309 · Remote Control

• Now you can play the only game show that started in a basement right on your Nintendo Entertainment System
• NES Longplay
• Manual
• The game is coming out as the show is being canceled by MTV
• The show's premise was that Ober desperately wanted to be a game show host and set up his basement as a television studio
• Shows were sometimes interrupted by the disembodied voice of "Ken's mother," and the studio was set up to resemble a basement, complete with a washer and dryer, water heater, bric-a-brac, and a giant Pez dispenser that resembled Bob Eubanks (newly wed show)
• Finally, the contestants' chairs were placed in front of breakaway walls, through which they were unmercifully pulled if they were eliminated.
• During the game three contestants (computer or human controlled) compete by answering questions about various TV shows, movies, characters, or actors/actresses. There are two rounds of gameplay followed by a third "think real fast" round.
• In the first two rounds of gameplay the game board consists of a giant TV with nine channels; one of the players chooses a channel (representing a particular category) revealing a question
  • Sometimes a surprise channel may appear which doesn't have a question, but awards or removes points from a player.
  • Near the end of the second round, the lowest scoring player is eliminated from the game leaving two players for the final round.
• The final "think real fast" round lasts for thirty seconds; during this time the players need to answer as many short answer questions as possible to earn points. At the end of this round the player with the most points wins the game.
• The Art style
• The aggressive self-deprecation humor
• The weirdness
• The questions
• The special channels (beat the bishop and Home Shopping)
  • Beat the Bishop
    • The bishop will give you a random math problem. Solve it before he makes it to the other side of the screen.
  • Home Shopping Zone, Ranger Bob
    • You lose 10 points when selecting this channel.
• A great manual
• EGL
• NEXT WEEK - Adventures in the Magic Kingdom

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 Adventures in the Magic Kingdom. This is your ticket to breathtaking adventures in the Magic Kingdom.

00:23 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. And I'm Sean. Sean, how many parents use this as an excuse to say, you're going to Disney World?

00:41 Oh, I hope few. It's an evil thing to do, right? Very evil. But, you know, what's funny is when I was a kid, we had these Disney sing-along tapes, which I'm sure a lot of people grew up around. And it was basically just a collection of famous Disney songs with the actual scenes from the movies, but it would have a little sing-along things, everybody could sing along. I don't know why I'm describing it. You all know what a sing-along is.

01:06 The point being that they made a special one not related to scenes from movies, but just from around the Magic Kingdom of Disney World in Orlando, Florida. And that was like, for me, from the age of three to the age of 13, when I finally got to go to Disney World, that was my way of going to Disney World, was putting on that tape, watching those songs, and watching these other kids have fun in Disney World, because we didn't have YouTube back then. But I guess now, the three-year-old me is on YouTube watching, like, you know, some really snobby person go to hotels in Disney World and review them, and say, like, this is what a five-star Disney World hotel looks like. Because that's, like, all the rage now on Disney World YouTube.

01:52 My point being, you can't emulate the Magic Kingdom, Disney World, Disneyland. Like, the video game, it has too tall of a task in front of it to say that we're going to take the fun of Disney World and put it in your Nintendo Entertainment System.

02:12 Well, I guess on one hand, I wouldn't know, because I've never been to Disney World, nor have I been to Disneyland. And I imagine they're similar. Maybe not. Again, wouldn't know. On the other hand, this is all I had, because this is one of the few NES games. In fact, this was the first NES game I ever played in my life.

02:42 Whoa. Yeah. What a bombshell you just dropped on us. Yeah, and you know, when I say play, I mean I picked it up. Um, got annoyed with how it kept, like, crashing, because there was something wrong with the NES, I'm pretty sure. Um, and then never played it again. You needed a new 72-pin connector. Probably. Uh, but it's crazy how this game, from probably the under 45 minutes that I played it, uh, really did hold a place in my brain of just, like, this is just what the NES is. And it did not paint a very pretty picture.

03:26 Well, it's funny that you say that, because, in a way, right, Disney is huge with children. The NES is growing with children. It feels natural to have, like, more Disney games on the NES than what we currently have. Like, we don't have, really, we had, like, a Mickey Mouse game. We had, uh, the DuckTales game. I'm sure there's at least one other one I'm forgetting. But, like, this is the first one that really takes, like, Disney as a brand and says, like, hey, for 50 or 60 bucks, like, you can have that same experience as the Disney World kids, but at home. Uh, I, I, I am putting those words in their mouth, though. They aren't really saying this is a substitute for the Disney World experience.

04:11 I'm projecting that. So let's, let's forget about that for a minute. And instead, just talk about the premise of the game, uh, that there are six keys that apparently open up the castle at the Magic Kingdom. And when I hear Magic Kingdom, I do think that is in Disney World in, um, Orlando, Florida, because that's one of the areas you can go to. You know, like, there's, there's Epcot, there's, um, the animal one, and then there's the Magic Kingdom. So I'm putting this in Orlando, not in Disneyland. I think they are, I think they are placing it in Orlando. Like, the, the whole thing, they call them attractions. It's not, like, a level or world.

04:56 Like, that, that, you're walking around the park, and you're, like, you can see where people get refreshments. And one of them is, I think, even called, like, Space Mountain or whatever. So, yeah, it, it's definitely Disney World if you're, like, on mushrooms.

05:13 Yeah, there you go. And so, uh, apparently I take six keys to open up this castle, and Goofy, I guess, left them all behind somewhere scattered throughout. So, you now have to, and also, like, they're not scattered out. They're actually just at the ride. Right, so, like, what's the deal? Like, did he purposefully leave them there, and now it's up to you to have fun at Disney World by riding the rides in order to get the keys? Like, was it a, was it a ruse all along? I didn't, I didn't beat the game, so maybe that is the grand reveal that, like, we just wanted you to have a fun day at Disney World. And now that you did, you have all the keys, and you can go inside the castle.

05:47 That said, I, I have a, I gripe right from the beginning of this game. As soon as you start, okay, you play as some kid that you don't get to design what they look like or whatever, but you do get to put some, uh, personal touch on by saying the name of the character that you want to play as. But all it says on screen is, please enter your name with an image of Goofy, uh, on it, like, with his hands out.

06:15 Goofy telling you to do that. Please enter your name. And yes, you could read it that way, but you could also read it as, like, am I naming Goofy? Like, is this some, is this some RPG? Is that what you thought? I'm just saying, is this some kind of RPG where you know the real name of the character, but you can change it? And so I know that that's Goofy, but maybe, like, I can change it so that I'm Mike this time.

06:37 Uh, please enter your name does imply that you're, you know, you're gonna play as yourself. But with Goofy on the screen, it's not clear yet that you're not gonna be Goofy for the remainder of the game. You've already found out that he's the one who lost the keys. I'm gonna say real quick that this sounds like a U problem. Um, not so much a problem with the game. Interesting. All right.

07:01 Uh, and for what it's worth, I didn't think that that was actually, uh, going to happen, of course. Oh, sure. It's a, you know, it's a confusing UI thing. And you know me, I don't, I, I'm very particular when it comes to the UIs. And so I think that they could have freed that up a little bit by just putting the kid that you're gonna be on the screen so that it's clear that's who you're naming.

07:21 I think we've been, that's just me. We've been ruined by how, like, beat you over the head with it that, like, naming yourself in Pokemon was. Like, they didn't, like, it wasn't Professor Oak saying, what's my name? It was, they showed you this kid, right? So. Well, that can't be me in this game anyway, because that kid is wearing a cowboy hat. And I've never been one to wear a cowboy hat. Yeah, it's really weird. Is that, is that a thing that kids used to just wear, like, around?

07:47 Like, I've seen movies where there's just little kids either dressed as sailors or dressed as cowboys. Like, I guess you wouldn't know either, Mike, but it just seems like, was that a thing kids did? I could understand if the kid that you play as in the game was getting dressed up, depending on, like, what ride he was in, right? Like, you change costumes for the different areas or whatever. Like, that's fun. But just to be a kid who wears a cowboy hat, that's too bold of a kid, you know? Yeah. Is that a Mickey Mouse thing? Or maybe not bold of the kid, or maybe it's more cruel of the parents.

08:22 And, you know, it's funny, too. It's like, there's an easy opportunity here to just have him wear the Mickey Mouse ears that they want you to buy at the game park, right? Like, just have it be like, oh, he's got the Mickey Mouse. Maybe they weren't around back then, but I'm pretty sure they were. Point being that it just feels like, it feels weird that you can't even just customize the character a little bit because he's such a, I feel like anybody who wears a cowboy hat has a lot of personality and therefore should just be an established character. I can't argue with that. The Magic Kingdom itself, though, looking kind of dull.

08:57 Yeah, there's only ever, like, one other person in the park. And then they disappear. Yeah. And they're just there to make you feel bad about not knowing obscure Disney trivia. And, you know, if you do know that trivia, give you that other key.

09:14 But otherwise, yeah, there's mean to you. I'll just tell you how crazy the trivia is, okay? So first off, it's like, oh, you're a Disney fan? What was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon ever made? It's like, it doesn't have to start there, you know? Like, I've only seen The Lion King and Aladdin. Don't, you know, don't jump on me. Those movies also didn't come out yet. So let's focus on what would have came out. Sorry, I'm just a big Snow White fan. Don't know anything about Mickey Mouse. But the question itself, what was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon ever made?

09:44 There's A, Steamboat Willie, B, Plane Crazy, C, Gallop and Gaucho. And believe it or not, Steamboat Willie seems to be the obvious one. But it's not. It's actually Plane Crazy, the one that, like, Disney would never reference anymore today. In Plane Crazy, I think Mickey's smoking a cigarette. I don't even think I got that one. Maybe there's some randomness to this. It is randomized.

10:08 Yes, it is. They have more questions, I think, than potential, like, answers or whatever. That's actually infuriating. Because you would think that with these. Because I even got one that's just like a stat. Like, sorry to cut you off. But it's just, how many Mickey Mouse cartoons are there? And, like, this is a time before Wikipedia. And I'm sure it's not even in any fucking encyclopedia.

10:34 The actual number of Mickey Mouse cartoons there are. But it's like 169 or something. I don't know the actual number. But that was a question. And, like, I would have, before you said that, I'd be like, all right, well, you know, you'll just play the game enough times that you'll guess the two wrong ones if you're not right. And then eventually you'll get it.

10:56 But, no, it's not even that. It's like you have to know that? Because, like, then it'll just give you a different question that you don't know process of elimination answers on. Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, the trivia thing, too, though, it just needs to be reined in a little bit. Because I do think it's too broad for Disney stuff. Because this is the kind of thing that, again, I have some experience with as a child. We had a, it kind of was a board game, but you didn't have to really play the board game. You could just grab the trivia cards and read the trivia questions. And there was two boxes. There was a box of, like, 60 blue cards that were clearly for kids.

11:39 And then there was, like, 400 red cards that were, like, just the most insane things. It was like, what's the, you know, what's the cat's name in some random cartoon from 1937 that, you know, was shown maybe five times ever. And obviously there are people who are going to know that, right? Just like there are people who are going to know every in and out of every NES game. Maybe that'll be us by the time we're done with the podcast.

12:08 Probably not for sure. No, I don't even know what we played last week. Right. But my point being that, like, yes, anybody could answer those questions. But with trivia, especially when you're playing a video game for kids, like, you gotta rein it in a little bit and just say, like, if this is the same game where Space Mountain is just you pushing directions on the D-pad based on where the game tells you to go, that theoretically the question should be of the same kind of skill set that you can just kind of follow directions, right? Yeah. And this is just sort of reiterating what you've just said.

12:45 But did you get the question, which of these non-Disney characters did not feature in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Did you get that question? I did not get that question. It's like a double negative.

13:01 It's like, which of these didn't happen in, which of these don't exist and didn't happen anyway? Right. I don't really understand why that's a question, why they wrote it that way. Like, there are so many other things you could have asked us about. And, I mean, it ends up being Popeye. But. And the trivia stuff doesn't have to be that bad if it wasn't the fact that a key is hidden behind. Yeah, you can't finish the game unless you do that.

13:32 Right. And so, you know, for some people, it's not going to be a problem at all. It's going to be very easy. They know Disney very well. I don't think that, you know, probably the seven-year-old who picked up this game knows those kinds of questions, especially not the what's the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. All that to say, though, that's a small portion of the game.

14:22 It's not going to be a problem. That's the real issue. Like, you should be able to go into those shops or something, right? You should be able to, like... They even have weird, like, icons that make it look like you can buy things there. And maybe you can, and I just never figured out how. You cannot. That's so strange, because otherwise it's just like, here's what looks like an ice cream cone, but it doesn't even look like a sign. It just looks like there's an ice cream cone there, which would make sense if it was a gameplay thing, but it's not. So that's not important.

14:54 Now, I can understand the park hasn't opened yet. I could buy that, right? We got to find the six keys before the park opens or whatever, and who cares about these other kids that are here?

15:07 Because they're, you know, maybe they're insiders, too, or maybe they're part of the Mickey Mouse Club. But I can't get over the idea that something that is supposed to capture the excitement of Disney World, a place where literally, like, every square inch is thought of and has, like, oh, well, if that sign breaks, we have seven more of them in the basement just ready to go, so this way nothing's ever looked broken or out of place and we can paint things in an instant. To have your video game just look so bare makes me wonder, like, how many people from Disney actually, like, approved and saw this thing before it came out? And we won't know that answer. So we're going to move on to the rides themselves.

15:45 The first ride I went on was Space Mountain. I kind of just, I don't know if, like, because I went to Disney World on, like, Sean. I don't know if I just remembered whereabouts it might have been in the park or if it's just my brain always goes up and to the right. But that's where it was. And so that's what I did.

16:01 There's no order or requirement for this kind of thing. So you can go to any of the rides and you can try and try again. But I went to Space Mountain unaware that, like, each ride was going to be its own sort of minigame and different. And I'll tell you, Space Mountain's probably not the one you want to go to first because while the concept is really easy, you just follow the track that is laid out for you.

16:26 And I think it's supposed to be Mickey who's giving you the, like, the directions. Yeah, he's telling you to do a barrel roll or something. Right, right. So he's telling, you know, you'll see on the screen the arrow to the right and you're like, oh, you have to press right on the D-pad. And then you'll see an enemy ship appear and you'll be like, oh, I have to fire my laser.

16:45 And that's fine. But you have to do that for a pretty long time. You have to get to, like, sector F and you start in sector A. And then on top of that, it speeds up, like, the reaction times. So it really becomes this thing where, like, you only have maybe a second to input the command by the end of it. And if you screw up three times, you're out of the ride.

17:09 Yeah, this was actually the first one that I ever played, you know, back when this was the first NES game I ever played. And again, wasn't a great first impression for the console. I found it very annoying. I didn't have the reaction time. Or I just kept, like, staring at, like, the particle effects of the stars and wasn't really paying attention to what button I should press. So I was always delayed.

17:32 This time was a lot easier if you just ignore the rest of the screen and just stare at the buttons you press. Which is, you know, totally fun. Very fun game. And forget about the reaction times or the said difficulty because I don't think it's impossible for what it's worth. It just happens to be very hard compared to the remaining games. What do you think of the choice for that to be how you represent Space Mountain, a roller coaster that basically happens in the dark? I know you haven't been to Disney World. I'm not going to continue to throw that in your face. Yeah, no, just, it's fine.

18:13 Okay, so I had only played, again, first time going when I was a child. I'd only played two of these. I played this one and I played the racing one. So I figured that they were all themed. Like, this one's sort of like a roller coaster. I knew it was a roller coaster because I had friends that had been to Disney World and always talked about how much they liked Disney World and that I'd never get to go. So I did know that Space Mountain was a roller coaster. So I thought that they were all going to be like rides that you kind of interact with. So it made sense that it kind of went like this.

18:47 And then I figured that the second one that I went to, the race thing that I don't know what the actual name of it is. Like, oh, you get into cars and it's a race in that one.

19:00 But I figured that it was car based, this other ride. Yeah, I think I would agree with you that for the most part, the ride and the way that they chose to gamify it, which is great, by the way, that they're even gamifying these things and not just making it like, you know, you're in a side scrolling roller coaster where you just have to follow the track. But you see it as a ride.

19:26 You know, like, it's great that it's kind of becoming a video game. There was a similar game on GameCube for Universal Studios where they did the same thing. Like, you got on the Back to the Future ride, but it wasn't just the ride like it is at Universal Studios. It became a Back to the Future style minigame. And so, like, that's the right thing to do on, like, last week's remote control, I guess, where you just take the trivia part and be faithful to that and forget about the rest of everything.

19:53 You know, you'll see that, again, as you mentioned, Autopia, the racetrack one. The problem with that one, though, that I have is that it's just about completing the course. It sounds like you have to. Yeah, it sounds like you're racing Panhandle Pete, but who's just Pete, by the way. I never knew him as Panhandle Pete, but they call him that in the game.

20:16 It sounds like you're racing him and his goons are, like, you know, going to be the obstacles or whatever so that he can continue to win. But then you find out you just have to survive. And I don't know. That's, like, a weird thing. It's, like, Disney World's trying to kill you in all of these and obviously not kill, but, like, they're trying to.

20:34 They're trying to remove you from the rides, whereas, like, in real world, obviously, like, the rides would be fun and everything. I don't know. That's kind of hard because, obviously, you need to have some kind of enemies and punishment and everything established there. And maybe Pete doesn't want you to have the keys to open up the castle because then he has to go into the castle prison. I don't know the lore of the Magic Kingdom.

20:57 Now, the one that I found the strangest is one that I think is one of the most well-known, like, Pirates of the Caribbean, right? Like, that's what this one attraction minigame is supposed to be, right? There are now whole video games of just Pirates of the Caribbean. There's whole movies about Pirates of the Caribbean. Yeah, no, I know, I know. Of course, and that's what those games are based on. You've seen the movies? I've seen the movies. Oh, okay, good. I thought I was going to have to explain those to you.

21:29 So, you go into this and you're coming from, like, ooh, spooky, like, we'll get into that one. Like, oh, we're riding the race, we're going on this space roller coaster, like, all very kid-friendly stuff. And then you do Pirates of the Caribbean, and, like, these pirates are actually, like, pillaging this town. And there are children tied up in burning houses. And the fire is very, like, it's really going. It's very high fidelity.

22:05 The entire town is on fire, too. Yeah, everyone's dying or completely in bondage. And then, like, you end up going into the, you have to figure out how to start a fire and, like, a candle you can miss. And you need that to finish the level. And it's very strange. But the point being that I was not ready for how explicit this level was. Yeah, and, you know, it's funny, I think from the ride itself, I do remember it having this kind of theme behind it, maybe not so intense with the fires and stuff. But, like, you know, it's not a kind story.

22:49 It definitely, you know, the first movie is very much in the same vein as the ride. But the ride happens on a boat. And I believe you start the level on a boat. On a little boat. See, to make it more thematically true to being at the Magic Kingdom, I would have had the entirety of you being on the boat kind of, like, having some kind of ship combat with the pirates or something. Instead of this rescue the six captive girls and then light the fire or whatever in order to, like, I don't know, like, that's how you. Yeah, and then that's how you get the key. Like, that seems weird. Yeah, Goofy's into some weird shit is all I'm saying.

23:35 Yeah, well, no, what really happens is that guy has the key at the end of the mission. This random guy is just like, thank you. You have my gratitude. Here's the key. One of the animatronics. It's like, yeah, can't you just give me the key?

23:49 You know, like, Mickey Mouse is asking for it. I'm not just some kid trying to, like, win big here. Like, you know, your boss is asking for the keys and you're going to make me go through the ride? Well, that can be said about any of them. Yeah, I guess the ride is like, you know, it's alive, right?

24:05 Mickey Mouse is not just like, he's in on all of them. It's that these are actual things. So the Pirates of the Caribbean thing is really happening and not just a ride. Well, maybe the subtext and the deep lore of this game is that since you are this kid that gets way too into whatever he wears that day and probably wears this cowboy outfit every day. And his dad is sort of upset about it. But his mom, like, sort of, like, keeps him, like, sort of protects him from his father.

24:39 But maybe the whole thing is that this is all in his imagination. And this is what it feels like to him to be at Disney World, surrounded by these animatronic pirates that maybe are committing some kind of atrocity against this small seaside town. Sean, you would say you're a fan of Mickey Mouse, though, right? Uh, no. Well, if you're such a big fan, what was the name of the girl's ranch in the Spin and Marnie cereal on the Mickey Mouse Club?

25:11 I don't know. What was it? You know what's funny? I don't know. But, um, I just think, like, I'm watching a playthrough and that was the question that just came up. And I think that was more ridiculous than any of the ones we've used so far because that Mickey Mouse Club thing is not, that's not a current thing. It's not, like, available. It's not available to children in the 90s. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, it's 1990. They don't even have, like, the option of going on the internet to look up these answers to things they don't know. It's crazy. Uh, like, when Goofy first appeared, he had another name. What was it? And the choices are Horace Horse Collar, The Goof, and Dippy Dog. Now, which one would you pick?

25:57 I'm gonna go with Horace Horse Collar just because it sounds the most boring. It wasn't. Uh, it was Dippy Dog. Wow. I like Dippy Dog. I like The Goof. I mean, The Goof is great. Like, it's the best. But I do like Dippy Dog. These are the kinds of things that happen in the Magic Kingdom. Random people will come. If you go on a trip to Disney World, be prepared to know everything there is to know about Disney, or else you just won't get the Magic Kingdom.

26:29 We should finish up with the other rides, though, and that is The Haunted Mansion, which is kind of similar to Pirates of the Caribbean. It's a side-scrolling game, but this one you have, like, uh... You have a weapon. Yeah, you have the candle, which you just throw at the enemies. The only boss in the game is in this level.

26:46 That's true. Boss is being nice to him, I think, but you do have to defeat him. Yeah, but he takes several hits. And you do have to defeat him. There are also just, like, ghosts in this level aren't necessarily evil, if you know what I mean. Like, it's a little tough to justify killing them, because they're already dead. They're ghosts. So that's part of the dilemma. But then they're just kind of, like, especially the couples that are dancing, like, they're just dancing in a pattern. You can go around them. You don't have to kill them. And they're already dead. I mean, if someone was dancing, kind of in the way, and sort of getting in my way, and every time I bumped into them, I got closer to death, I might throw a candle at them.

27:36 I think you didn't even have to justify it there. I think you could have just said, if someone's dancing and they're in my way, I'd throw a candle at them. That's true. That is more my style. And then Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. And that was, like, a Donkey Kong Country-esque mine cart thing where there's, like, many different tracks. And you have to try to pick the tracks, but there's dead ends and obstacles in your way. And this is the kind of thing that, you know, probably benefits from multiple playthroughs to just memorize the path. I can't tell if it changes or not. I don't think it does. Mine was four. What do you mean four?

28:23 I don't know. So, you know, there's, like, four stations that you get to. And it'll just be like, sorry, you got to the wrong one. And then I did it a couple more times, and I eventually got it on four. Like, I went into the station labeled four. I don't know if that changes randomly, too. Because I think, like, along with the trivia changing, I think a lot of this is just to extend the playtime. Because it's, like, yeah, there's only the five levels. So I think maybe it might change. Yeah, relatively short game. Which is funny, because they want you to spend a long time at the park.

28:58 And also, at Thunder Mountain, what are those, like, dinosaur bones? Is that in the actual, like, are there ever dinosaur bones in Disney World? I don't recall. I don't know. You wouldn't know. I wouldn't. Because, again, I've never been to Disney World. Sean, did you know about the currency system in the game?

29:19 Yeah, I know that there's, like, you can get in, you can get, like, a day pass, or, like, what's it called? Like, that line skipper, but there's still, like, a line. Oh, fast pass, yeah. Oh, yeah. So you get the fast pass, yeah. Wait, but you're talking about at the Magic Kingdom. Oh, that's not in the game? No, I mean, I don't think it's in the game. I think you have the fast pass already.

29:44 Right? There's no queue whatsoever. Yeah, you're talking about the stars. And the menu to use them is, like, dependent on the ride you're in, too. But I just feel like this is not something that I thought to use until I was, like, going through. Absolutely not. The game FAQs thing. And I was like, huh, okay, that's an option. Doesn't feel necessary. Yeah, you can. I know you can get more lives.

30:12 You can heal yourself, I guess. You can become invincible. Yeah, there's an invincible. It looks like it's just a cheat menu. Right. It feels like cheats. And I think it was IGN described it in their cheat section as, like, how to access this secret menu. And I'm like, it's not a secret. Yeah, it's a select button. You know, I guess it does feel a little bit like the debug menu. Yeah. Because you are literally freezing enemies in place. But these things cost stars. So it is, you know, you have to put your money against it. And I don't know. Stars are, it's for every five stars you collect or whatever.

30:53 No, you receive one star for every star collected in the Haunted Mansion in Pirates of the Caribbean. And five stars for every star collected in Autopia and Big Thunder Mountains. So I guess they want you to ride those rides more. That's where you go to farm. Yeah. And you farm for the stars across the five rides and trivia stuff. That's interesting.

31:39 So did the game encourage you at all to go on a trip? To Orlando and maybe go see Disney World?

31:48 I don't think it's appropriate for me to go anymore. Maybe if I have a child of my own, I might. Rewording it for you. Do you think that this is the kind of thing that would have like sparked an interest in a kid enough to then annoy their parents to be like, can we go to Disney World? Can we go to Disney World? Because they wanted to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride so that they could rescue six beautiful women?

32:15 Well, I think that if those children were in a position where they hadn't been to Disney World, and this was sort of their first exposure to it, that they are probably going to have to think like, well, you know, maybe when I'm older and I get a job and I'm married and I have kids of my own, then maybe then I'll be able to go to Disney World and experience these things and rescue these obvious children, by the way.

32:43 And so then, yeah, that's sort of how I look at it. What do you think they could have added to the Magic Kingdom? I think that there should have been like a whole like life simulator.

32:54 Like I think you don't do this. Don't change the concept of the game. I'm just saying with the game as it was, right? Like there's six keys. So obviously it's like, you know, you can't add another ride or whatever. But like I think that the star thing being the currency system could have been like there could have been an actual shop, right? Because half the thing that you do is shopping in the Magic Kingdom. Everybody loves to go to the Magic Kingdom and everybody loves to shop. Those are their favorite things to do. So why did they put that in the game? There could have been like a save room and it's just like one of the hotels.

33:32 There could have been multiple. A firework show? Yeah, a firework show. You don't even get to see the parade, by the way. Like this is all for a parade. And you just get like an end screen with your nameless boy with Mickey Mouse and Goofy and whoever the hell. And that's supposed to be it. Yeah, they even tease you with like you see a couple members of the band with Mickey. Yeah. And they just sort of come out and then the game ends. I would have liked a proper ending scene. And, you know, do the credits over it if you need. And just have like different floats.

34:17 It would be cool to see like the Disney princesses walking around and they'd be like, what are you doing here? Like, you know, parks closed. Get out of here. And they're like having a smoke break or something. Like that would have been cool. I'm going to show you just how much Disney trivia I know. So at the end of the game, when you do see those members of the band and everything, Mickey is also the conductor and he's wearing a specific outfit. And that outfit is actually from the Mickey Mouse cartoon The Band Concert from 1935.

34:47 And I'm not reading Wikipedia. It sounds like you're reading Wikipedia. No. The reason I know this is because that is the band concert is the first appearance of Donald Duck. Wow. I'm not going to lie. I'm pretty sure that's the exact suit he's wearing because that's what they traced for the art. Yeah, probably.

35:10 But, you know, it's funny is the band concert, speaking of the old cartoon and everything, I remember I, this is a long time ago now, but I watched it because I was like watching first appearance of all different kinds of cartoon characters. And when you see something from 1935 and it's a Mickey Mouse cartoon and I, you know, Mickey Mouse cartoons, they don't make those anymore. They're purposely trying to like hide Mickey. He's like too successful now. And they're like, we can't make a bad thing with Mickey Mouse. So we just don't make anything at all. That's why there's never been a Mickey Mouse movie. Well, that's why that one video game came out. Epic Mickey. Everybody loved it. Yeah, exactly. Because they only had one shot.

35:46 Anyway, my point being the band concert was actually hysterical. I had a great time. I actually thought Donald Duck was very funny in it and it held up 70, 80, 90 years later. So pretty, pretty cool. So this is you pitching that cartoon? To people. It's a recommendation, Sean. We can do those on the show as well. Mm-hmm. Yep. Do you want to recommend anything from Disney or do you just not have the trivia knowledge to pull anything out? Not trivia, but I do have a question.

36:18 What is on Mickey's pants? Is this button? Like in general, like his pants just have like these two yellow things on them at all times. Never really knew what that was. Yeah. Aren't those like the... Oh, yeah. I guess I was thinking of them as like overalls, but they're not.

36:40 Aren't they though? Like sometimes? Wear his straps. His straps. That's what I'm saying. Like those straps are black and they're part of... His skin? Like they're blending in. Yeah. No, they're just blending in. You don't see them because they're the same color. Hmm. But you know what I'm... You know what I'm putting down, right? I think that's like they're like... Or they would be for suspenders if he had them. If he had them. Yeah. Maybe. I feel like there's an image that explains this and I just can't pull it up for you right now. So I feel like I'll let you down, but just know that something's holding up those pants. And something's holding this show together across 310 episodes. And that is the Essential Games List.

37:27 Adventures in the Magic Kingdom is not as good at capturing my imagination of what it's like to go down to Orlando, Florida as the VHS sing-along tape from when I was three years old. And I understand that I have nostalgia for that. But I would watch that again, both for nostalgic reasons but also to prove my point here on the show, that that has more replayability and had more hours of my time than Adventures in the Magic Kingdom will.

37:57 And it's not that I think Adventures in the Magic Kingdom is a bad game. It's a Capcom game. So I think the actual gameplay elements, no matter how short-lived they may be, are fine and completely playable. I don't have any gripes about the Haunted Mansion stage, right? We're not talking about bad enemies or weird controls, right? I feel like all the control decisions that they made in the game are fine. So the actual game turns out to be this very short, unproductive, not really thought-out experience.

38:32 And so I am not down with the Adventures in the Magic Kingdom. I feel like it's just more like time in the Magic Kingdom and the Adventures will come later. Sean? Once again, I have no idea how this compares to actually going to Disney World.

38:52 I wouldn't know. But I do like the conceit of this game. I do like the idea of the park being like the framing device for all these kind of disparate levels. And the fact that they are based off of actual rides is cool. And in some ways, the gameplay style is based off of what the ride actually is. I think that stuff's cool.

39:19 And each of the minigames isn't entirely unplayable. Some of them suck. But they're not bad. The rest, the one that sucks, suck. But again, there's not enough here. And one of the gatekeeping devices of just being really good at Disney trivia, I guess over time, you play it a lot. You'll eventually process of elimination this stuff. Or maybe kids those days just knew.

39:55 But no, this isn't an essential game, even though it will live in my brain for all of eternity. So not essential. That is a pretty bold statement, though. Live in your brain for all eternity. I feel like everything eventually gets out of there. Okay. Until my death.

40:15 Okay, yeah. All right. Well, that's bleak. And I'm sure if you could Walt Disney yourself and freeze yourself forever, then you could prolong losing this memory. And we could only prolong this episode so much longer. So let me just say, Joe will return. I can guarantee it. But, you know, I hope you enjoyed the two episodes with just me and Sean here. We certainly enjoy having you as a listener. And if you enjoy the show this time, maybe you just leave us a review. I'm not going to pitch the Patreon thing. Just know it's out there. Obviously, we're going to do an episode next week on another game if you want to know what that game is. It's Arkista's Ring.

40:56 What's up with these games that we have never heard of? You've never heard of Arkista's Ring? Shut up. Shut the heck up. If you've heard of Arkista's Ring but you like the show, leave a review. If you haven't heard of Arkista's Ring and you like the show. Like the show.

41:16 Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Comment, like, subscribe, download. Hit that bell. Yeah, maybe even torrent the podcast, guys. Like, how come I'm not seeing bootleg episodes of Nostalgia on the Pirate Bay? These things should exist, guys. Somebody put that together. I want to see those cedars.