Mickey Mania Review - Quickies Don't Cut It 

Jon, the founder and lead programmer at TT, has said in his Director's Commentary/Playthrough he wanted to make a Director's Cut of Mickey Mania to improve the game, just like he did with Sonic 3D Blast. If that will happen, who knows.

This is truly one of the most impressive looking 16-Bit games ever made. It is amazing what they were able to do with the graphics here.

Seems like a missed opportunity to not include a level from The Sorcerer's Apprentice from Fantasia.

This was a great and honest review mate and no, you are not crap for pointing out the games flaws. I have now subscribed to your channel as I love in-depth reviews like this and can't wait to see more of 'Quickies don't cut it'.

I think the reason the PS1 version came out only in Europe was probably because of Sony's "3D only" policy in USA and Japan around 1996. Same thing happened with Earthworm Jim 2.

When I first played Micky Mania for the SNES, I'd get stuck on the elevator level. Eventually, I was able to get up to the part with the rising fire, right after the tower.

this was a very well thought out and detailed review. awesome video!

Didn't see this review coming. Well first off, I'm glad you gave Sonic Mania some attention because it does look like an awesome game, and secondly, another great review.

hey, thanks for taking me back to when I was 5 years old. The 3 of us rented the mega drive version when the babysitter was watching us. I remember being impressed with the steamboat willy and dungeon levels (that's probably as far as we got) and that Boss theme... I never forget that boss theme.

Great channel, keep these review coming

Another Blythe Joustra soundtrack? I gotta give it a listen some time.

I just noticed the comments notifying me the video freezes around 18 minutes in. I honestly couldn't tell you why, but I'll look into it!

Great game, great episode! Can't wait for the next review, man!

OOH MY GOD! Zone! i BEEn looking for this game for YEARS when i was little.. but i NEVER remembered the name! THANK YOU for this man! thank you! only thing i remember about this game on tv was pet throwing a sword at mickey and the awesome music

This is by far the best review of this game I have seen thus far. It's a shame the PS1 version wasn't released in other regions. The fact that it doesn't save on a memory card, can't be fully completed unless on hard, or the name change might be possibilities.

this is a pure nostalgia trip god the music is good

Great review!

Really enjoyed the review subscribed! :]

I find it really unfair how you only have so little subs. I hope you get 50 times more soon man!

Great job on this video! :)

Guess who has a copy of the SEGA CD version? I wish I could still play it but I can't find the Sega CD anymore. I remember renting it on the SNES and being so young I couldn't remember all of these problems but when I had the money I knew I wanted it for the CD just a little bit later. Even though I haven't been able to touch the game in years there were a few things I actually remembered quite clearly. 1.) I loved the moose chase music as it is still burned into my head to this very day, but would you believe me if I said that the CD version did not have that track? Yeah they just recycled the main stage's theme. 2.) If I remember this correctly the SNES soundtrack could loop continuously, however the CD version (while superior) would actually come to an end before replaying the track again. Sort of the same thing for Sonic CD. 3.) I think there was a part missing in the first stage of Steam Boat Willie that was there on the CD, along with the extra bonus stage and the extra fight at the end. 4.) While you briefly covered this there were multiple lines said in the CD version such as Mickey saying "I remember you". That being said great review overall and I'm kind of surprised you didn't leave a little comment at the end or in the description box that says "If you liked this review, watch it again." (unless I missed it). Only a few people got that reference in my Epic Mickey review.

Nice review. I remember that I tried it, but I rage quitted at the second level because of the level design that I don't like at all. Like the knife that fall without any warning. By the way, my brother said that if fail to do it the first time (at 25:25), the platforms don't respawn so you must take the spikes to get to Mickey.

talkabout nostalgia kicking me hard i not played this in years i played Mikey's wild dventure back when i was 5 years old and alas for my emulator collection i got the Snes version ..... welp time to track down a PS1 ISO of it thanks for the very in depth review

This game seems to ascribe to the thought that more enemies means harder game. Also the weasel that has a horrified expression upon defeat looks like he's seen visions of the apocalypse or a dirty toilet.

I did grow up with the snes version and will gladly say I love it. I still return to it on occasions.

I will also say that I find the Genesis YM2612 chip to be sorely underrated. I think it was a victim of poor usage, in the hands of those who simply didn't know how to use it properly. It is notoriously difficult to work with. However, there are select examples on the Genesis that are simply amazing and show off the true potential of the chip. The chip is actually quite capable of blurring the line between it and the SNES in terms of sound quality. One game in particular that really blurs the line is Gauntlet 4. The people behind that soundtrack truly knew what they were doing and created what I believe to be the richest and most detailed sound I have ever heard out of the chip. Certain tracks literally sound like they were done in studio on a high end synthesizer, like something you would hear on a Techno album. It is truly impressive.

I'm an avid gamer, but I missed this one. Looks like it was my loss. And man, this game looks so visually impressive.

I can’t imagine playing the PS1 version. The Sega music was what made the game so good.

Great video!

I have the SNES version, never really thought much of it, the farthest I ever got was the moose level. Really like the castle music though.

The SNES version isn't really a loading issue, it's a decompressing one. Street fighter alpha 2 had a similar issue. In that case an add on chip was used to decompress the graphics on the fly, but the sound had to be decompressed and loaded, thus the wait.

I prefer Mania over Castle of Illusion simply b/c of better animation, and sense of humor. If remade today for modern consoles, I wish it would have the Paul Rudish version of Mickey for an even funnier, cartoonier experience, as well as more variety and even more emphasis on story.

There's something wrong with the video now... at 18:26 exactly, everything pauses. Everything. no audio, no motion yet, the video itself keeps on going as though nothing's wrong. it becomes a still image of Mickey jumping for the rest of the video

Yoshi's Island didn't have any load times so there's really no excuse. They should've made it where the game would load parts that finish loading before you get to them. It also wouldn't hurt to use the SA-1 chip (1-12-2020).

I always love hated that game for the reasons you mentioned, ultimately giving up upon Mickey and the Beans Talk for the shere lack of extra lives. I do enjoy the music and the graphics, but the problems you adressed kept hindering me, esp in the Phantasmal Ghosts section with the drowning barrel and rising water. If they're not emulators, I never had finished that game, and yes I needed savestates for the insta death traps.

A sequel was in the works but it was ultimately abandoned because TT decided to develop a Toy Story game instead.

SNES version for Mickey Mania is not alone on that. I saw that Sega CD and PlayStation version also have a loading screens that takes a few seconds to load.

Great review, man! One small correction though: 22:34 There is no extra grunt on the Sega Mega CD compared to the Mega Drive other than redbook audio and more storage for video. In terms of graphics, the Sega CD and the Mega Drive both use 320 x 224 resolution with 64 colors on screen out of an available 512. So Mega CD can't do more than the Mega Drive as the Mega CD is just an add-on to allow a different media, which are CDs instead of carts. 32x was an add-on, but not for media, but for graphics (Unless you get one of those Mega CD 32x games... which is a nightmare to set up) Both the 32x and the Sega Saturn could do more, but the Mega CD can not be on par with a PS1 game in terms of graphics as the PS1 uses a color palette of 16.7 million with a resolution of 640 x 480.

Uggggh, one of my most hated game design elements rears its ugly head: games that punish you for playing on an easier difficulty. I already don't like the fact that games like Turtles in Time and Castlevania Bloodlines decide that players who beat the game on easy or normal aren't good enough to see the ending, but suddenly stopping the game and telling you to do the whole thing all over again just to see the rest of it is plain dickish. Just because you aren't playing on the hardest difficulty doesn't mean you're undeserving of playing through the whole game or seeing the normal ending or whatever. If developers want to put in extra content or an alternate ending that can only be seen on the highest difficulty, that's a nice reward. But the main game should be able to be fully completed no matter what difficulty the player chooses.

Another factor that could have contributed to the games difficulty was the rental market. Developers would sometimes have to make their games harder because the belief at the time was that if a kid could beat a game in a single rental they would be less incentivized to buy the game out right.

I have NEVER been cognizant loading times on a cartridge

18:17 the video freezes for some reason

I largely agree with your points, but one slight correction: setting the difficulty to easy does have an effect other than the number of continues, but only in the Playstation version. When set to easy you don't always lose a hit point when you take a hit. It does make the game a fair bit easier, which I guess is why they didn't let you play through the full game on easy on the PS1.

I love this game I wish they would remake it. a great job was done on duck tales for nes to ps3. maybe a remake like that.

LOL you said ''because mickeys' wild adventure was only released in Europe they should have optimised it for NTSC speeds'' but in Europe, PAL was the standard, for both screens and broadcasts

If you liked Mikey Mania, check out Mickey's Adventure on Playstation 1 :)

When you own the best version.

Even the developer had a tough time, he had to use a rom hack to give him infinite lives

hope to see you review Castle of Illusion for the Genesis or Master System....fantastic game imho.

This game looks more fun than Castle of Illusion.

Should I make game reviews? I've been thinking about it for a while.

Almost 1.5k subs

what the hell happened at 18:17? the video is completely frozen after this point and only one person in the comment section has pointed this out edit: it seems to have been fixed now?? will provide further updates if it happens again

Hello, Dr. Nick!!! *(Hi, everybody!)*

I wonder if there's a mod to the PS1 version of Mickey Mania that makes it run at 60hz?

Gamehut probably likes your constructive criticism, since he was the guy who worked on the game.

I'm pretty sure PAL speed was the speed the game was originally intended to be played at, and all other versions of the game are essentially running a bit faster then they should. After all, Traveller's Tales was a British developer, so they most likely were playtesting the game on 50 Hz equipment. I beat the game (on Sega Mega Drive) when it came out, and I always considered it to be gorgeous and very competent technically, but a bit too easy and short. I don't remember having any problems with enemy placement or not enough continues, since the game was not very long and not at all hard. Overall, I wasn't disappointed. Great art, animation and sense of humor - it was a fun little journey through Mickey's (and Disney's) history. Come to think of it, I wish Cuphead developers would cooperate with Disney and remade this game or, better yet, made a sequel.

dude... ah man I remember playing this game... and I also sucked at it.

Man, this Retropolis Zone nitwit is overly picky and critical for spending so much time on explaining bad enemy placement and instant kill nonsense... wait.

Good video

So I take it I should get both the Mega Drive version and somehow find a way of hacking the Playstation version to an NTSC Signal? Isn't the Mega CD version worth bothering with then? If the Mega CD and Playstation soundtracks are the same, along with the graphics of the Mega Drive & Mega CD versions being the same then I guess it's all about just getting the Playstation and Mega Drive versions and calling it a day. Anyways, these are the kind of reviews I want to see on youtube mate. The ones that go soooo in depth that they even tell you the differences between every released version. Region differences are also important but I already know that the Mega Drive's US & JAP Versions are hardly different apart from a few text changes here and there.

A good o' review as usual...Kinda bit too nitpicky, but opinion is opinion to one man alone. ow

1:41 Watch this out of context.

I first played Mickey Mania in the SNES...and hated it....what luck!

I....really need to track this game down. lol

This game was too hard for me

What game is that at 16:24?

Not you, too!

humm...call me crazy but i think THIS game is what somewhat inspired the creation of kingdom hearts

Just played this one. Sorry, but the mechanics in this game would be entirely unforgivable by today's standards.

hey buddy lee, have watched several of reviews.....you are missing one big point and something you forgot to analyze, these were the blockbuster/rent-a-game days, the limited continues and cheap deaths went with the territory, that's way, say for instance battle toads for nintendo had that dumb ass level on the second stage, it's extremely more easier in the japanese release i was gonna leave a comment on your streets of rage/bare knuckle review which you failed to mention is just basically final fight for genesis since snes got final fight streets of rage 2 is where it really became it's own and is hands down one of the best beat em ups to grace this planet

The Snes ver is not BAD DUMMIES

Eh, I don't see how the Mega Drive (Genesis) version has better music. It sounds rather cheap and low quality.

Another thing worth noting is that this game is an example of one that is very CPU dependent, thus why you see certain games actually being better on the Genesis. The Genesis has a better and faster CPU than the SNES, while the SNES has a significantly better graphics and sound chip. The Genesis is also capable of sending data between it's chips faster than the SNES can. This is partly where the term "Blast Processing" came from. That is a rather simplified explanation but yeah, it gets the job done. Also, this game has incredibly detailed sprite animations for the time, and all of this has to be loaded into RAM. This is why load times are present. The Genesis does this much faster than the SNES, thus having the shorter load times.

Nobody played this... Sega was so much better than Nintendo

Capcom's Magical Adventure is such a superior game mechanically, it really puts Traveller Tales' team to shame. To their defense tho, the Megadrive was filled with these platform games with godawful design.

..... what does that even mean to optimize the code for 50Hz? It either runs at 50Hz or at 60Hz. What on earth are you talking about? 50Hz is the standard for all video eqiupment in Europe. You said yourself that it only came out in Europe, so of course it runs at 50Hz. What else did you expect it to run at?

I love limited continues. It actually makes a game feel good to play and beat. Its the way a 2D game should be. I cringe every time you use it as a negative in videos.

.... I am assuming you are young, considering how new school your critiques are. You really shouldn't be reviewing retro games if you're going to bash on the use of trial and error in their gameplay, something that is quite literally rudimentary for all games of that era. Trial and error is a staple of 8 and 16 Bit gaming and isn't something that should be perceived as a negative, at least not in the way that you do. Trial and Error gameplay is quite literally BY DESIGN! These older games are short, and thus developers purposely make a point NOT to hold your hand or give too much away in order to make it so you can't easily get thru a level on your very first try. Again, this is by design. You being a retro reviewer should know this by now, yet you cite trial and error as a negative in EVERY SINGLE ONE of your reviews! The fact that you're a retro game reviewer that cites trial and error as a negative is simply absurd. Many people actually like the trial and error gameplay as it's what they grew up with. It extends the length of the game and allows you to get better and better at it as you learn the levels and game mechanics, and when you finally do complete a tough level it makes it all the more satisfying. The retro scene really doesn't seem to fit your gaming style. If you can't handle the challenge of retro games and hate trial and error so much, then I suggest you stick to reviewing newer games instead. Stick to the games from your era and leave the retro stuff to those who grew up with and appreciate them. EDIT - I actually wrote this before watching the 2nd half of this video. Perhaps I didn't give you enough credit, as it seems you do at least have a basic understanding of what Trial and Error gameplay is and the purpose it serves.

More whining about a video game because it's not designed to be beat flawlessly on the first run.