Mickey Mania

"The timeless adventures of Mickey Mouse"

"Featuring characters created by the legendary Disney Studios, an all action technicolour tale incorporating a myriad of gameplay possibilities that will scroll, rotate and propel you through the magical career of the World's most famous cartoon star."

Most of the game is standard platform fare but Traveller's Tales have found a few ways to keep the player on their toes.  One section sees Mickey running around the outside of a smoothly rotating tower, making his way up platforms against a rising lake of fire, whilst another sees him running into the screen (think The Lion King) to evade a pursuing Moose!  Though the latter of these suffers from noticeably larger borders, they add variety to the standard left to right game and are well designed.  Despite its children's roots this is not an easy game - you probably won't be finishing this one in one sitting.  Whilst marbles to throw at your enemies are plentiful (hello, Castle of Illusion) most take two or three shots to despatch and energy pick-ups are scarce, and extra lives even more so.  Levels need to be taken at a slow, thoughtful pace to avoid the large number of enemies and pitfalls and Mickey himself feels very slightly sluggish whilst being responsive enough to avoid severe frustration.

The whole game is beautifully animated as you would expect from a Disney product, and the Mega-CD provides excellent music and samples & spot effects that the cart version lacks, making it the version of choice.  That said, there's no extra levels or bonuses for Mega-CD owners beyond the better presentation.  The Mega-CD didn't have that many platform games released for it, so it's just as well that this one is an absolute corker.