Gamer Tuesday
June 7, 2011
Pap
the Disney Gamer's Highlights:
Adventures at the
Magic Kingdom
System:
Nintendo Entertainment System
Developed
by: Capcom
As I said in
my article about
"Walt
Disney World Quest: Magical Racing
Tour," there are very few
games based on the
Disney theme parks, making
Adventures at the Magic Kingdom one
of those rare finds in Disney gaming
with said theme. On top of this, the
title has gotten a bad reputation
among gaming enthusiasts for being
very hard to play. Why? I'll explain
the details in a bit.

Adventures
at the
Magic Kingdom tells the story
of how Mickey and friends are
getting ready for the parade down
Main Street USA at the Magic Kingdom
in Walt Disney World. Goofy,
however, has misplaced the keys to
the castle (Geez, between this and
Chip and Dale ruining the
fireworks machine in "Magical Racing
Tour," Disney characters should stay
away from official events!). It is
up to you, the player and Mickey's
best friend, to go around the Magic
Kingdom and recover all the keys.
This is accomplished by
participating in mini-games based on
famous attractions.

There are
six levels in Adventures at the
Magic Kingdom. The first of these is
a Disney trivia challenge that
happens around the Magic Kingdom.
When you talk to several people
scattered around the map, they will
ask you a question regarding Disney
films, short subjects, and
characters. These are fairly simple
if you are a big Disney nerd like
me.

The rest of
the game happens in no specific
order as you are given the freedom
to explore and participate in any
game you want. Autotopia, much like
the attraction, has you racing
against other racers and avoiding
obstacles. This is more of a
survival race as it doesn't matter
what position to place in, as long
as you cross the finish line you
win.

Space
Mountain is rather unique, if
slightly frustrating to play. It
takes place on the first person
perspective while you travel around
in space, shooting meteors in the
process. The objective is to press
the buttons as they quickly flash
on-screen. In the
gaming world, this is known
as the "quick
time event," scenes in which
the player must press a button in an
instant. Because of this, Space
Mountain can be really challenging
for even the avid gamer. Commands
flash too quickly, and the stage is
very long.

But the
hardest game of them all is
Big Thunder Mountain. The
objective is to reach the end of the
level. As simple as that sounds, the
actual goal changes every time the
game is played, meaning that it is
all about luck than skill.

Luckily, the
rest of the game is really fun and
shows its value as a Disney themed
game. Both
Pirates of the Caribbean and
Haunted Mansion are
platforming levels where you control
your character and survive its
enemies. In both levels you can see
how much the developers wanted to
recreate the attractions in 2D form
as best as possible. Unlike Magical
Racing Tour, Adventures at the Magic
Kingdom isn't in 3D, so the levels
lack the details that do justice to
the original attractions. But, with
some clever design they pulled off a
convincing digital replication that
fans should enjoy.

In the
Haunted Mansion level, some of the
enemies you will encounter are
dancing ghosts (like the ones seen
in the
ballroom scene), zombies,
ghostly reflections, deadly hands
and many more characters from the
ride. In the Pirates of the
Caribbean not only do you have to
rescue the villagers and battle
pirates you have to survive burning
towns and even skeletons that like
to toss their booty at your face
(And by booty, I mean gold coins,
kiddies!).

Capcom is
known for creating some of the best
NES soundtracks of the era, and
Adventures at the Magic Kingdom is
no exception. Surprisingly, there
are only a couple of tracks based on
famous Disney songs: "The
Mickey Mouse March" (which
plays on the opening scene with
Mickey, Donald, and Goofy) and "When
You Wish upon a Star" from "Pinocchio"
(plays at the start of every
mini-game). The rest of the songs
are original, though they have a
distinct Disney sound that makes
them stand out.

Adventures
at the Magic Kingdom isn't a perfect
game, but it is far from the worse
game ever created. It remains one of
the most interesting
Disney games in the huge
lineup of titles, and one of the
most creative attempts as bringing
the magic of Walt Disney World to your
gaming console.
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