Disney´s Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse Review

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Disney’s Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse

Review by JenJanuary 2003

I don’t know why I bought this game. In my experience, Disney-licensed games have always been terrible. But Magical Mirror turned out to be good, clean fun, maybe because it isn’t based on a movie.

Magical Mirror is a kids’ game but its relaxed pace makes it a good choice for the adventure-gaming adult Gamecube owner.

You play as none other than Mickey Mouse, world’s most famous rodent. You are asleep in your bed, and your dream self is enticed into your bedroom mirror by a mischievous ghost. As soon as you’re on the other side of the mirror, the ghost shatters it into 12 pieces and scatters them around Mickey’s dream world. You must find the pieces to rebuild the mirror and go back “home.”

Magical Mirror is a third-person, “point-and-click” game. You use the controller’s thumbstick to move the smart cursor over items and click the A button to interact with the item. Besides mirror pieces, you collect “souvenir” items and star containers. Often you must spend the stars (inexplicably called “tricks” in the game; a failed translation?) in your star containers to accomplish actions, and if you don’t have enough stars Mickey can’t perform the action. Star containers are easily refilled, although sometimes it’s tricky to figure out what item needs to be clicked when you get the “trick” screens and you wind up wasting stars in the figuring process. There are 12 of these star containers in the game, but the most stars you’ll ever need to spend on a single puzzle is six.

The souvenirs have no bearing on the game proper. If you complete the game with all 12 mirror pieces and wait through the ending credits, you will get a “game clear” bonus that allows you to look around Mickey’s bedroom and pick up and play with whatever souvenirs you found. I suppose this adds a level of replayability; you could play through the game again with the goal of collecting all of the souvenirs. But I played through the game twice, once for fun and once to write a walkthrough, and both times I only got around 50% of the souvenirs. Did I care? Nope. Will I ever play it again? Nope.

There are six or eight inventory items that Mickey will need to find and use appropriately, but most of the puzzles consist of environmental manipulation. Also, Mickey will need to obtain keys to unlock certain doors; once unlocked, though, the doors stay that way.

There are several minigames that become available as you progress through the house. None are essential to completing the adventure part of the game, although you will be forced to try a couple of them. It does not matter, however, if you win or lose. Some of these result in star container refills; the better you do the more stars you get. Others yield souvenirs on successful completion.  These minigames run the gamut from downhill snowboarding to flying an airplane around obstacles in a race to the finish, to breaking barrels with a magic blast before they hit you.

Also, back to the adventuring part of the game, you must do some button-mashing from time to time to make Mickey, for example, jump over a hole in the floor, run quickly enough to reach the top of a steep staircase, or do a spiffy Ninja move to scare away the ghost. The required action is always clearly indicated on the screen. None of these are at all difficult and if you don’t make it you get an immediate do-over. I never once failed at these (except for the couple times I did it on purpose just to see what would happen), and I am exceedingly feeble when it comes to speedy action.

There are two levels of play, “Kid” and “Normal.”  The “Kid” level, according to the documentation, is simplified for the very young—you don’t need any stars to solve puzzles, there are fewer rooms in the mansion, game progress cannot be saved, and the game finishes one hour after starting.

Also according to the game’s manual, you can use a special linking cable to hook up a Gameboy Advance with the game Magical Quest to make the Magical Mirror game world a little different.

In a departure from the usual console mindset, you can save almost anywhere in Magical Mirror. You only get one save file and must continually overwrite it, but you can have three separate games going at once. And since there are no dead ends or fatal errors, and you can move about the mansion freely and return to locations and puzzles already completed, the single save is sufficient.

Graphics are pleasingly bright and colorful. Capcom has done a good job of giving 3D Mickey the same flavor as 2D classic-Disney-cartoon Mickey. The rooms all have their own distinct character, and the pointing gloved-Mickey-hand cursor takes on a life of its own from time to time.

Music is light and lively and fairly unobtrusive, that’s if you keep the volume turned low. There’s not much in the way of voice acting—Mickey speaks a couple of phrases but does no oratory.  And the ghost just cackles evilly from time to time. Being able to hear the sounds is not a requirement, so this game could be enjoyed by the deaf or the easily audio-annoyed even though there are no subtitles.

Magical Mirror is light and lively fare for those Gamecube owners tired of hacking and slashing through piles of demons but wanting to have a gaming good time while relaxing on their sofas in front of their TV sets. I give it a thumb up. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Capcom Publisher: Disney Interactive/Nintendo Release Date: August 2002

Available for: Game Cube

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      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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