Five Disney attractions that should be given videogame adaptations
The trend of Disney adapting their attractions from their famous theme parks into films is hardly new. We’ve got a whole series of films based on Pirates of the Caribbean, there’s Country Bears, Haunted Mansion, Tomorrowland and then we even have Jungle Cruise hitting later this year.
But that’s not the only way Disney has mined other media for their attractions outside of the parks. Several have been made into video game versions, sometimes loosely based on the attraction, sometimes a pretty direct adaptation of the ride itself.
With this in mind, I looked at every attraction in every Disney park across the globe and came up with a list of five I think would be well-suited to be adapted to be made into some sort of video game that would incorporate the spirit of the ride. These are attractions that have not been made into video games already, not basically videogames (i.e. Toy Story Mania) and ones that are original and not based on a major property like Star Wars or Marvel:
#5. Journey Into Imagination with Figment
Figment should honestly be a bigger deal than he is. If you’ve never been to Disney World you might not even be aware he exists yet he is intrinsic and iconic to that Disney park and specifically Epcot. He is a wonderful fully realized character and it’s really weird that he’s never had like an animated movie or some crappy animated series, something to expose people to this fun colorful little dragon that only exists in the parks and then you know, have kids want to come to the parks to meet this dragon and ride his ride. SYNERGY PEOPLE.
Anyways, while it would be hard to base a game specifically on the ride that is Journey Into Imagination, as it’s definitely more of an exploration of very abstract concepts, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to make a platformer, 3D or otherwise, starring this little purple dude. Granted, there’s already a certain game series starring a friendly purple dragon that would be similar in nature but you make a game starring Figment more psychedelic and have some sweet flying sequences and I think you’ve got a winner!
#4. Living With The Land
Living with the Land to some people is an incredibly dull ride. True it’s not filled with big thrills and at roughly 15 minutes is a pretty long ride but that doesn’t mean it can’t be interesting and hey it’s kinda nice to chill on a slow ride for a while sometimes.
As for what kind of game you could make based on it, well the most obvious thing would be a farming sim in the vein of Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley. It can merely be crops and plants but you could also incorporate animals. In order to really set it apart, give it some Disney flair like your community is just filled with Disney characters for a little extra fun and maybe you can unlock others moving into the community that gives you bonuses as well or something. I’m not hugely into the farming sim genre but I’d certainly be willing to give one based on a well-known Disney ride a go at least.
#3. The Barnstormer
I wouldn’t say Goofy, one of the most enduring and iconic characters in Disney animation, is lacking representation in video games. He’s one of the co-stars of Kingdom Hearts, one of the biggest franchises in gaming, and he pops up in just about every Disney mobile game. However, Goofy has not had a solo game in about 20 years, which is far, far too long. Do you know what also we haven’t had nearly enough of? Arcade-style flight games. The last good one I can even remember is Crimson Skies: Road to Revenge and that came out eighteen years ago!
Seems like it would be a great idea to have a game starring Goofy that’s a fun arcade game where you fly planes around. Disney probably would not be keen on Goofy shooting people down in other planes but you could have races and stunt shows and it would be still a very fun time. Bottom line we need more arcade-style flight games and more games starring Goofy so let’s just address those issues at the same time!
#2. Kilimanjaro Safari
Kilimanjaro Safari is a pretty amazing experience, certainly one of the highlights of Animal Kingdom, and actually, it translates into an idea for a video game quite easily. It’s just basically Pokemon Snap with real animals. A photography game, which like many on this list, there aren’t a lot of but when done right they are spectacular.
It could certainly be on a track but a more free-roaming style would be preferred with randomly occurring animals all over the place that you have to try and photograph, possibly doing various things that are rarely photographed for extra bonuses. It could be an incredibly fun and addicting yet relaxing game that helps you appreciate nature just a bit more.
#1. Mickey’s Philharmagic
If you’ve never seen Mickey’s Philharmagic, it’s a deceptively incredibly 3D experience. It incorporates music and comedy very well. But the real secret is that despite his name being on the ride, Mickey Mouse is not the star of Mickey’s Philharmagic. He’s barely in it really. No the real star, the character whose journey you follow through the whole experience is in fact Donald Duck.
Much like Goofy, Donal Duck has hardly been absent from video games in recent years, but also muck like Goofy, it’s been an incredibly long time since he had a starring role in something. And Mickey’s Philharmagic could work multiple ways as a video game. It could be a rhythm game, or maybe a platformer where Donald has to go into a world themed around music and retrieve instruments for the concert performance. It could also be Donald going through Disney’s renaissance classics much as he does in the actual film. There’s a lot of possibilities here and I’m always going to be in the camp of there simply aren’t enough games starring Donald Duck so for those reasons Mickey’s Philharmagic is my top pick for Disney attraction to be adapted into a videogame.
That’s all for now but I really hope to squeeze one more column in before the end of the month so see ya real soon!
