It’s time for a new Magical Quest

With his first new platforming adventure in over a decade in Disney’s Illusion Island for the Nintendo Switch, Mickey Mouse is finally getting back to the genre that he was just as big a star of in the 90s as Mario and Sonic. It’s great that Disney’s Illusion Island, while not a direct follow-up, this new game starring not just Mickey, but his closest friends Minnie, Donald & Goofy is very much in spirit a callback to that classic Illusion series that was present on many Sega consoles in some form dating back to the Sega Master System and going up to the Sega Saturn with a compilation with Quackshot that sadly never came to the states.

But there’s another classic videogame series that Mickey Mouse starred in the 90s on a comepletely different console (think about that: Mickey Mouse had two comepletely different hit videogame franchises in the 90s) that’s just as, if not arguably more beloved than the Illusion series, and that’s the Magical Quest games.

While similar in basic appearance to the Illusion games as both were 2D side-scrolling games (Mickey even teams up with Donald Duck in both franchises), the Magical Quest series really made itself standout with outfits that would give you specific special abilities. It wasn’t original, many games did this and have done it since but these were impecceably well-implemented into the games. Now with Disney’s Illusion Island out and a critical success and a successful love-letter to that classic Genesis series, I truly believe the best way to follow that up would be with a game that’s a spiritual follow-up to it’s beloved Super Nintendo counterpart series.

It could absolutely be made by Disney Illusion Island developer Dlala Studios, they clearly have an understanding of what makes a good Mickey Mouse game, and I think it could work as a smaller effort 2D game much like Disney Illusion Island is, or it could be a bigger 3D platformer effort by the right developer (thoug the only big name developers I would trust to possibly do this in 3D would be either Nintendo, Insomniac or Sucker Punch and I’d at least like the idea of it possibly not being platform-exclusive).

I just think a modern game starring Mickey Mouse and friends featuring costumes that give them different powers and is co-op in the spirit of the beloved Magical Quest series has a ton of potential and since it finally seems Disney isletting people make games that aren’t just based on Marvel or Star Wars now looks to be the ideal time to make fun Disney platformers a regular thing again even if they are just fun little indie games more on the level of something like the Shantae series and aren’t aiming to be these hugely successful games that a studio might live or die on.

That’s pretty much it for today. As for the latest Disney game, Disney’s Illusion Island, I have not actually picked it up yet due to various reasons but I plan to remedy that very soon (like seriously in the next week or two) and if I have something beyond a simple review to talk about in regards to the game I will write about it (otherwise it might appear in some sort of wrap-up post by year’s end most likely). Otherwise, see ya real soon!