Mickey Mania

The Good
Mickey Mania arrived to the Sega CD in 1995 and was based on Genesis' game released in 1994. The game improved the 16-bit experience thanks to the hardware capacities of the Sega CD.

We're talking about a game that pays tribute to Mickey Mouse, covering most of his films for the Disney factory and celebrating his 65th anniversary. Every level represent one Mickey's movie, and each one has different parts on it. You'll have to avoid many kind of enemies and menaces.

Each level has its own things, its own enemies and its own design as well as some puzzles in some parts. All the things on each level are from the films, and that gives many personality to the levels and make them unique. Length of the levels changes from one level to another, so, the duration is irregular and there is no structure for the game. Sega CD has a special part in the last level (and really funny) in which you'll have to deal with Pluto with the help of all the Mickey characters that you've been founding on each level.

Thanks to the Sega CD possibilities, the music is far from the 16-bit version and it's one of the best things of this game. We have exclusive compositions for this game, really epic music that suits with the game. Talking about sound, voices are included for this version, Mickey will react when he sees something that caught his attention, and he will say something about that clearly.

Graphics are also improved from the Genesis game. More detailed fluid graphics and non so artificial animations in comparison with that system that makes each level different with its own design and details. Good points on this matter from the previous version are also here, such as the 3D elements in some parts like the tower or the good effect in the first level, in which you'll begin with black and white colours and then the stage is been painted while you're progressing with many different colours and textures.

Gameplay is as good as we'd expect from a platform game, that means that jumping is not a headache and the controls response as they should. Mickey Mania is a classic platform game with all the cliches that you could imagine, so, the control is as simple as you may think, just two buttons, one for jumping and another one to throw the marbles that you collect during your adventure, but if those controls fail, the whole game will do.

The Bad
Somebody said "Fantasia"? Correct, in a game which is a tribute to Mickey Mouse we have no reference to one of his most (maybe the most one) important films. Yes, there's a whole game released dedicated to that epic film, but a film so important should be here too in some way.

We have 6 levels and one extra secret level, but they're irregular. While some of them last for a pair of parts, the others are so long. In relation with that, continues take you to the start of each level (not the beginning of the part) as in many other games, and it's good for most of the levels, but in some of them (in the longer ones) that's a stab in the back. Specially the last one is really difficult, and it's the longest one, you can face it with 7 lives and you'll perish the first time you play it (and maybe the second too), and continues don't help at that point.

There are two difficulty levels available, but most of the menaces in Mickey Mania are from the stage, so, you'll not even notice the difference from one difficulty level to another when you try it. The game itself is not difficult once you know all the bad things on it and its weakness because when you play it for he first time you'll feel like there are things that are directly unfair.

Sega CD needs some loading time between each part of each level. The problem is that the parts in Mickey Mania are really tiny, and loading screens are frequent.

When you've finished the game and you know what to do on each situation it's so simple and easy. A question in the ending credits relative to the secrets of the game will make you play it again, and you'll start it again to find the secret things and maybe with the hardest difficulty level but you'll realize that there are no important differences, and what's worst, that the special secrets doesn't affect to the ending or the main story, they give you just an extra continue and nothing more.

The Bottom Line
Mickey Mania's a good tribute to Mickey Mouse, a character that gave so many good platform games for the 8-bits and 16-bits systems. You'll miss Fantasia, but we're talking about a good platform game, and there are not many platform games (or just games) for the Sega CD, so maybe Mickey Mania is one of the best one of them. The game needs more length, by including new chapters (maybe two more would do the work) or by increasing the length of the parts in each level, but that's not a boring game at all.