In Adventures in the Magic Kingdom for the NES you control a very anonymous kid who helps Mickey Mouse find the Golden Key lost by the clumsy Goofy inside the Magic Kingdom. To get to the Golden Key, you must first acquire six silver keys to unlock Cinderella’s Castle. To obtain the keys you complete stages modeled after classic rides in the Disney Theme Park.

Why We Liked It
It should be pretty obvious why we liked this game: You are in freaking Disney World dude! You get to play video game version of Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion and Autopia.

What About Now?
As I started the game I instantly felt the nostalgia of being a kid and being excited about a video game based around Disney’s theme park. I had forgotten though, the obnoxious quiz mini game that forces you to go to different locations of the park and speak to a kid who provides you with a multiple choice question of Disney Trivia. Most of the time I failed the questions miserably. Big Disney fan I am right?

After you answer the questions correct you are granted with access to the first key which allows you to open up one of the rides. You can play any of the five rides from the get-go, so I hopped on over to Space Mountain to try it out. The Space Mountain level was not as difficult as I originally remembered it, but naturally I have 20 extra years of experience under my belt.

Then I got to Big Thunder Mountain and the crap hit the fan. You control a train on a track from the top-down perspective that splits off into different paths. There are different obstacles along the way of each track, but the track splits off into a million different other tracks and like a needle in a haystack you have to magically know which one is the correct track since only one track is the correct one at the end. Confused? You should be. It is nearly impossible to figure out unless you have a guide.

I have fond memories of Adventures in the Magic Kingdom for the NES. Replaying through the game was not a sour experience. It did however made me wonder why no one has tackled this kind of a game in a new more powerful console. If there is a time that a game like Adventures in the Magic Kingdom can be made good, it is now. Get to it developers!

Difficulty:
Medium (except for the Big Thunder Mountain Level at which case difficult = fucking impossible).

Released:
1990

Developer:
Capcom

Platform:
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)