CLASSIC MOMENTS Mickey Mania

» Platform: Mega Drive » released: 1994 » developer: Traveller’s Tales

By the mid-nineties, platform games needed to do a lot to stand out from the crowd, giving rise to something of a technical arms race from developers in the genre. Just look at the games competing for your Christmas spend in 1994 – Donkey Kong Country dazzled with its prerendered 3D graphics, while Sonic & Knuckles rewarded series fans with a unique cartridge lock-on function. Mickey Mania was no different in this regard, packing in unique gameplay sequences enabled by programming wizardry, leading to its most memorable scene.

After making his way into the woods, Mickey suddenly finds himself being pursued by a furious moose in a spectacular into-the-screen chase. Your goal is to collect apples to keep Mickey’s stamina up, while avoiding rocks and leaping over rivers – nothing too complex, but what sells it is how well the 16-bit platform pulls this off. The rolling terrain is varied and moves smoothly, with none of the jerkiness associated with pseudo-scaling techniques in the early years of the Mega Drive. It’s a joy to behold and a lot of fun to play, too.