Is Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse [SNES] Worth Playing Today? - SNESdrunk

[@thecunninlynguist]

welcome back, king. I still have this for my SNES. This was the first time I ever saw loading screens in an SNES game.

[@billyboymartin]

It isn't on the Genesis version.

[@psirensongs]

Unfortunately, the game that has that distinction for me is Batman Forever. That one wasn't loading anything good >_>

[@Shinmsl]

@@psirensongs same here, not only it was a bad game overall Batman Forever loads every single time you go through a door! I wonder if there's anything like that on the Genesis?

[@supersexysega]

@@Shinmsl Not unless you attach a Sega CD

[@deathsnitemaresinfullust2269]

Haa! 😄👍

[@kasterborous1701]

Loading times in the old 16bit cartridge era were normally caused by file decompression, just like opening a zip file today. Compression was used to squeeze as much data as possible into the very limited cartridge memory of the time, but it meant that the console had to devote resources to decompressing this data before it could be used. Now, we can go back and forth a LOT on whether the SNES was really more powerful than the Megadrive, because they were so architecturally and conceptually different, but one area where the Megadrive was definitely superior was it had a faster CPU (Motorola 68000 @ 7.6MHz vs Ricoh 5A22 @ 3.6MHz), which meant that in a straight arithmetic race it was roughly twice the speed of the SNES. So while the SNES had more sophisticated graphics hardware, in what we might call "pure mathematics" tasks like file decompression the Megadrive was much faster than the SNES. As a result the SNES version of Mickey Mania had loading times and the Megadrive version didn't.

[@ShadowAngel18606]

Not only was the CPU faster, the 68000 also was a 16-bit CPU with a 16-bit Bus, while the SNES and its CPU realistically still only was a 8-bit system with a very slow 8-bit bus (Back in the day Julian Eggebrecht from Factor 5 caused quite a stir when he wrote an extensive article, disecting the SNES and saying it's a 8-Bit System and nowhere near as good as the Mega Drive :D ). This is the main reason why most games run like crap and why so many have to rely on all kinds of extra chips (whereas on the Mega Drive tehre's only 1 game with an extra chip, Virtua Racing)

[@kasterborous1701]

​@@ShadowAngel18606 This isn't necessarily as straightforward as just those numbers might suggest though. The Mega Drive's Motorola 68000 had a 16-bit data bus compared to the SNES's Ricoh 5A22's 8-bit data bus, true, but today when we talk about a "32-bit" or a "64-bit" CPU we're usually talking about the width of the _address_ bus not the data bus, and both the 68000 and 5A22 had 24-bit address buses. The 5A22 also had a second 8-bit address bus for separate register and peripheral access, which enhanced its DMA capabilities over those of the 68000. It's really hard to do a direct comparison between two such architecturally different systems. I will freely concede that the Mega Drive's design was more "mainstream" and had more "brute force" to it, and the SNES often feels... _overcomplicated_ 😅 But, if you're going to complain about the SNES using enhancement chips in its cartridges and claim the Mega Drive "only had one game that did this", I'd point out that the Mega CD added a second faster 68000 CPU and a custom graphics ASIC to enhance the Mega Drive's baseline capabilities, not to mention the 32X... 😉

[@ValkyrieTiara]

Fun fact that many people don't realize: LOTS of cartridge games have loading times, especially on the SNES. They're just typically better at masking them than this. Consider the time gate animation when changing eras in Chrono Trigger; that's a loading screen. Now imagine if this game were EXACTLY the same, except instead of Mickey looking at his watch you saw him walk in from the left before text appeared saying AREA 2.... START! or something like that. Suddenly it's not a "loading screen", it's just the area intro animation. If you've ever wondered why some games have long unskippable intros between levels or whatever, or maybe you can't skip for the first few seconds, it's probably because whatever you're looking at is masking a load. Anyway: I don't know where you went, but I'm glad you're back now! Great video as always.

[@AceTrainerX3]

That and graphics decompression seemed to be a sore point with Genesis/Mega Drive-to-SNES ports, with games such as Earthworm Jim (and seemingly Mickey Mania) managing to quickly load in the necessary graphics for the upcoming level. Super NES, meanwhile, wasn't as hot in this regard, thus we get slight pauses between levels as all assets are loaded into memory.

[@Gojiro7]

Thank you for doing your homework and informing the uninformed, the spread of knowledge slowly quails misinformation and ignorance ^_^

[@atomicshroom]

Uh the portal in Chrono Trigger is absolutely 100% NOT masking any loading whatsoever. It's just there as show. Want proof? You can load any save game from the main menu and it will instantly load directly into that location with no portal whatsoever. Why are you spreading such bullshit?

[@MaxwelThuThu]

Yeah, the Chronno Trigger's portal thing isn't true. But that level intro idea is perfect! Even better when you see that this version has a unused level intro music.

[@alexmuratore95]

The man, the myth, the legend has returned... Welcome back snesdrunk....

[@psychoballoons4704]

Good to see you again! I kept wondering when we'd hear from you! Always good to hear your voice.

[@devilwarr1or]

Fun fact. This is the ONLY official Disney media release EVER that shows mickey dead! The game developer in a commentary noted it. When mickey dies its shown and its clear he's dead, not knocked out. It must have slipped by Disney's higher ups or not seem as a big deal but never before or since has there been an image in comics, cartoons, games or anything else besides mickey mania that officially shows mickey dead. According to the developer at least and at the time he said it, im honestly not sure if there's modern media showing it.

[@mightyfilm]

I can totally believe that. Disney has a history of making damn well sure that you don't get "lives" in a game, but rather "tries." Not just with Mickey, but with all their licensed video games. Oddly, they made sure NES Ducktales had Scrooge replenish energy by eating ice cream and cakes instead of burgers because they somehow couldn't abide a bird eating cow meat, yet somehow Donald manages to get energy replenishment from eating a roast chicken or turkey in Quackshot.

[@ExtremeWreck]

@@mightyfilm They probably had Donald do that because one of the old shorts had him serve turkey for dinner with his 3 nephews.

[@sinkingdutchman7227]

​​@@ExtremeWreckwell, we do eat mammals, in fact pigs are scarily similar to us in a lot of ways, so it's not too shocking Donald would eat some types of birds.

[@theyakkoman]

I'll always have a soft spot for this game. Me and my brother borrowed Magical Quest of a friend and liked it a lot, so we wished for a copy of our own one Christmas. Well, we got Mickey Mania instead. But truth be told, I wasn't that disappointed. And I know I'm in the minority here, but I prefer Mania. Yes, I can see that more objectively, MQ is probably the better made game, but the soundtrack of MM is just lovely, and has stuck with me more than MQ has, probably because I played MM more. Also, I'm a huge Disney-fan and I love the fact that you get to walk through and interact with the classic Mickey cartoons while MQ's level aesthetic, while appealing, are more "generic fairy tale" or "generic video game", so to speak. We got a beanstalk in the clouds (true, MM has that too), an enchanted Forest, a Lava level and a Snow level. They look nice and are fun to play, yes. But being able to actually "play" a classic cartoon feels more special to me. Also, it's a comfort food kind of game. I can, without trouble, just pick it up and be done with it in, like, 45 minutes tops without dying once. And some days, you don't feel like an epic, multi-hour adventure with intricate plot. You just feel like stretching your legs with a nice walk in the park. And that's what Mickey Mania is to me. A nice walk in a familiar, atmospheric park.

[@MentalLiberation]

Woo hoo! He's back. And I always had an interest in buying this game back in the day. Perhaps I should have....

[@joshmay2944]

This game was the Dark Souls of SNES. I never got past the 4th or 5th level even tho I kept coming back to this game year after year. It played amazingly, just demanded more reflexes than my 8-10 yr old self had at the time.

[@Marzimus]

Coding Secrets has a great video on the moose chase and how it came to be. Rented this as a kid and it felt like one of those overly difficult cash ins. Might have to revisit now, 25 years later..

[@aborted4196]

Just go buy it it's not like there's any outside force making video game prices extremely high, is there?!

[@HybridAngelZero]

The king has returned! I really like Mickey Mania! I grew up with the SNES version, and I didn't know until a few years ago that the Genesis version had extra content. Also, my kid self always justified the load times, since I didn't even know what load times were back then, as Mickey's watch being what allows him to time travel, so he had to make sure to wind it between levels xD

[@SPac316]

I think the Sega CD version is the definitive one, with the extra voices and better sound and all. But can't go wrong either way.

[@ongakuwotabeta]

PlayStation if you’re in Europe.

[@NickEnlowe]

@@ongakuwotabeta Playstation version is beautiful, but for some reason needlessly more difficult. They cranked the difficulty too damn high.

[@Telcontar86]

I can agree with this. I decided to relive some memories of childhood and finally actually beat the Sega CD version on emulator last year. To say this game is needlessly difficult and unforgiving is an understatement. It's *gorgeous* in every other way though

[@aquateenchris]

I still have my Sega CD copy, the music is superb!!

[@psirensongs]

Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed your well-deserved time away and relaxed a little :) And what a game to pick for your first video back!

[@apu_apustaja]

*WELCOME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

[@TheSydneyLad]

Not gonna lie, it's rare that I try a game that you choose to talk about...but I always look forward to each new episode every week, so I sure felt the hole that was left during your down time. Even if I don't try every game, you're always so damn good at talking about the game in question and describing why the game is worth checking out, visually and by using your words.

[@fernandogaragnani]

Maaaaaannn I missed this intro. Happy to have you with us again.

[@thejeremyzombie5163]

Wow, the graphics in that game are freaking incredible, if only it could maintain a smooth frame rate, that would be crazy. Welcome back by the way

[@kultur-vultur]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIecc6SnipZqeq8 Check out this video from the man who coded the game.

[@thetriggeredone3461]

It did have a great frame wtf your talking about

[@thetriggeredone3461]

Unless your talking about the SNES version

[@Cav_Florian]

great video man, we miss you and your work.

[@EvilCoffeeInc]

The Genesis version was the original, and iirc TT had one developer doing the SNES conversion. That's why the SNES version has loading times and a little jank here and there not found in the genesis version. TT did all their primary development for genesis first. Not sure if that ever changed over the years.

[@truesus1718]

Jon Burton from TT talks about this himself here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fWjQfKFmnNGbfLc

[@kultur-vultur]

@@truesus1718 Coding Secrets is a great channel!!! Came here to spread the knowlege but ya beat me to it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIecc6SnipZqeq8 here is the video on mickey mania.

[@CarloNassar]

I'd love to see someone turn the SNES version into the conversion it should've been.

[@CarloNassar]

@@truesus1718 He said he *believes* it was the processing power, but that doesn't make it the actual case. This is especially since one devekop did that version and not many.

[@samuelallen2831]

Nice to have that intro back on a Tuesday morning!

[@josenildosimoes6742]

Glad you're back! Awesome video!

[@kreb_]

He’s back yay!! *wild Kermit the frog arms*

[@jessragan6714]

I wonder what would happen if two Phantos fought over the same key...

[@ChibiKami]

@@jessragan6714 I'm sure it would end in inphantocide

[@TopSpot123]

I'm glad you mentioned the Genesis version being preferable. While there's certainly nothing wrong with the SNES version, the Genesis is just a bit better all around. As far as I understand, Traveller's Tales tended to build for the Genesis first while porting that work to the SNES. They were very adept at working on the Genesis and played to that system's strengths.

[@fitness65]

Glad your back your videos are always the highlights of my work week. As for mickey mania I enjoyed it the music and gameplay were good and it's still worth playing.

[@danielmccormick700]

Glad to see you're well and still SNESdrunking.

[@jasonz7788]

Great to have you back. Thank you for the great work!!

[@ninjacape]

Sega CD version was the best. I’d say it’s better than the Magical Quest games.

[@mirkdawg8432]

Glad you’re back dude! Keep up the good work SDrunk

[@dawnofthedead915]

Maybe it's because of nostalgia, but when I finally tried "Castle of Illusion" in my later years, there was just something about it that I didn't get... whereas I felt a sense of joy playing this one again. I also didn't realise there were so many titles to try.

[@go7cha459]

Glad to hear from ya buddy! 😁hope all is well

[@KD1999]

I was literally just wondering if this channel was dead last night, then was happy to see aee you're back this morning. Welcome back

[@repairtech420]

Nice to see you back SNESDrunk, your videos makes my work days better.

[@jordankelsey4501]

He protect, he attack, but he also come back

[@chestshavenbelgium]

You're back! Thank you!!! Need my nostalgia fix!

[@Nicomartz52]

Welcome back, im glad that you still making videos, hope you get a wonderful week.

[@dcrock1592]

Nice to have ya back! Have a great rest of YOUR day, bro!

[@naveedfarbakhsh8453]

Glad you are back!

[@alacrity024]

Good to have you back. Pretty awesome to see so many folks missed you. Hope all is well.

[@PersianImm0rtal]

Good to see you!

[@travisshallenberger9486]

So glad to see you back!!! I was like, LEGIT worried that something happened. I hope everything is well. If you couldn't tell, we all missed you!

[@carlosbfly]

Good to see you back, I've missed your videos!

[@__Generic]

Great to see a new video, thanks for all your hard work!

[@andrewbersin]

Great to see a new video. Thank you and welcome back!

[@jgstrider]

Super glad you are back man. Thanks for all the awesome content you have provided for us over the years!

[@brady9592]

Crispy capture on this one my friend. I recently got an analogue super nt and have been binging your old videos, so alright I wanna thank you for making them and I hope you have a great rest of your day.

[@doomzilla3568]

Great to see you again, great video!!!

[@lhfirex]

Mickey Mania's still not officially recognized by the DSM. But they've already added Sonic Mania, and Marble Madness to their list of videogame-caused conditions.

[@171285harvey]

😂

[@Codricmon]

We do need to raise awareness for these horrible ailments - I remember receiving next to no medical support and mostly just confused looks when I suffered from a Tetris Attack!

[@TheAggroCraig]

Welcome back! You were a greatly missed part of my Tuesdays & Thursdays!

[@WhispyWoods.]

YEEEEEES!!!!!! More SNES Drunk. Made my day. So happy to see another vid 👍

[@themightymesprit7325]

Welcome Back SNES Drunk. I haven’t played this game although I would love to get my hands on Magical Quest for the SNES CiB.

[@dansaikyo6664]

Welcome back!!!!!!!!!!! Glad to see you back!

[@DarwinAlcazarArt]

Nice, on my birthday too! I remember looking at a feature of this in nintendo power and was amazed at all the art and animation they did for the characters. I only got to play the game on emulation though but loved it.

[@hemangchauhan2864]

Glad you have you back

[@juanortiz9123]

Welcome back!!! We missed you!!

[@MegaDeox]

Glad to have you back man! I missed these videos. As for the game: I wish it played as amazing as it looks. It's only average in the gameplay department. I played this on Sega CD.

[@nathanwagner9895]

yooooooooooooooo so siick. i literally just commented on your community page saying i missed you uploading on a semi regular basis. and boom heres a new video. hope all is well bro

[@neonshadow5005]

"Did it measure up to the standards of Capcom?" Of course not! It looks amazing but it'd be hard to measure up to Magical Quest to me.

[@Markptaz450]

So happy you're back!!!!

[@KentStJohn-vn6bq]

Return of the King! We missed you.

[@caboodlebricks6930]

Welcome back buddy. I have this game, I haven't beat it yet

[@kjktex]

Glad your back!

[@rafaelbotelho1022]

I'm really glad to see you back! Hope you are doing well

[@Silem2006]

We missed you bro! Thank you for creating enjoyment for us all!

[@renewagain6956]

Welcome back, SNES Drunk.

[@thelittletoe]

Yessssssss! Glad your back!

[@MicahBuzanANIMATION]

The fluid animation on this game always stood out. I love the first level, steamboat willy style.

[@lucag.lisickza425]

finally a new episode and yes, is still a worth game

[@israelvallejorodenas8978]

I'm so happy to see you back on business :D

[@joegalford2319]

Glad to see another upload 👍

[@johndough8115]

Loading times are probably due to the use of Decompression. Cartridges had limited space.. so to extend that, a programmer could do various methods, such as graphics compression, to gain more space. As someone pointed out... certain programmers were better at masking this. They probably did partial decompressions, gradually over time, or hid them between level end animations..etc.

[@hemphog4570]

Yes the snes CPU is slow 🐌

[@zackschilling4376]

Welcome back!

[@usmanchughtai1751]

Yo SNES, good to hear from you

[@isaacrios6861]

YOU'RE BACK!!!! 👊🏼👍🏼👏🏽

[@Leahi84]

Glad you're back! Hope your time off was helpful to you, and that you feel well.

[@alkristopher]

Good to have you back, Mr. Drunk.

[@AvengerII]

The loading happens because the SNES had very limited memory --- maybe 1MB of RAM to fit the game in! They got good with compressing games to fit more into limited memory but the compression wasn't THAT good and there were limits to what the consoles could handle with decompression. Decompression as gotten much better since then but today's computers and consoles have virtually unlimited memory compared to the 16-bit consoles of the early 1990s. You cannot hold the entire SNES game in 1MB so it has to be loaded in chunks or levels to fit within the memory restriction of the console. Remember, SNES and Sega Genesis games were measured in megaBITS to make them sound more impressively big than they were. The largest SNES carts were released in Japan and were over 40Mb (megabits, not megabytes!) but they were okay with paying over $100 for larger games! Final Fantasy III (32Mb) was the largest game they released for SNES in North America and it was $75. I think at least one Super Famicom cartridge was 48Mb and it retailed for probably $120. To get an idea of how big the games were relative to the memory of the consoles, divide the game size by 8 to get its size in megaBYTES. (Each megabyte is equivalent to 8 megabits.) That 48Mb game was 6 megabytes in size, 6 times the memory of the SNES console in total. There were other SNES games that had loading screens. The Mortal Kombat games had loading screens so they had Goro (at least on MK2, I think) doing his squats and whatever animations he did (wrecking things). At least you didn't have to deal with loading the animation for Shang Tsung during combat! That was an issue on the early CD-ROM versions of Mortal Kombat through the first round of 32-bit systems (PS1, Sega Saturn). People who wanted smoother GAMEPLAY steered clear of the CD-ROM versions of the Mortal Kombat series. Earthworm Jim had screen loading, too, and that happened between rounds as well. Again, it's the memory limitation of the console itself that forced this. The load screens of EJ are still present on the HD versions of the game but remember it's a legacy coding port from 16-bit consoles that forced the load screens to be implemented.

[@MaxwelThuThu]

Isn't really that. Mickey Mania, like every SNES game, has compressed graphics in the ROM. As you can't show this on screen, you need first to decompress the graphics that you need in the level to the RAM. Even if every game does that, Travellers Tales games take a looong time for some reason.

[@kh7955]

Welcome back Drunk!

[@LockeNarshe]

Good to see you back, boss. Always looking forward to these. :)

[@wg6184]

Welcome Back!!!!! (Bill Chicago)

[@wjrandonx]

Oh thank God you're back I thought you died! Bless you SNES Drunk. Hope you enjoyed the break.

[@SECONDQUEST]

Good to see you dude. Love this game.

[@gelliaramadis522]

Stoked my fellow twin cities og os back posting quality content.

[@PacisJusticia]

Great to have you back! Your work is appreciated

[@Phelixc]

I played this a lot as a kid, and I still whistle the tune that plays at 00:57 But there was another mickey game I played even more, where mickey would change into climbers gear and firemans gear. Great fun

[@Jigglysaint]

The same people who made Mickey Mania also made Sonic 3D Blast. In fact one of the programmers has a youtube channel but hasn't posted to that for a while. It's full of interesting tidbits about some of the games he's worked on, including Mickey Mania.

[@whocares8269]

Yea channel is called GameHut and it's really fun to see developer playing and commenting his own game.

[@retrorami]

Nice to know that you're still with us! I was getting worried already haha.

[@mymusicpaws]

I loved the Mickey games on SNES as a kid.

[@Mr802VT]

I'm so glad you did this game, I'd actually been racking my brain recently to think of the name of this installment, I had so much fun with this game as a kid

[@Jazzy_Waffles]

SNES DRUNK now THX Certified

[@JackBellamy1997]

I had a random core memory flashback today and I'm feeling crippled by nostalgia now- My family used to take us to "Charlie Chalk's" (Brewer's Fayre) for every family event and in their play area they had a PS1 setup (Kind of arcade/emulator) that had several games loaded on. I remember being so hyped every time we went just to spend almost an hour queuing to play this, the little mermaid and the lion king game!

[@jessragan6714]

"It's a puzzle platformer, if you can imagine that." (remembers Traveler's Tales other game, Puggsy) "Oh yes, I can definitely imagine that."

[@Tftapodcast]

Welcome back, SNES Drunk! If is great to have you back. Great video as always. I hope you are well.

[@johnfulmer740]

FYI, the loading times was for the decompression of the graphics for the level, according to the TT guy's KZbin channel.

[@maxyrobbin]

Love your content. It's great to have you back.

[@LaceSabatons]

Now I can once again have a great rest of my day. Thank you for returning to us.

[@LilReikoGold]

The intro, never gets old

[@kabochaVA]

0:42 Toy Story, an "okay-ish" game released BEFORE Mickey Mania? Oof... Jon Burton of Traveler's Tales (and channels Gamehunt and Coding Secrets) probably wouldn't be happy with that statement. 🤣

[@fshiruba]

Well, it's a technical masterpiece. So he would be proud anyway, right?

[@deanolium]

Well Jon really doesn’t make good games. They do technically cool stuff (though most of it was cribbed from previous games - like the tower sequence here is ripped from Nebulous on the c64) but their gameplay is also so-so. Probably too busy putting Christian references in their games :/

[@supersexysega]

@@fshiruba He would day Toy Story came out one year after Mickey Mania. Puggsy, Bram Stokers Dracula, Galahad were released before Mickey Mania and fall into the okay range for the most part.

[@Hanokaze]

Going to echo a lot of people saying this, but it's nice to see you back.

[@evilblader7]

Wow welcome back my friend...

[@fireblast7823]

i remember mickey mania its good to see these videos again!!

[@mysticpond]

Nice that you are back! Felt kinda empty strolling youtube the last month without seeing any new drunk video. Hopefully a nice break though!