PSX Memories: Mickey’s Wild Adventure

This time, I want to switch it up and talk about one of the first games I played on Sony’s original PlayStation.

The OG PlayStation, which I will henceforth refer to as PS, was all about 3D. To put that in perspective, think of 3D as something like open world games are today, an industry buzzword of sorts with developers trying to capitalize on the new hardware, platformers like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot were all the rage and everyone wanted a piece of that pie. But not Traveller’s Tales, at least not until 1998 when Psygnosis published Rascal, a hilariously awkward-looking 3D platformer that is better talked about elsewhere and is probably something TT would rather we forget about. They did go on to develop Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear To The Rescue, which was excellent, but that’s also the subject for another discussion.

Mickey’s Wild Adventure, known (I think) as Mickey Mania elsewhere in the world, was essentially an enhanced port of the SNES game with 3D rendered backgrounds and extra content.

The slow pacing made it a little more accessible for n00b gamers, like I was at the time, but it was kind of difficult and I usually didn’t get further than 2 or 3 levels in.

I don’t think this game had a save function at all, or we just didn’t have a memory card, so it was a prime contender for creating a scenario in which whoever was playing it would end up pleading for another 10 minutes because they got past the 3rd level finally and want to see how far they can get.

I remember the sprite animations being top notch, and the level design was quite brilliant in that you could interact with the environment in a variety of unique ways, like bouncing on Pete’s belly after you beat him in the second level or jumping on a bottle of soda pop in the first level.

It’s quite a trip to play levels based on all the different Mickey cartoons through the years, from the first monochrome level to slowly adding color..seeing the medium evolve, it was a bit like a history lesson and I would love to see this game remastered in the style of Cuphead, but the sprite animations hold up really well! The music, similarly, is very good.

Here is a video of someone playing through the game, I don’t have it anymore so cannot provide my own content here.