Previous Next

Poor Merlin has had his magic wand nicked by the Wicked Witches of the North, South, East and West. Using the power this has given them, the despicable witches now rule Disneyland.

To keep the wand safe from Merlin, the witches have given it to the Ogre King who has broken it into four pieces and put each piece on top of a tall tower. Each tower is filled to the brim with ogres, ghosts and skeletons.

Instead of getting the SAS in, Merlin has convinced Mickey Mouse to rescue the pieces of the wand and so save Disneyland. To help him, Merlin has given him a water pistol full of enchanted water.

Mickey, being an intelligent mouse, has also brought along a large mallet. (How does Mickey Mouse tell the time? He looks at his England cricket team watch).

The action takes place on the various floors of each tower. The floors are linked by a ladders and when Mickey climbs up, the screen scrolls smoothly and quickly to the next level. Each floor is populated by two types of creatures, ghosts and monsters.

The ghosts are either of the white sheet variety or a sort of bouncing blobby thing. They can be eradicated with a squirt from the water pistol.

The monsters are either ogres or skeletons and when Mickey taps them on the head with the mallet they split into little monsters which need another quick tap. Whenever a nasty is killed, they leave a bonus or more water for the water pistol. The bonuses include a shield that protects Mickey from the monsters, a pot of glue that sticks them to the ground, and lightning bolts that allow Mickey to move twice as fast. Sometimes the ghosts leave a key that lets Mickey enter one of the rooms in the towers.

In each room is a separate subgame which must be completed to allow Mickey to board up the room. When all the rooms have been boarded up, he moves to the next tower. The sub-games are each a budget game in their own right.

The first game is a little like Gauntlet. Mickey must run around a maze collecting the objects needed to board up the room.

The second game involves Mickey running left and right on a randomly moving conveyor belt trying to burst bubbles with his mallet. Any bubbles not burst will eat into the conveyor belt, ultimately making Mickey fall.

In the third game - a Donkey Kong variant - Mickey must hammer in several corks while avoiding ogres and a floating ghost.

The fourth game keeps him on his toes as he tries to stop four dripping taps by travelling up and down on moving lifts while avoiding ghosts.

Not all the games are available on every tower, so there is always something new to look forward to as an incentive to finish the current tower.

When all the rooms are boarded up, the next tower must be loaded from tape. When the game is over, you rewind the tape and reload the first tower again. When the fourth tower is completed, Mickey has to face the Ogre King himself, armed only with his trusty water pistol. If he fails to squirt the Ogre King fifteen times Mickey goes right back to the first tower and starts again.

Animation is quite fast for the CPC - there can be about half a dozen creatures on the screen, all moving and each individually animated without any noticeable effect on the game's pace.

The sound effects during the game are limited to an acceptable selection of blips and blops, which add little and yet would be notable by their absence.

The programming is excellent - fast, smooth, colourful animation and neat scrolling. The loading tune is a wonderfully orchestrated version of The Sorcerer's Apprentice from Fantasia and can be skipped if you are not a music lover. Mickey Mouse is very addictive and great fun to play. What more can I say?

Smashing. Four good small games linked together by one big excellent one. Very colourful scenery and smoothly animated sprites make Mickey Mouse a pleasure to play.

The only thing that spoils the presentation is an horrific rendering of The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Paul Duka must be turning in his grave.