The best Disney video games: a brief guide
The Disney company has created many forms of merchandise over the years to help promote their brand and entertain their fans and one of the most exciting areas of this is the video games they have produced. With such a wide variety of characters and nearly endless story possibilities, there have been some great Disney games released over the years. Here are some of our favorites.
Mickey Mania – Released in 1994 for the two major platforms, Sega MegaDrive and Super NES, it saw players take Disney’s main character through side-scrolling levels based on the Mickey cartoons from 1928 to 1990. This This excellent platform game is a great way to discover some of the history of Mickey’s early cartoons and is also a very fun game to play. The game was also released on PlayStation in Europe under a different name.
DuckTales – Based on the hit animated TV show, DuckTales the video game was released for the NEW in 1989 (1990 in Europe) and followed Scrooge McDuck as he traveled the world in search of treasure. The Capcom-produced game was highly regarded at the time for its gameplay and is still fondly remembered by retro game fans.
World of Illusion – These days we are used to multiplayer and cooperative games where you can join in the fun with your friends. But in the early days of home consoles, these kinds of games were few and far between. World of Illusion was a fantastic 2-player cooperative side-scrolling game that let friends control Mickey and Donald Duck. Released in 1992 and for the Sega Genesis, this game was a lot of fun from Disney.
Toy Story: Surprisingly, the first Toy Story movie was released in 1995 and the inevitable tie-in movie was released the following year on the Mega Drive, SNES, Game Boy and PC. This great game has brilliant animation for its time and clever level design. One criticism often leveled at older games is that Toy Story was considered difficult for younger players.
Kingdom Hearts: Square Enix has made a name for itself over the years for producing some of the best games ever in the form of the Final Fantasy series. So of course, game fans were very excited when they heard that the company had joined forces with Disney to create Kingdom Hearts. The first game combined characters and elements from the Final Fantasy franchise and the Disney universe into a unique hybrid. The series now has 9 installations, with a 10th in the not too distant future.
These are just a few of the amazing video games based on the Disney Universe that have been released over the years. Of course, many weren’t included because we just didn’t have the time. Remember that if you want to see all the characters in real life, why not head to one of the fantastic Disney theme parks? All your favorites from timeless video game classics will be walking around the park ready to give you a hug and a photo. Just remember not to bore them with your stories of how you were stuck on that level for hours on end.