Mickey's Ultimate Challenge

North American SNES box.

Mickey's Ultimate Challenge is a Mickey Mouse-themed children's multi-genre puzzle video game developed by Designer Software and WayForward Technologies and published by Hi Tech Expressions in February 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and later ported to the Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear, and Master System. In the game, Mickey or Minnie Mouse dreams they are in the world of fairy tales where earthquakes are plaguing a castle and must solve six traditional puzzles in order to stop the earthquakes. The puzzles include a Simon-like memory game, a Sokoban-like pushing game, a concentration-like matching game, a spelling game, a Mastermind-like code breaking game, and a sliding tile puzzle.

Personal

I played this game while trying to expand my familiarity with the Master System catalog (not knowing better versions were available for the SNES and Genesis). I first played it on "cake" difficulty, and beat it, then upped it to hard difficulty and beat it again on 2019-09-08, all in one attempt.

I don't own this game.

Review

3	5	6	4	2

Best Version: Genesis

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game has adequate pixel art and animation for 1994. The SNES is the best, but the Genesis is a close-second.
• I like that you can chose between Mickey or Minnie Mouse as your playable character.

Bad

• The music is poorly arranged and has little variety. The original SNES game has a lot of noise in the music. The Genesis sound is better.
• The game is clearly geared toward children, but a couple of the puzzles, Mastermind and the 6x6 sliding tile puzzle in particular, are pretty hard for kids. The game probably should have come up with a better way to handle various levels of complexity.

Ugly

• There is very little to this game and 16-bit cartridges could have fit a lot more. The game is far too short, too easy, and too unoriginal. Even on hard mode, I beat every mini game on my very first attempt, primarily because they were mostly traditional games that I have played dozens of times before so I already had the skills necessary to beat them.

Media

Box Art

The same box art is used for all regions and ports. The SNES has a wide crop and the Genesis has a tall crop. Together they show most of the original artwork. It's expertly painted and clearly depicts the game's puzzle nature and fantasy theme. Too bad the puzzle shown on the box doesn't exist in the game.

• 

  SNES - USA - Wide view.

• 

  Genesis - USA - Tall view.

• 

  Master System - Brazil - Tall view.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - Game Boy - USA.

• 

  Manual - Game Gear - USA.

• 

  Manual - Master System - Brazil.

• 

  Manual - SNES - USA.

Videos

Longplay - Game Boy (easy).

Longplay - Game Gear (easy).

Longplay - Genesis (hard).

Longplay - Master System (easy).

Longplay - SNES (easy).

Representation

Strong female character?	Pass	You can play as Minnie and solve all the puzzles. Daisy also makes an appearance, but she's not as important.
Bechdel test?	Pass	When playing as Minnie, Daisy talks to her about the portrait puzzle.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	The giant, the only human-ish character, is white.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Links