Adventures in the Magic Kingdom
System: NES
Release Date: June 1990
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Genre: Action
Disney’s three amigos need your help in Adventures in the Magic Kingdom. It’s time for the big parade and Mickey needs the Golden Key to open the gate. Goofy left it in the castle, but to make it inside, they need six silver keys located all around the Magic Kingdom. Enter you, as you’re sent to locate them all.
In order to find the first key, you need to walk around the map and talk to people you encounter. They ask you a Disney trivia question and after you answer all seven correctly, you get the key. If you get it wrong, just talk to them and try the next question. As you walk around, you notice five different attractions. The rest of the keys are located in these levels and can be taken in any order. I’ll go from easiest to hardest. You have three hit points in most of these levels.
Autopia is the easiest, looking like Bump ‘n’ Jump. Pete has challenged you to a race. Hold the A Button to accelerate and increase gears by pressing up. The B Button brakes and you’ll need to in order to get across a retractable bridge. The course is littered with stars that you want to do your best to collect. If you press the Select Button, you’re taken into a menu where you can spend the stars on replenishing your power, a short amount of invincibility (20:45), freezing enemies for a moment, or gaining an extra life. Collecting 24 stars in Autopia is easy and allows you to have a net gain of one life each time you go through the level and die right before the end.
Next up is Space Mountain. Mickey needs your help getting to Star F. He navigates and you pilot the space ship. The bottom monitor will give you a direction or a button that you have to quickly press. It took me a couple tries to get the timing down, but once you do, it’s no problem. Big Thunder Mountain has you thundering down the mountain in a train car. You have to avoid boulders and dead ends while crisscrossing the tracks. If you get to the bottom, but in the wrong station, you have to go back and try again.
The Haunted House is a precise platforming affair that only becomes difficult if you take your time. Each level has a time limit of 3 minutes. I ran afoul of that here. You are armed with a limited supply of candles that you throw with the B Button. Jumping over enemies and on to platforms is done with the A Button. You have to make a long chair ride, killing or avoiding enemies in the process, leading up to a boss battle. The Pirates of the Caribbean is the hardest level. You have to save six villagers while avoiding the pirates and their attacks. You don’t get a weapon until the very end, so have to rely on your platforming skills. The enemies move briskly and you’ll want as many stars as you can to replenish your life.
With all the silver keys you head to the castle. I was expecting a final level to get the golden key, but nope. That’s all. Mickey can start the parade and you get to see your portrait with Mickey, Goofy, and Donald.
Graphics: 3.0
The only bits I didn’t care for were the overworld and Space Mountain. Everything else had a lot of colors, neat animation tricks, and detailed sprites.
Sound: 3.0
The music on the levels is good. Very Mega Man-esque, but not quite as good.
Gameplay: 2.5
Nothing is complex. The platformers and racing game are the cream in this title.
Difficulty: 2.5
There are a couple points that aren’t particularly fair, Big Thunder Mountain for example, but the rest is close.
Fun Factor: 2.0
It’s solid enough, but it’s not something I would ever feel compelled to play again.
Overall Grade: 2.6
Adventures in the Magic Kingdom earns a B-. For a kids game, it’s not terrible. It’s very unforgiving, but once you get the hang of it, is something that can be bested very quickly.