"Time travel with Mickey has never been so average"

Mickey Mania is a game where you play as Mickey Mouse going through all of his cartoons, starting with Steamboat Willie in the early 1900's and ending in a battle in The Prince and the Pauper from the early 90's. Mickey also encounters early drawn versions of himself (who knows why) and sometimes has to rescue them.

Story: N/A
There is no story to this game other than that you play as Mickey and take a stroll through time.

Gameplay: 7/10
Okay, so you start off with Steamboat Willie. All you can do is jump and hurt things by landing on them with your butt. Later on in the level, you acquire marbles, which you can use to hit enemies long distance. There's a boss in pretty much every level, except for the Ghost Hunters and Mickey and the Beanstalk. Most of the bosses are good and take their fair share of hits to kill. The Mad Doctor in level 2 is a good villain, but it takes a bit of practice to kill. Why? Because he likes to throw potions at you in every direction and it becomes almost impossible to dodge them. The last boss, "Big Pete" is also a little hard to beat, but is a bit easier to dodge. The game isn't too easy, nor is it too hard. Determining how good you are at it, it can either take weeks to beat it, or it could take you 45 minutes.

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics are very good for the time period. Mickey looks like Mickey and not some black blob with circles coming out of the head. Also, the versions of past Mickeys look well done. Although you always play as the same "Mickey", you encounter older versions during the game. The Mickey from Steamboat Willie, the Mad Doctor, the two from Prince and the Pauper...they all look just like they did in the cartoons. Also, the backgrounds look just like they did in the cartoons. Well done.

Sound: 8/10
The sound in this game is split. The music is very good for the most part. The fast paced chase music at the end of level 3 is fun to listen to. Even the boss measures sound good. Some music, though, like the tracks from Steamboat Willie, can become quite annoying to listen to. There's really no tune, and the instruments are a little on the high side. That wasn't enough to drop the score, but the sound effects were. The sound of throwing marbles sounds choppy. When Mickey talks, he speaks English, but with a blubbery accent. Genesis has had a reputation from me as a system with good music with okay quality for its time, but the sound effects...you got to listen to them to believe them.

Multiplayer: N/A

Length: 6/10
As stated before, you could spend 5 days of 5 weeks trying to beat this game at first. If you have trouble with it at first, then it'll take longer. If you can just breeze through the first couple of mini-stages, you should be fine. The bosses, the way I see it, should be the only thing that gets in your way for most part. I'm not talking about the cranes in Level 1. I mean the Mad Doctor and Big Pete can put up a fight at first, so it can be little difficult finding out their patterns and how to avoid them, which thankfully lengths the game.

Replayabilty: 4
This hurts the game. The replayability value is small. The only thing you can really do once you beat the game would be to try it on a harder difficulty and/or sharpen your skills.

Total Score: 33/50
Averaged Score: 6.6 (rounds up to 7)

Buy or Rent?
I really don't think you should have much trouble beating this game, so I'd say just buy it. You probably won't want to go back to this game after you beat it, so it's not worth buying. Of course, you can find these games for less than $10 now, so if I can't find a place to rent it, go ahead and buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/04