Mickey Mousecapade
| Mickey Mousecapade/Mickey Mouse | |
|---|---|
 North American cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Hudson Soft |
| Composer(s) | Takeaki Kunimoto |
| Platform(s) | Family Computer/NES |
| Genre(s) | Platform game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Mickey Mousecapade (Mickey Mouse: Fushigi no kuni no Daibouken (ミッキーマウス 不思議の国の大冒険, lit. "Mickey Mouse: Adventures in Wonderland") is a platform game developed and published by Hudson Soft for the Family Computer/NES originally in 1987 in Japan. Capcom released the game in the United States as Capcom's first venture into what became a successful trademark of making Nintendo games based on popular Disney characters.
The character of Mickey Mouse attempts to save a young girl who happens to be Alice from Alice in Wonderland. Minnie Mouse follows Mickey around and occasionally gets kidnapped. Various villains from Disney cartoons make an appearance as bosses.
Gameplay
Mickey and Minnie are traveling through the Fun House, the Ocean, the Forest, the Pirate Ship, and the Castle trying to rescue someone mentioned only as "a friend" in ads and the instruction manual. In the game's ending, the friend is revealed to be Alice from Alice in Wonderland. In the Japanese version, Alice is prominently featured on the box art and instruction manual.
This is the only Capcom Disney title that was not developed by Capcom and the game contains several sprites lifted from other Hudson Soft games. The title screen of the American version refers to the game by its Japanese title, which is simply Mickey Mouse. A Hidden Mickey can be found embedded in the circuit board when the game cartridge is opened.[1] While the gameplay, soundtrack and premise to rescue Alice is the same, there are a considerable number of differences between Capcom's American release and Hudson's original game for the Famicom, especially when it comes to the use of Disney characters.
Both versions make use of Disney villains for bosses but not one of them is present in both versions. For example, the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland is the first boss in the Japanese version, but in the American version he was replaced by Witch Hazel. Many Disney characters who appear as regular foes in the Japanese version were also replaced in the American version by other Disney villains. Unlike other Mickey Mouse video games, Pete is not the final boss; instead, that role is played by Maleficent in the American version of the game and by the Queen of Hearts on the Japanese version. Pete does however appear as the fourth boss on the American version.
The Japanese version was based, first and foremost, on the film Alice in Wonderland and most references about Disney on this version derive from this same movie, although some references to Peter Pan are also made, such as having Captain Hook as the fourth boss in the game. The American localization used a more varied formula, with enemies coming from The Jungle Book, Country Bear Jamboree, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Some of the items also underwent changes. In the Japanese version, Mickey could refill his life bar by picking up Donald Duck's head but this item was replaced in the American conversion by a simple diamond. Mickey uses throwing stars as a weapon in the American version. However, in Hudson's version, he shoots white balls. The stage names were also edited. For example, the first stage which is known in the American version as the "Fun House" was the "Little House" in the Japanese version.
Reception
Allgame's Skyler Miller described the visuals as serviceable, but the music as overly repetitive.[3] Miller awarded the game two out of five stars. IGN rated it the 86th greatest NES game of all time.[4] The game was featured in an episode of the Shorty Award-nominated webseries Game Grumps, in which host Arin Hanson does a mocking impression throughout almost the entirety of the episode of an online video game reviewer whose video regarding Mickey Mousecapade had earlier been viewed by Hanson and his co-host, Daniel Avidan. The duo generally thought of the game in a negative light, noting the sudden and jarring difficulty between levels one and two.[5]
See also
References
- ^ "Found a Hidden Mickey while cleaning my Mickey Mousecapade NES cartridge". 9 December 2012. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
- ^ Miller, Skyler. "Mickey Mousecapade - Review". Allgame. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
- ^ Miller, Skyler. "Mickey Mousecapade - Review". Allgame. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
- ^ Dunham, Jeremy. "Top 100 NES Games - #86". IGN. Retrieved July 13, 2013.
- ^ "The Game Grumps Play Mickey Mousecapade". I Am Bored. 22 November 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2014.