ONM Remembered – #358
“EAT IT, MOUSE”
from Official Nintendo Magazine issue 121 (October 2002)
Panned as it was, I always expressed a curiosity in Disney’s Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse, if just because of how out of the ordinary it was. It was expressively designed to be a children’s game with a capital C. It didn’t aim to accomplish that by baby-ifying a plain ol’ platformer, but by making something far simpler and allegedly more immediately interactive; a game less about commanding Mickey to jump across platforms and more telling him to look in a cupboard so you can drop an iron on his head.
Combined with other oddball early releases like Animal Crossing and Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure, it helped secure an image that the GameCube offered more than just rowdy-howdy action games, but more slower-paced, leisurely games for folks of all ages who just wanted an easygoing time. The fact that almost all of those titles stunk and bombed hard probably quashed that, though.
It was a nice attempt, but it seems like the kind of game you’d get the same experience from watching on YouTube as you would playing it. Frankly, I’m disappointed that it was developed by Capcom, squandering the opportunity to revisit old classics like Goof Troop or Rescue Rangers on new hardware. The N64 and GameCube were already great platforms for party games, and having four players screwing each other over in either of those would’ve been a blast! Don’t tell me this is another dynamite idea I’m going to have to do myself???
