The kids today might not know it, but Disney was already pretty successful before it made a name for itself by dressing packs of 30-year-olds up as school kids and forcing them to sing songs clearly stolen from a poor man's
Grease musical. Mickey and co. actually managed to entertain the world's kids for decades, all without a cheesy dance routine.
Their admittedly slight fall from grace has happened almost by stealth, but there are still some titles out their keen to cash in on some old-school Disney magic. The bizarrely titled
Wizards Phantom Bonus Selection is perfect medicine for such aficionados, consisting of the year-old strategy sim
Wizards of Mickey and the platform based
PK Phantom Duck, back from April last year.
As a result of combining the two, there's a fair amount of variety on offer here.
Wizards of Mickey is probably the package's star turn, this turn-based battler placing Mickey, Donald Duck and Goofy in 20 levels where knocking off 'confidence points' until you've shamed your foe into submission - rather than actually hurting them - is the order of the day.
As Andrew Williams pointed out in his original review, it's a set-up that takes some getting used to, but one that pays dividends as a result: "At first the pairing of Disney characters with what is essentially a turn-based swords and spells game seems a little odd. After you've bedded into the solid, accessible interface and the fact that the Disney character roster really does make for a good game cast in most situations, you forget the awkwardness and concentrate on how you're going to deal with that army of giant rat soldiers without getting blood on Mickey's robes."
It's a mighty different experience from
PK Phantom Duck, where Donald's alterego takes part in a more traditional platforming adventure, fighting security robots reprogrammed to perform dastardly deeds for criminal means.
Though the plot may wear thin, as original reviewer Fraser MacInnes stated, it's nonetheless playable. "It's not terribly difficult stuff, but it's more challenging than your typical Disney title and is pitched at a level that's more casual game than children's game. The title wears its comic book heritage with pride as it does its appreciation for established platforming statutes and achieves a blend of action and aesthetics that is atmospheric, charming and fun."
Wizard Phantom Bonus Selection is unlikely to push any major boundaries, then, but as a package - pulling together two titles with such a different take on Disney's cast of characters - it makes for a wise purchase.
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