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Video Game / Adventures In The Magic Kingdom

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Back in the late 80s and early 90s, when Capcom was making numerous video games based on Disney franchises such as TV cartoons DuckTales (1987) and Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, and the movie The Little Mermaid, they decided to try their hand at a game based on Disneyland itself.

Made in 1990, Adventures in the Magic Kingdom can be seen as an early precursor to Kingdom Hearts, or more accurately, Kinect: Disneyland Adventures. You play the role of a boy whose name you determine, who explores the place and goes on rides that are essentially minigames, in an attempt to collect 6 keys to open the gate needed to start the Disneyland parade. You also meet a small handful of Disney characters.

The rides included as minigames are:

The first two of those rides play out as platformers, with slightly different rules - in Pirates of the Caribbean, you start out unarmed and must avoid enemies until you collect a candle, which you can then use infinite times, as you try to rescue all 6 hostages. In The Haunted Mansion, you have a limited supply of candles to use to fight ghosts, and your only goal is to reach the end. The other three games are straight-up minigame in their style.

The game also allowed you to collect stars, which could be used on a pause screen to buy life, lives, brief invincibility, or freeze time. What you couldn't do, was extend or freeze your (only visible on the pause screen) time limit.

The music in the game is from Yoko Shimomura, who would return to Disney 12 years later as the composer for Kingdom Hearts. The platform game concept of a player exploring a Disney Theme park would re-surface in Mickey No Tokyo Disneyland Daibouken released later for the Super Nintendo.


This game contains examples of:

  • Bottomless Pits: Platforming stages feature pits that kill the player upon falling into them.
  • The Cameo: Some more of the rides can be seen here also. However, they can't be entered. These include Cinderella's Castle, It's a Small World, Jungle Cruise, and the Disneyland Railroad (the tracks of which surround the overworld). The entirety of Main Street USA is also here, right down to the type of shops, indicated by sprites.
  • Collision Damage: Inflicted on the player character by all of the enemies.
  • Gameplay Roulette: You have racing, pressing onscreen button prompts, and platforming all in the same game.
  • Flash of Pain: In the platforming section, the player character flickers for a few seconds after losing a life, to indicate their Mercy Invincibility.
  • Hello, [Insert Name Here]: You enter your name at the beginning, but the only places it's even used are when talking to some of the people in the overworld, the intros to Pirates of the Caribbean and Autopia, and the pause screen, where Mickey says "[your name], fight!" Leaving the naming space blank results in the game giving you the rather odd name of "Bamboo.7".
  • Improbable Weapon User: You deal with the apparitions in the Haunted Mansion through throwing candles at them. Same goes for Pirates of the Carribbean.
  • Mercy Invincibility: During the Haunted Mansion platforming, you get a few seconds of it after losing a life, as indicated by the player character flickering.
  • Never Say "Die": While The Haunted Mansion has a backstory involving ghosts that, according to Mickey, "might want you", any mention or direct implication of death is avoided. If you die, you simply get "I'm sorry, you'll have to try again." Even if it's a ghost saying it. Almost as if they're not really killing you. But then again, this is a theme park after all.
  • Non-Standard Game Over: If you touch the flying ghost at the beginning of the Haunted Mansion stage, you're automatically booted out of the stage, with the standard "I'm sorry, you'll have to try again" message this time with the ghost saying it instead of Mickey. It doesn't cost you a life, though.
  • Only Smart People May Pass: One of the keys requires you to answer a series of questions regarding Disney trivia; some of it can get quite obscure.note 
  • Pop Quiz: You must answer randomized trivia questions about Disney's history in order to get one of the keys.
  • Press X to Not Die: Space Mountain works on this principle. Your only goal is to push the button or direction it indicates onscreen. Fail, and you lose a heart.
  • Together in Death: A frequent obstacle in the latter parts of the Haunted Mansion are a ghost couple hugging each other so tightly they are represented by a single sprite (and will both be taken down by a single candle). They don't even pay any attention to you, but will still deal damage if you run into them.
  • Watch for Rolling Objects: In Pirates Of The Caribbean level, there are barrels thrown by men (who can't be defeated) from windows. The barrels roll along the ground and off the surfaces.

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