Adventures in The Magic Kingdom

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Back in the late 80s and early 90s, when Capcom was making numerous video games based on Disney franchises such as TV cartoons DuckTales (1987) and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and the movie The Little Mermaid, they decided to try their hand at a game based on Disneyland itself.

Adventures in the Magic Kingdom can be seen as an early precursor to Kingdom Hearts, or more accurately, Kinect Disneyland Adventures. You play the role of a boy whose name you determine, who explores the place and goes on rides that are essentially minigames, in an attempt to collect 6 keys to open the gate needed to start the Disneyland parade. You also meet a small handful of Disney characters.

The rides included as minigames are:

The first two of those rides play out as platformers, with slightly different rules - in Pirates of the Caribbean, you start out unarmed and must avoid enemies until you collect a candle, which you can then use infinite times, as you try to rescue all 6 hostages. In The Haunted Mansion, you have a limited supply of candles to use to fight ghosts, and your only goal is to reach the end. The other three games are straight-up minigame in their style.

The game also allowed you to collect stars, which could be used on a pause screen to buy life, lives, brief invincibility, or freeze time. What you couldn't do, was extend or freeze your (only visible on the pause screen) time limit.

Tropes used in Adventures in The Magic Kingdom include:
  • Gameplay Roulette: You have racing, pressing onscreen button prompts, and platforming all in the same game.
  • Hello, Insert Name Here: You enter your name at the beginning, but the only places it's even used are when talking to some of the people in the overworld, the intros to Pirates of the Caribbean and Autopia, and the pause screen, where Mickey says "[your name], fight!". Leaving the naming space blank results in the game giving you the rather odd name of "Bamboo.7".
  • Never Say "Die": While The Haunted Mansion has a backstory involving ghosts that, according to Mickey, "might want you", any mention or direct implication of death is avoided. If you die, you simply get "I'm sorry, you'll have to try again." Even if it's a ghost saying it.
  • Pop Quiz: You must answer randomized trivia questions about Disney's history in order to get one of the keys.
  • Press X to Not Die: Space Mountain works on this principle. Your only goal is to push the button or direction it indicates onscreen. Fail, and you lose a heart.
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