Pap the Disney Gamer's Highlights: Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life Preview

2013 is looking to be one of the best years in Disney gaming yet. Titles like Disney Infinity and DuckTales Remastered look to keep a lot of Disney gamers occupied for the rest of the year. There is another highly promising game cooking up over in Japan that should also be worthy of our attention if it reaches American shores: Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life for the Nintendo 3DS.

Developed by Namco Bandai, the same company behind the smash hit Pac-Man, Tekken and the Naruto video games, My Happy Life can be best described as Nintendo's Animal Crossing series crossed over to the Disney universe. In Nintendo's series, the focus was to just live life to the best of your abilities, making friendships with colorful animal characters, decorating your house, fishing and adventuring. My Happy Life sets out to do similar things, but with the wonderful Disney characters we have grown to know and love.

In fact, this is the game's main draw: as the players take control of their Mii characters, they will be able to befriend over 80 Disney characters and visit their worlds. You can even take pictures with them, much like at the theme parks! Confirmed characters so far include Alice and friends from Alice in Wonderland, Mickey, Minnie, Winnie the Pooh and friends, Aladdin, Cinderella and many more. In these worlds, you will be able to partake in various activities, such as attending Rabbit's garden, fishing with Donald Duck, and even battling baddies in a magical cave!

Also like in Animal Crossing, players will also be able to buy clothes and accessories to customize their in-game Mii characters at Daisy's boutique. Players can dress up as Stitch, Alice, Pooh, and tons of other characters. In addition players can buy furniture for their homes. Lastly, one of the other appeals of the game is that players can take care of a restaurant where they can delight other players as well as other Disney characters.

Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life is set to be released in Japan on July 11, both as a digital download and retail copy. The release will also include a special edition 3DS with a Disney decal on top of it. The question now is: will this make it to North America? The high appeal of the Disney brand indicates yes, but the simple and laid back concept may concern publishers in North America. But if Kingdom Hearts has taught us anything, it is that even the weirdest Disney concepts can see great life. If My Happy Life is released, it will join the likes of Epic Mickey: The Power of Illusion and Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance as amazing Disney titles for the 3DS. Stay tuned here on Gamer Tuesday for more news on this very impressive game!

For now, you can watch the Japanese overview trailer here: