Out of all of the games that was released in the 80s to early 90s that featured Mickey Mouse as the star character, The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse was arguably the best game of the bunch that we would get. It wasn’t anything particularly new or exciting, just being a pretty basic platformer made for kids, but it was still solid enough, had great music, several different outfits to try out and mess around with, and that good ol’ 16-bit Capcom charm that oozes out of every game that they made back for the SNES. Not to mention, since this was Mickey Mouse that we’re talking about, it was pretty successful, selling over a million copies, so naturally, because Disney is all about making that good ol’ mouse money, they had Capcom working on a sequel pretty soon afterwards. Eventually, this sequel would be released to the public, and it would exhaustingly be known as The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey & Minnie.
Before playing this game for myself, this was the Magical Quest game that I had known the most about, as I had previously seen it in an unfinished video playthrough on YouTube, and at the time, I thought it looked decent enough. It didn’t look bad, but it looked like an average licensed platformer of that era, and now that I have played the first Magical Quest game, I could also make the assumption that this one wasn’t going to be that much more different or grand compared to the previous entry. I went ahead and played it anyway though, and all in all, I would consider this to be an improvement over the original game, and a pretty good game all on its own. It doesn’t change things up too drastically from the original game, and it is as simple as you would expect, but hey, I will take a licensed game that is simple yet sweet over one that is complex yet rotten, if you catch my drift.
The story is just as simple as the previous game, where Mickey and Minnie Mouse are on their way to meet up with their friends at the circus, when they meet up with a Goofy that wants to end it all, saying that everybody at the circus has randomly disappeared, and Donald Duck and Pluto are nowhere to be found, so it is up to Mickey and Minnie to not only find their friends, but find out what happened to all the circus performers, which is a… very boring plot, to be frank, but it is a Mickey Mouse game, so I’m not sure what else I was expecting. The graphics are… the exact same as the original game, but to be fair, it still does look pretty good, and all the sprites for the enemies, bosses, and Mickey & co. look pretty good, the music is very enjoyable again, still giving off that Capcom vibe, and having plenty of cheery to dreadful tunes to hear throughout, and the gameplay/control is almost identical to that of the original game, but with a few new additions added to make it that little bit more fun.
The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of either Mickey or Minnie Mouse, go through a set of six stages across plenty of different generic settings, run and jump all around while defeating enemies and collecting various items to help you out throughout your journey, either by giving you currency for shops or giving you more health, acquire several outfits that you can switch between at any time to help you either progress through the levels or give you an advantage against the foes in the game, and take on plenty of colorful and cartoony bosses, being easy enough to take on, while not too easy to the point of being boring. Those who have played the original Magical Quest game will know exactly what they are getting into with this game, and in many ways, it stands on the same level as the original game in terms of quality, but it still manages to be fun, while also incorporating previously said new elements to help make it more enjoyable.
If you somehow haven’t already picked up on it already, in this game, you now have the option to play as Minnie Mouse rather then Mickey, and she is… basically the exact same as Mickey in terms of everything, but hey, at least we have the option to play as her at all, so that is pretty nice to see. Not only that, but the game now features simultaneous co-op, where one person plays as Mickey and the other plays as Minnie, which is definitely the best way one could play this game, and while I didn’t play it in co-op, it does look like a good amount of fun to try out. In addition to this, some of the outfits from the last game are gone, but in their place, we now have all new outfits to help us out on our journey, such as the sweeper outfit, which allows you to vacuum up enemies to gain coins from them, and the cowboy outfit, which allows you to bounce around on a wooden horse, jump higher, and shoot a toy pistol to break blocks and take out enemies. While the sweeper outfit is very situational, and I didn’t really use it a whole bunch, I did really like using the cowboy outfit, especially for certain bosses and to help get through tricky spots.
If none of that sounds exciting to you though, then what you are left with is pretty much yet another Magical Quest game through and through. Not only are the graphics identical to the original game, but so is the gameplay, with it playing identically to the original for the most part, and not having that many new or exciting changes to be seen. It still manages to be fun, but again, if you weren’t really sold on the last game, then this one may not be able to convince you either. Not to mention, like the last game, there is also a boss rush, but it is also just as miniscule of a nuisance as the previous game’s boss rush. I would rather there not be a boss rush at all, but hey, a tiny boss rush is better than a regular one any day of the week.
Overall, despite very little change from its predecessor, The Great Circus Mystery does manage to be not only an enjoyable sequel, but still a pretty good game all on its own for the SNES era, providing the same amount of fun and whimsy as before, while also allowing the option for a pal to join alongside you to witness every bit of that same fun and whimsy. I would recommend it for those who were big fans of the original game, as well as those who just like Mickey Mouse and his pals in general, because even if it is a retread of old territory, that old territory is still fun to go back to to this day. Although, with all that being said, we never do end up finding out what happened to those circus performers in the game. Yeah, we defeat the big bad evil guy, and it is assumed that everything is all well and good now, but they never outright say everything went back to normal! So, if you think about it…………. those circus performers are probably dead.
Game #527
Before playing this game for myself, this was the Magical Quest game that I had known the most about, as I had previously seen it in an unfinished video playthrough on YouTube, and at the time, I thought it looked decent enough. It didn’t look bad, but it looked like an average licensed platformer of that era, and now that I have played the first Magical Quest game, I could also make the assumption that this one wasn’t going to be that much more different or grand compared to the previous entry. I went ahead and played it anyway though, and all in all, I would consider this to be an improvement over the original game, and a pretty good game all on its own. It doesn’t change things up too drastically from the original game, and it is as simple as you would expect, but hey, I will take a licensed game that is simple yet sweet over one that is complex yet rotten, if you catch my drift.
The story is just as simple as the previous game, where Mickey and Minnie Mouse are on their way to meet up with their friends at the circus, when they meet up with a Goofy that wants to end it all, saying that everybody at the circus has randomly disappeared, and Donald Duck and Pluto are nowhere to be found, so it is up to Mickey and Minnie to not only find their friends, but find out what happened to all the circus performers, which is a… very boring plot, to be frank, but it is a Mickey Mouse game, so I’m not sure what else I was expecting. The graphics are… the exact same as the original game, but to be fair, it still does look pretty good, and all the sprites for the enemies, bosses, and Mickey & co. look pretty good, the music is very enjoyable again, still giving off that Capcom vibe, and having plenty of cheery to dreadful tunes to hear throughout, and the gameplay/control is almost identical to that of the original game, but with a few new additions added to make it that little bit more fun.
The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of either Mickey or Minnie Mouse, go through a set of six stages across plenty of different generic settings, run and jump all around while defeating enemies and collecting various items to help you out throughout your journey, either by giving you currency for shops or giving you more health, acquire several outfits that you can switch between at any time to help you either progress through the levels or give you an advantage against the foes in the game, and take on plenty of colorful and cartoony bosses, being easy enough to take on, while not too easy to the point of being boring. Those who have played the original Magical Quest game will know exactly what they are getting into with this game, and in many ways, it stands on the same level as the original game in terms of quality, but it still manages to be fun, while also incorporating previously said new elements to help make it more enjoyable.
If you somehow haven’t already picked up on it already, in this game, you now have the option to play as Minnie Mouse rather then Mickey, and she is… basically the exact same as Mickey in terms of everything, but hey, at least we have the option to play as her at all, so that is pretty nice to see. Not only that, but the game now features simultaneous co-op, where one person plays as Mickey and the other plays as Minnie, which is definitely the best way one could play this game, and while I didn’t play it in co-op, it does look like a good amount of fun to try out. In addition to this, some of the outfits from the last game are gone, but in their place, we now have all new outfits to help us out on our journey, such as the sweeper outfit, which allows you to vacuum up enemies to gain coins from them, and the cowboy outfit, which allows you to bounce around on a wooden horse, jump higher, and shoot a toy pistol to break blocks and take out enemies. While the sweeper outfit is very situational, and I didn’t really use it a whole bunch, I did really like using the cowboy outfit, especially for certain bosses and to help get through tricky spots.
If none of that sounds exciting to you though, then what you are left with is pretty much yet another Magical Quest game through and through. Not only are the graphics identical to the original game, but so is the gameplay, with it playing identically to the original for the most part, and not having that many new or exciting changes to be seen. It still manages to be fun, but again, if you weren’t really sold on the last game, then this one may not be able to convince you either. Not to mention, like the last game, there is also a boss rush, but it is also just as miniscule of a nuisance as the previous game’s boss rush. I would rather there not be a boss rush at all, but hey, a tiny boss rush is better than a regular one any day of the week.
Overall, despite very little change from its predecessor, The Great Circus Mystery does manage to be not only an enjoyable sequel, but still a pretty good game all on its own for the SNES era, providing the same amount of fun and whimsy as before, while also allowing the option for a pal to join alongside you to witness every bit of that same fun and whimsy. I would recommend it for those who were big fans of the original game, as well as those who just like Mickey Mouse and his pals in general, because even if it is a retread of old territory, that old territory is still fun to go back to to this day. Although, with all that being said, we never do end up finding out what happened to those circus performers in the game. Yeah, we defeat the big bad evil guy, and it is assumed that everything is all well and good now, but they never outright say everything went back to normal! So, if you think about it…………. those circus performers are probably dead.
Game #527