A platform game developed by Traveller's Tales, published by Sony Imagesoft and released for the Sega Genesis, Super NES, Sega CD and the PlayStation, Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse (known as Mickey's Wild Adventure on the PS1) was originally conceived as a game for Mickey's 65th birthday in 1993. When that release date slipped, Sony Digi Pen dropped that idea for it, but kept the overall theme- a journey through some of Mickey's most memorable cartoons. Throughout the game, you meet up with various Mickeys of the past in order to combat Pete in the final level. Well remembered for its breathtaking animation and challenging difficulty.
The cartoons, in order are:
- 1: 1928's Steamboat Willie: Mickey's theatrical debut, and one of the earliest synchronized sound cartoons.
- 2: 1933's The Mad Doctor: One of Mickey's more infamous shorts, due to its macabre subject matter. The Mad Doctor from this short has gone on to be in Epic Mickey.
- 3: 1937's Moose Hunters: Mickey, Donald and Goofy go moose hunting.
- 4: 1937's Lonesome Ghosts: Mickey, Donald and Goofy get called out to a haunted mansion by some ghosts for some fun. One of the more popular Fab Three cartoons.
- 5: 1947's Mickey and the Beanstalk, from Fun and Fancy Free: Mickey sells a cow for magic beans, and he, Donald and Goofy find themselves face-to-face with Willie the Giant.
- 5.5: 1935's The Band Concert: The first (publicly available) Mickey short in living color. Considered to be among the best cartoons ever made. The level is a bonus level in the Genesis, Sega CD, and PS version.
- 6: 1990's The Prince and the Pauper: The final cartoon of the game. It is by far the longest cartoon in the game- both in terms of level length and length of source material.
Tropes Used By This game:
- Adaptation Name Change: Due to new connotations that didn't exist at the time, "Dr. XXX" from The Mad Doctor was retroactively renamed after his short.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: The last section of Moose Hunters has you running away from the moose in a run-towards-the-screen section. The PlayStation port added a similar section with Willie the Giant.
- Alliance of Alternates: The Sega CD and PlayStation versions feature an additional battle against Pete, in which the alternate forms of Mickey that the present Mickey has met all take turns attacking Pete in some fashion or another.
- Beanstalk Parody: The fifth level, Mickey and the Beanstalk, is based on the animated short of the same name from 1947. Mickey travels up the beanstalk and into Willie the Giant's Castle, where he meets his 1947 counterpart at the end of the stage (followed by, in the case of the PlayStation version, a chase sequence with Willie).
- Big Bad: Pete.
- Big Boo's Haunt: The Lonesome Ghosts manor, filled with all sorts of ghosts which can't be defeated.
- Butt Biter: Pluto gives a bite to Pete's rear end at the beginning of the final boss fight. (Just like in the cartoon.)
- By the Lights of Their Eyes: There's a hidden area in The Mad Doctor that's completely dark, with the only thing visible being powerups marking the ledges forward and Mickey's eyes.
- Chandelier Swing: In The Prince and the Pauper, players have to gain momentum on these by swinging them side to side by having Mickey walk back and forth across them.
- Dem Bones: Just like its source cartoon, The Mad Doctor has humanoid skeletons and giant spider skeletons as the main enemies.
- Developer's Foresight: The Japanese version normally doesn't work in a non-Japanese console but if you do run it on a non-Japanese system and then managed to set the region of the system to Japan while the game's running (easier to do in an emulator), then the game will say "Oh...This machine has somehow become an NTSC Mega Drive System." note
- Easy-Mode Mockery: The PS1 version ends gameplay after Mickey and The Beanstalk with a message telling the player to play on a higher difficulty to see the full game.
- Elevator Action Sequence: Once in The Mad Doctor, in an old-timey cage elevator as skeletons explode around you.
- Escape Sequence: The "boss fight" at the end of Moose Hunters is one of these, where Mickey has to run away from a rampaging moose, and you lose a life if he's caught. The PS1 version adds another one at the end of Mickey and the Beanstalk, only that you escape from the Giant instead, and acts as the Final Boss (but only if you play on Easy).
- Escort Mission: Inverted in Moose Hunters, where Pluto follows you. Instead of you protecting him, however, he points out an oncoming moose about to ram Mickey from his behind.
- Feathered Fiend: The parrots acts as these in the wharf level.
- Final Boss: Pete, fought at the end of The Prince and the Pauper.
- Floating Continent: Mickey and the Beanstalk, of course. It's at the top of the Beanstalk, after all.
- Funnel Cloud Journey: The Band Concert takes place in the tornado from said cartoon. You have to jump on the spinning crates to reach the end.
- The Ghost: Willie the Giant in almost every version of the game in Mickey and the Beanstalk. He does however appear in the PS1 version.
- Goofy Print Underwear: The dagger-throwing weasels in The Prince and the Pauper, as well as the final boss Pete in the CD versions.
- Goomba Stomp: Mickey can defeat most (but not all) enemies this way.
- Gratuitous Laboratory Flasks: During The Mad Doctor, flasks, test tubes and retorts are used as scrolling foreground filler. Mickey does eventually have to mix some chemicals in a hilariously oversized beaker to blow up a door.
- Heavily Armored Mook: The weasels' helmets prevent damage from being jumped on, for the most part (though they can be used as trampolines). Upgraded to Heavily Armored Boss, considering that Pete can't be hit with marbles unlike the Mad Doctor, nor can you jump on him.
- Invincible Minor Minion: The ghosts from the Lonesome Ghosts level can't be hurt by Mickey.
- It's All Upstairs From Here: In the final level, you have to race up a burning tower.
- Level Ate: Played with in Mickey and the Beanstalk, thanks to the last room taking place on Willie the Giant's dining table. Giant gelatin doubles as trampolines.
- Loads and Loads of Loading: Featured in every version of the game with the sole exception of the Sega Genesis version, where Mickey stares at his watch for a few seconds or read the script before the start of each level. This feature is infamous on the SNES version, as unlike the Sega CD and the PlayStation versions, who had the excuse of using a CD to read the levels, the SNES version uses a cartridge similar to the Sega Genesis version, who don't feature these.
- Mad Doctor: The titular one from "The Mad Doctor" is featured as the boss of his respective stage, who throws dangerous explosive potions to Mickey.
- Macro Zone: Mickey and the Beanstalk, due to it being Willie the Giant's land. Even the beetles, butterflies and spiders are huge.
- Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: Mickey meets his counterparts to each of the cartoons he visits throughout the game.
- Mercy Mode: If you're playing either the Genesis version or the Sega CD version, the gurney segment from The Mad Doctor can be skipped if you fail on your second-to-last life. Unfortunately the SNES and PS1 versions don't have this.
- Minecart Madness: The gurney section in The Mad Doctor, wherein you ride a gurney while avoiding acid pits and buzz saws.
- Monochrome to Color: The first stage, based on Steamboat Willie, starts off black and white. As the stage progresses, it slowly starts to have colors.
- My Future Self and Me: Invoked, in that Mickey can find a Mickey in each cartoon. Some, such as Mad Doctor Mickey and Band Concert Mickey, are hidden.
- Nostalgia Level: Kinda the whole point of the game, but the first level, Steamboat Willie takes the cake. It's even in black and white at the beginning, with imperfections in the "film reel" (though not in the SNES version), and crackly sound, complete with the sound of an old projector.
- Port Town: The Steamboat Willie level proceeds from the steamboat onto a port side town.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: The Band Concert level's music is a rendition of "Flight of the Bumblebee".
- Respawn on the Spot: Finding a rocket gives Mickey the ability to respawn very near where he was defeated for the rest of the level. The help screen calls this "level restart", which isn't super comprehensible.
- Secret Level: As mentioned previously, The Band Concert. The whole level takes place on flying crates inside a tornado, so it's also unlike any other level in the game.
- Shout-Out:
- The hidden Mad Doctor Mickey seems to derive not from The Mad Doctor, but an earlier horror themed short, 1929's The Haunted House (although The Mad Doctor does have an instance of Mickey in an area so dark he has to light a match to see where he is, and while he is in the dark, only his eyes can be seen).
- Also, in the Lonesome Ghosts level, a few rolling portraits from The Haunted Mansion appear in the background. Doubles as a Mythology Gag since the original concept for the Mansion was a dark ride based on Lonesome Ghosts.
- Similarly, the music in this particular area contains a snippet of "Grim Grinning Ghosts" in the cartridge versions and Toccata and Fugue in D Minor in the disc versions.
- While not definite, Mickey has thrown marbles as weapons before.
- Super Drowning Skills: Mickey takes damage just from touching the water in the Lonesome Ghosts and The Prince and the Pauper levels, even when it's only a few feet deep. It doesn't hurt him when it's below his head, though.
- Updated Re-release: The PlayStation and Sega CD ports both add a level where Mickey has to collect pencils so that the Mickeys from the previous shorts attack Pete. All versions except the SNES version also feature the bonus stage, The Band Concert. The Mad Doctor had a spiral staircase section that was not on the SNES. The PS1 port added another running section, this time with Willie the Giant, as the last level of Mickey and the Beanstalk.
- Vine Swing: The Mad Doctor and The Prince and the Pauper feature sections where the player has to use swinging chains for transport. In the case of the latter, Mickey even lets out a Tarzan yell.
- The Walls Are Closing In: One part of the third section of The Prince and the Pauper has you dropping through a shaft with the walls closing in on both sides, and you must drop through quickly to avoid getting crushed.
- Wicked Weasel: The Prince and the Pauper level has these as the main enemies, appropriately enough. There are two kinds: one attacks by throwing knives and the other attacks by firing arrows from crossbows.
- A Winner Is You: The game has no official ending other than showing all the enemies of the game...It did, however, tease of an upcoming theatrical Mickey cartoon, and at the time of the game's release, it wasn't lying, as Runaway Brain would be released 10 months after the game's release.
Mighty Pete has been defeated and Mickey can start on his next animated cartoon! Watch for it coming soon!
