So, I wouldn’t have realised that this game was a sequel to Magical Quest if I didn’t see the GBA listing on RetroAchievements. I say sequel, it is a sequel in the sense that it uses a similar gameplay style to the first game, jumping, grabbing blocks, changing clothes, etc. The plot this time, Mickey and Minnie are on their way to a circus on the edge of town, but when they get there Goofy tells them that everyone has disappeared, including Pluto and Donald! So, Mickey and Minnie go to investigate. It turns out that the circus was attacked by Baron Pete! That’s a big step down from being an Emperor, isn’t it? Anyway, it is done to the duo to defeat Pete, again and save the circus.
So, let’s touch on one of the biggest new elements for this game, that I haven’t been able to experience. This game has two player co-op, where one player plays as Mickey and the other plays as Minnie. For this purpose, there are some additional changes to how the game plays. When you lose a life in this game, you respawn and carry on from where you died. Falling into a pit will have you spawn in a safe location. This was probably done with the co-op mode in mind, it keeps the action going for both players however it does make the game significantly easier to brute force. In a similar vein to the original one, getting a game over doesn’t set you back, usually just to the start of the last area you entered. The game is enjoyable as a single player experience, but I can imagine it could be elevated by the co-op. Much like the GBA version of Magical Quest, both Mickey and Minnie play the exact same, they are merely an aesthetic change, so there is no reason to get yourself into too many arguments over who you play.
Right, but what about the outfits in this game? They’re… Okay at best, I won’t lie. I mean, like the original game there is one outfit you will probably use most of the time, which is the cowboy one. The cowboy outfit is the replacement Magician outfit, in that you use a cork gun to fire a projectile which would be perfectly fine if it wasn’t for the hobby horse that comes with the outfit. The cowboy outfit changes your movement slightly as you don’t walk but bounce along. You can only jump when you are on the floor, and not mid-move bounce. This is a minor thing, but it can be annoying until you get used to it. As an outfit, it is the most functionally useful one. Second, we have the cleaner outfit, which gives you a vacuum cleaner which can be used to pull blocks towards you or suck up enemies, turning them into coins. It’s not a particularly useful outfit; I used it to farm coins at certain points in the game and defeat a specific boss. Unlike the original, getting a game over means you also lose all your coins, making getting all the upgrades, potentially, frustrating. It is much easier to die in this game than in the original and extra lives aren’t all too common in this game. Lastly, we have the explorer outfit, used to climb walls, slide down vines and swing from certain blocks. Unlike the first game, it doesn’t come with an attack of enemy kind. You only “need” it for the world you get the outfit on, and there might be a couple of fringe cases where this one is useful.
Compared to the original, this game also came out on the Genesis as well as the SNES. These two versions have a couple of minor differences in graphics with a unique area in each game, the Genesis version has an area where you are in a collapsing room and need to carefully platform and make use of the charge ability of the cowboy outfit to dash between platforms above an instant death pit. It’s an awful time and I still struggle with the positioning you need to not overshoot the platforms. The SNES version has a rotating room where you hang on platforms in the explorer outfit. Come to think of it, it reminds me of a certain part of Super Castlevania. Capcom seem to be recycling their ideas. Other than that, the only major difference is the controls. In the SNES version you can use the L and R buttons to cycle outfits and another button to switch. The Genesis version is a little more clunky in terms of costume switching. The GBA version is the same as the SNES, but with the same screen crunch issues as the first GBA game. Honestly, I would still play this game on the SNES, just for the ease of controls and because you wouldn’t be missing anything by not playing the Genesis version.
Much like the first game, playing this for RetroAchievements meant that I had to do about 6 or 7 full clears of the game, with a mixture of unique challenges per version. The SNES version has a set of challenges where you just use the default Mickey/Minnie outfit against bosses and mini-bosses, whilst the Genesis version had a speed run challenge. The stage-based speed runs were ridiculously tight in places, but the full game in 35 minutes wasn’t unmanageable. It did provide me an additional three Masteries for my “Master of the Mouse” Challenge, but I will admit that fatigue for the series was starting to kick in, and there is still a third one on the horizon.
If you enjoyed the original Magical Quest, then you are in for more of the same, and that is not necessarily a bad thing as the games are competently made and offer a fun challenge. The fact that this game added co-op is a great new feature and I am surprised this game has never been on my radar until I started my RetroAchievements journey. If I had this game as a kid, I probably would have loved it and hated it in equal measure, sometimes playing games cooperatively with a younger sibling can be an annoying experience, but it would have been one heck of an experience!
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