The Retro Critic

Mickey’s Adventures In Numberland

Believe it or not, I haven’t reviewed that many educational kid-friendly games.

No, Fisher-Price: Perfect Fit doesn’t count.

I have, however, reviewed one of my favourite Mickey games, Mickey Mania for the Sega Genesis and revisiting that one was a joy so I trust Mickey to, once again, offer something worthwhile.

Oh, who am I kidding?

Mickey’s Adventures In Numberland looked terrible.

And, in a way, it still does!

The title card alone (see above) is one ugly and unimaginative piece of work with some green background reminiscent of pre-game Sega Master System glitches, Mickey wearing non fashionable sporty clothes and no numbers anywhere on screen.

A brief intro gives us the plot: good old Pete robbing something from a Town Hall on a shockingly sunny day. No idea why the sun is so darn prominent in this sequence but never mind.

Turns out, Pete was robbing numbers.

Which is CRAZY!

Especially in broad daylight: couldn’t get away with that in real life, that’s for sure.

That said, the Town Hall’s security is just plain awful.

Who’s the sheriff in this stupid town, anyway?

Billy Idol Donald Duck?!

Well that explains a lot, actually.

This spiky-haired, vest-wearing, blue-eyed Donald with no arms or body is not happy so he hires the help of a mouse to move the investigation along.

Man is this guy in a good mood.

I can see why some people can’t stand Mickey: this is one upbeat mouse!

No matter what the situation is, you can bet he’ll show up with that big grin on his face like it’s his birthday, Christmas and Mice Day all at the same time.

I guess that can be uplifting even in the darkest situations…

Anyway, how about we get to the game itself?

After choosing a difficulty, you’re placed on a map where you can choose which level to tackle first. Basically you’ve got the city, the museum, the space center and some windmill that’s basically Pete’s lair.

Each stage has a couple of levels to it so it’s not quite as super easy and super fast of a game as it may seem, even if this is, indeed, a short one.

The space center sees Mickey being tasked with finding a specific number and platforming his way through the level picking up everything and anything with said number. Failure to do that results in the worst of all punishments.

Mickey shakes his head.

It’s not that bad, really.

It’s basically the same reaction Goofy gets when he shows Mickey A Goofy Movie whenever it pops up on TV.

Frankly, Mickey shouldn’t really be all that judgemental seeing as he does some pretty weird stuff throughout the game, and I’m not talking about picking up stray bubble gum or floating numbers, I’m talking about doing a little dance every time he jumps from slightly too high.

I think the animation on that was meant to be Mickey dusting off his shorts (whatever that means) but it just looks like he’s performing something out of Flashdance, especially under that spotlight.

Another thing he does is he occasionally rolls around like Sonic for a split second. I think that’s more of a glitch as I can’t exactly explain the reason behind it.

Mickey also uses those gum balls he picks up as a basketball sometimes but he knows exactly what he’s doing there so I’ll let that pass.

There’s not too much to say about each level seeing as they’re all essentially the same deal but their layouts do become a bit more confusing as the levels get tougher and you get to face more enemies.

Including robots:

Plus it may sound easy to pick up only things relating to a certain number but avoiding some of those other numbers can be a pain as they tend to be awkwardly positioned on purpose.

And that’s when I realised that I was playing a somewhat challenging (for younger gamers, anyway) platformer with Mickey Mouse and, although it didn’t look that good and was inherently surreal being an educational game about numbers, I was a tad entertained.

While the game certainly lacked imagination in terms of its look and story (Mario Is Missing, anyone?), it was successfully drilling its numbers into my brain while providing me with… a game so I suppose that’s mission accomplished on its part?

Well played Disney, well played.

I could see a young kid with an interest in numbers and cartoons have a good time with this game and willingly overlook its many shortcomings.

So what if Donald sounds satisfied yet still looks really angry and unfinished?

And so what if there’s no real boss battle or anything at the end of the game?

I can now count to 10 and although I’ve just played a slightly rubbish Mickey game, it still provided me some basic form of entertainment: it wasn’t a good game, far from it, but it was nonetheless a game.

Which is more than I can say about other self-proclaimed “educational” endeavours.

This may not call for a fist bump, Disney, but a high five should do it.

Next time, try to actually make contact with your friend’s hand, Mickey.

Makes high fives that little bit more special.

1 Donald hand + 1 Mickey hand = 2 Disney hands.

2 Disney hands + 1 high clap = 1 Disney high 5.

Simple maths, really.