For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Will Mallia's Magical Quest 3: Starring Mickey & Donald (J) (Super NES) maps.
After pranking their uncle Donald, the triplets, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, hide from him in the attic. While there, they discover a magical book, which is the gateway to Storybook Land. The evil King Pete kidnaps the trio and plans to also conquer the "outside world". The Fairy Guardian of Storybook Land teleports Mickey and Donald there to save its inhabitants from tyranny and to rescue the ducklings. And so begins another 16-bit Disney adventure!
Playing very much like The Magical Quest: Starring Mickey Mouse and The Great Circus Mystery: Starring Mickey & Minnie (later known as Magical Quest 2: Starring Mickey & Minnie in its GBA rerelease), our heroes venture through a handful of stages of platforming action, with jumping, block-throwing, and utilizing outfits that grant helpful abilities. But this time around, these skills differ between the characters. For example, with the knight outfit, Mickey dons heavy metal armour and a lance with a boxing glove, but Donald wears a buoyant wooden barrel and swings a hammer. So the experience varies, depending on who your favourite Disney character is.
Capcom's Disney games in the 8-bit and 16-bit days are examples of licensed games that are actually good. While there's always the expectation of using character recognition to drive sales, other developers might try to get away with just putting out a game of subpar quality because they know they'll sell some regardless. But Capcom, already a big name with a reputation for quality games, maintains that by making polished games, regardless of if the intellectual property is their own or licensed from someone else.
So to recognize the effort put into mapping this bright and cheery animated adventure, Will Mallia's Magical Quest 3: Starring Mickey & Donald (J) (Super NES) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for November 2024.
