Mickey’s Racing Adventure- Game Boy Color - Review

In 1999 British developer, Rare were riding high on a wave of success. They had well and truly left their stamp on the decade with an unforgettable string of games released on Nintendo systems over the preceding years. 

Just in time for the Christmas season, Rare would release two more games for the Nintendo 64; Jet Force Gemini & Donkey Kong 64. Both were hugely impressive titles receiving praise for their stunning graphics and creative gameplay. The only real criticism shared by both games was aimed at the forced backtracking and essential, or in Donkey Kong 64’s case, excessive collectables needed throughout the games. Nevertheless they were very well received both critically and commercially at the time, and are still fondly remembered by many as Rare classics.

Sandwiched between, and somewhat dwarfed by, the release of these two games however, Rare also released a title for the Game Boy Color  – Mickey’s Racing Adventure.

Mickey’s Racing Adventure, as the name suggests is a blend between an isometric cart-racer and a very light, adventure game set in the Mickey Mouse Disney universe.

The story begins as Mickey and friends are enjoying a pleasant, town festival. The evil Pete seems to take great exception to this and decides to send in his cronies to ruin their fun. The ruffians gate-crash the party in their cars and make off with the decorations causing wanton destruction in the process. A note from Pete is left behind challenging Mickey and Co. to try and beat his cronies on the racetrack to win their possessions back.

The gameplay is divided into a few distinct styles. Firstly you begin on foot in the game’s town, which serves as a sort of hub-world and there are five areas to visit each serving a different purpose.

  

Casey Jr Junction is the central area and it’s also the largest as it connects to all other areas. Here you’ll find the train station where you can buy tickets to the game’s race tracks. Each character has a different themed destination to travel to each with its own set of tracks to race on. You’ll need coins to pay for a ticket for each character though and these will be scattered throughout the town and need to found and picked up. To impede your progress, Pete’s henchmen will be patrolling the streets however and need to be avoided. 

To the west of Casey Jr Junction is Magica de Spell’s spooky wood, where you can trade Disney Dollars, which are also found lying around but mainly earnt through racing. Here you can learn spells to help you in future races. The spells take the place of your typical cart-racing power ups with speed boosts, invincibility and a multitude of weapons on offer. 

To the north is Treehouse Glade, in which you can find Chip’n’Dale who will trade helpful hints for cash and trade keys to locked buildings for nuts, which are unsurprisingly also found scattered throughout the town. To the east is the Ludwig Van Drake’s Garage in which you can pay to upgrade your car’s top speed, acceleration and handling or even buy a better car entirely which can then also be upgraded. 

To the south is Mickey’s Home Town where you can change between the five main characters by visiting their respective houses. Only Mickey is available from the start but as you progress in the game’s races the others will become unlocked. After obtaining the key from Chip’n’Dale you’ll also be able to access the Post Office in which you’ll find unlockable cheats and a repton or boulderdash-syle mini-game in which Pluto collects bones all the while trying to avoid being hit by falling objects and coming into contact with the unfriendly Butch Bulldog.

Once you’ve found enough coins to pay for the train fare you can head on over to the racing portion of the game.  However before you reach your destination you must first play a mini-game in which you need to guide the train through the red dots before making your way safely to the exit. There is one of these mini-games for each character but fortunately once you’ve completed in once, you’ll be able to access the area freely after that.

The races take place over three short laps, in which you take on three of Pete’s cronies. The gameplay and controls are very reminiscent of Rare’s own RC Pro Am and the cars feel responsive and satisfying to drive. Randomly littered around the track will be the odd speed boast, in the shape of a spanner for some reason, to help you gain ground on your opponents.  As well as racing on land you’ll also be racing on water in boats whereby you will want to make use of the currents to gain speed. Whilst some races will be either on land or on water but others will make uses of both terrain types with your car instantly transforming into a boat on water and vice-versa.

After you’ve won the three available races in the area you’ll be able to take on the boss in a one on one face off. First you’ll have to complete a sliding tile puzzle before then having to win a short race against Pete himself. Once completed you’ll be awarded one of your decorations back, and then it’s time to head back to the town, pick a newly unlocked character and do it all over again.

The graphics are as colourful as you’d expect for a Disney game. The animation of the characters is very fluid, but I feel that there is a lack of detail in both the character sprites and backgrounds and flicker is a frequent issue as objects and characters fail to appear properly at times. The characters seem weirdly oversized too and it seems that little thought has been given to the proportions as thigs like Pete’s cronies and the trees are comically dwarfed by Mickey and co. The Game Boy Color certainly isn’t a graphical powerhouse but it can definitely do a lot better than this title suggests.

The music is one of the better areas of the game with David Wise taking the reins. Although the numerous tunes are some-what forgettable they certainly fit the action well enough with lots of cheery melodies to listen to.

Overall though I’m sad to say I was left extremely disappointed by Mickey’s Adventure Racing. With Rare’s racing pedigree in RC Pro Am and Diddy Kong Racing I was certain this game was going to be an absolute gem. My entire playthrough was plagued with frustration and boredom though. Things in the game are often explained poorly or sometimes not at all and so it’s often unclear as to whether or not you need, or why you should be collecting certain things. Only certain collectables will appear when you’re playing as certain characters so switching between them and thoroughly back tracking over the map is needed to find the coins and nuts, which becomes very tiring when all you want to do is race.  Whats worse is some of them are hidden and buried and so Pluto must dig around aimlessly to uncover them. Speaking of Pluto there are numerous extra levels of his bone collecting mini-game which can be uncovered by digging when an exclamation mark appears above his head. Often these are ridiculously difficult and frustrating to complete, and more than one I’m sure spent more than an hour on.

The racing is definitely the strongest area of the game but even that has its issues. The balancing is based around the fact that you can progressively upgrade your car, so you’ll often find yourself in unwinnable races forcing you to go back to the town to buy upgrades. It also makes it somewhat unenjoyable to go back and replay previous levels as your car will be too overpowered for the opponents. Despite all that the racing is often still fun and the tracks are certainly creative and varied with jumps and tight turns.

It’s just a huge shame that so little of the game is actually spent racing. Most of my playthrough was spent trying to complete the slightly tedious puzzles and mini-games, or just wandering around the map looking for the required collectables.

I decided to start this youtube channel to help bring forgotten games back from obscurity and get people playing and enjoying them again. I always try to look for hidden gems that I think I’ll personally enjoy and then share my experiences through these videos. I always try to look for the best in games often focusing on the things I like rather than the things I didn’t. With this game however I’m finding it hard to find any positive angle to recommend it from.

 Nevertheless, that’s only my own personally opinion. Maybe you think you’d like Mickey’s Adventure Racing and maybe you like what you’ve seen. If so the game can be picked fairly cheaply and easily so why not give it a shot!