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NES box art for Disney Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, the cover of NEStalgia episode 310

310 · Disney Adventures in the Magic Kingdom

▶ Game info
VerdictSkip it
GenreAction
ReleasedJune 1990
SeasonSeason 6
DeveloperCapcom
PublisherCapcom
February 2, 2024 · 42 min · transcript available

It's time for the Mickey Mouse parade down Main Street of Disneyland, but before things can start, the six silver keys to the Castle have to be found. Scattered all across different Disneyland attractions, it's up to the player to enter these worlds and obtain the keys. They are located in the following mini-games:

Our verdict: Skip it

Adventures in the Magic Kingdom sends a kid in a cowboy hat around Disney World to collect six keys that Goofy apparently left lying around, so the castle can open. Mike and Sean did this one, with Joe away. Sean has never been to Disney World, and this was the first NES game he ever played, though he quit quickly because his console kept crashing. The impression stuck anyway.

What works

  • The framing idea. The park is a hub, and each attraction is its own minigame built around what the ride is. Sean liked that conceit, and we agreed that gamifying the rides beats a plain track-follower.
  • It plays fine. It's a Capcom game, so the controls are sound. Haunted Mansion is a side-scroller where you throw candles, and it holds the only boss in the game. We had a small moral dilemma about hitting ghosts who are already dead, especially the dancing couples.
  • A running quest. Hiding the sixth key behind trivia is a cool idea on paper.

What doesn't

  • The park is empty. Shops show icons that look buyable and do nothing. One or two kids wander by and vanish. For a place where every square inch is planned, it looks bare.
  • The trivia. You can't finish without it, and the questions are brutal. What was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon (Plane Crazy, not Steamboat Willie)? How many Mickey cartoons exist? Goofy's original name (Dippy Dog)? Which of these wasn't in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? This is 1990, with no internet, and a seven-year-old has no shot. The questions rotate, so you end up guessing your way through.
  • Space Mountain is button prompts in the dark that speed up until you get about a second per input. Mike found it easier once he ignored the screen and watched only the buttons.
  • Autopia looks like a race against Panhandle Pete, but you only have to survive.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean was a shock: burning houses, captive girls to rescue, and a candle to light. It's far more explicit than the rest of the park.
  • Big Thunder Mountain is a minecart maze where you memorize the right station. It seems built to stretch five short levels.
  • No payoff. The ending teases a parade with Mickey in his Band Concert conductor suit, then stops. We wanted floats, fireworks, a proper ending.

Worth knowing

Select opens a menu where stars buy extra lives, healing, invincibility and frozen enemies. It feels like a cheat menu, and we only noticed it through a FAQ.

The bottom line

Skip it. Mike said it's not a bad game, just short, unproductive and not thought out, and that his childhood Magic Kingdom sing-along tape has more replayability. Sean said it isn't essential, even though it will live in his brain until his death. It didn't make the Essential Games List. It's time in the Magic Kingdom, and the adventures come later.

Written from our conversation in this episode.

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