circus Mystery, are the various costumes you pick up, which modify how Mickey attacks, moves, and interacts with levels. Some of these suits could form the mechanical backbone of their own games, but I think both Magical Quest and its sequel fail to fully capitalize on them. Despite this, they're still fun to play around with, and though the game is a total breeze, Mickey is responsive, and the platforming feels satisfying from start to finish.
Like other Disney games of this era, it's got a kind of vibe to it. As I write this, it's a cold, gloomy, wet Wednesday afternoon, and though I have plenty of other games to get to, I kinda want to just throw a warm blanket over myself and play Magical Quest again. It perhaps doesn't reach the same "video game comfort food" heights that Castle and World of Illusion do, but its different flavor is one worth savoring once in a while in lieu of those. That said, I think my theory holds true. We all have a game (or a few) from our childhoods that we remember for very stupid reasons, and sometimes it's because of factors other than the game itself. I'd probably ask myself if I even played this thing were it not for that one specific memory of doing so. Hell, even now I'm finding it difficult to come up with anything meaningful to say about Magical Quest as a game because I'm too preoccupied thinking about how I'm one bad trip away from meeting ALF. I'm a mess.
In all honesty, I find it a bit hard to tell if my nostalgia for Magical Quest has anything to do with the game itself, or if it's because of what I watched alongside it. You have to understand, Cartoon All-Stars was the 90s equivalent of End Game, I might only remember the opening level of Magical Quest because I also watched Michaelangelo and Kermit the Frog guide a troubled youth through a drug-fueled nightmare. I was the sort of kid who unironically liked the third TMNT movie, and I'm the kind of adult who will tear up and hold his hat over his heart when the Muppets sing Kokomo, I am without hope and my mind is poisoned. As I built my Retro Bucket List, I added Magical Quest with the theory that I may only remember it for that reason, and not because it - as a singular piece of media - was worth committing to memory.
Compared to its sequel - which I accidentally played first, speaking of my memory problems - I think Magical Quest comes out on top. This is mostly due to the fact that Magical Quest is designed around being a single-player game. Sure, there is multiplayer, but it's the kind that requires you to hand off the controller, so its impact on the game's overall design is negligible. The main gimmick here, much like Circus Mystery, are the various costumes you pick up, which modify how Mickey attacks, moves, and interacts with levels. Some of these suits could form the mechanical backbone of their own games, but I think both Magical Quest and its sequel fail to fully capitalize on them. Despite this, they're still fun to play around with, and though the game is a total breeze, Mickey is responsive, and the platforming feels satisfying from start to finish.
Like other Disney games of this era, it's got a kind of vibe to it. As I write this, it's a cold, gloomy, wet Wednesday afternoon, and though I have plenty of other games to get to, I kinda want to just throw a warm blanket over myself and play Magical Quest again. It perhaps doesn't reach the same "video game comfort food" heights that Castle and World of Illusion do, but its different flavor is one worth savoring once in a while in lieu of those. That said, I think my theory holds true. We all have a game (or a few) from our childhoods that we remember for very stupid reasons, and sometimes it's because of factors other than the game itself. I'd probably ask myself if I even played this thing were it not for that one specific memory of doing so. Hell, even now I'm finding it difficult to come up with anything meaningful to say about Magical Quest as a game because I'm too preoccupied thinking about how I'm one bad trip away from meeting ALF. I'm a mess.
Vee
1 year ago