Mickey Mania / YMMV

Awesome Music:
- The theme used for the gurney ride in The Mad Doctor (reused as the final boss theme). The track can be found in most game rips as Captain Pete.
- The unused options menu music that was only heard in the Sega Genesis prototype.
- The track labeled as EOL Boss 1 in the sound test has become so synonymous with the Mad Doctor himself, that rips have even named it after him.
Breather Level: Moose Hunters is significantly easier than the Mad Doctor or Lonesome Ghosts.
Demonic Spiders: The Weasels in the Prince and the Pauper, most definitely. They take several hits, are difficult to beat if you run out of marbles, and can hit you from far away. Too bad you can't just make them laugh themselves to death.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Just like his original short, the Mad Doctor (or rather, Dr. XXX in the original short) is remembered quite fondly in particular. Helped out by the fact that the cartoon and character is by far and large the most obscure cartoon in the game.
Funny Moments: The death screen in the PS1 and Sega CD versions comes with a hilarious sad trombone music.
Genius Programming: The Sega Genesis version of the game features Mode 7-style perspective effects in a number of the levels... produced entirely in software, as unlike the SNES, that system has no hardware support for such effects. In fact, the SNES version even lacks one of these levels.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- A video game featuring a Funny Animal star of a Long Runner franchise going through places he's been to before and allying with his past self or selves. Remind you of anything?
  - If that wasn't enough, said Funny Animal star later gets a game with smooth sprite animation, CD-quality music and Mania in the title. It even missed an anniversary, to boot!
- Right before the boss fight against the Mad Doctor begins, he removes a black cloak that makes him resemble the Phantom Blot, Mickey's lesser-known archnemesis from the Mickey Mouse Comic Universe. The Epic Mickey game would later feature the Mad Doctor and a revamped version of the Phantom Blot called the Shadow Blot as the main antagonists.
  - Also, several of the levels would get projector stages, excluding Moose Hunters (excuseable as that is not a well known cartoon) and The Prince and the Pauper (excusable as that was released in 1990, making it not a classic short). Plus, the Lonesome Ghosts show up as NPCs.
Most Wonderful Sound: If you succeed in the gurney segment of The Mad Doctor, Mickey will say, "I made it!"
Narm:
- In the PlayStation version of the game, Mickey will for some reason always enter an animation that has him checking his watch when he finds Pluto at the end of the Mad Doctor stage, making him seem completely uninterested in having found his pet.
- The SNES version uses the Stage Clear jingle at the Game Over screen! For some reason, the actual Game Over theme goes unused in the SNES version, even though it can still be found and heard in the Sound Test.
Nintendo Hard: The game is surprisingly difficult to play, even on easy.
Porting Disaster: While the SNES port is far from terrible, it's apparent that Mickey Mania was made more with the Sega Genesis in mind rather than the Super Nintendo. The SNES version has noticeable omissions compared to the Genesis version: parts of several stages are missing^*, some graphical effects like the film reel overlay in the first level is missing, and there are fewer sound bites for Mickey. But the most noticeable change of all is the Loads and Loads of Loading in the SNES port. Load times are odd enough given the game runs off a cartridge, but the SNES version's load times are even longer than those of the Sega CD and PlayStation versions, which run off CDs. One area some might consider superior are the sound effects and music, but that usually depends on who's asked. This is likely why Traveler's Tales future Disney games had the SNES ports handled by other teams.
Polished Port: The CD versions of the game feature high-quality CD music by composer Michael Giacchino, even more Mickey Mouse voice clips provided by then-current Mickey voice actor Wayne Allwine, and extended versions of levels like the Mad Doctor stage. However the PS1 version also features higher quality graphics compared to the Sega CD version, with all the sprites having been redrawn, and a new chase sequence added to the end of the Mickey and the Beanstalk stage featuring Willie the Giant. The only problem some might have with the PS1 port was it was made even harder than the other versions, and both the original retail release and the PSN release suffer from No Export for You, having only been released in Europe and Australia.
Retroactive Recognition: This was the first game David Jaffe, creator of Twisted Metal and God of War, was involved with as a game designer, and one of the earliest gigs for then-video game and future Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino, who composed new music for Mickey Mania's CD ports.
So Okay, It's Average: In comparison to other Disney games of its time, it's neither as good as the Illusion games, nor as bad as the Fantasia game. It's still quite fun. The Sega Genesis version is notable for pulling off effects that would otherwise only be possible on the SNES, but the game is otherwise best known for being beautiful and hard.
That One Level:
- The Mad Doctor, particularly the elevator ride shortly before the boss, as dodging or surviving the onslaught of skeleton bones in such a small space is damn near a Luck-Based Mission. If you know where to stand and when to throw your marbles, it becomes much easier.
- The gurney ride will likely take more than a few tries as well until you're comfortable with jumping over the pits.
- The level that takes the cake, however, is the segment of the Prince and the Pauper immediately preceding the tower. Tricky moving platform rides, pools of lava with fireballs that fly at you in completely random directions, a pit with walls that will crush you if you don't descend fast enough, a hallway full of spear traps that can skewer your entire health meter if you don't run through it at just the right time, and of course, the aforementioned Demonic Spider Weasels the whole way through, with limited marbles meaning you have to be very choosy with which ones you take out. To top it all off, due to Checkpoint Starvation throughout the level, this whole gauntlet must be done in one go.
Unexpected Character: While all the other levels are shorts that are still well known today, the third level, Moose Hunters, is based off a short that is generally regarded as okay, but nowhere near as good as the others.

YMMV / Mickey Mania

Edit Locked