The Magical Quest series was originally released for the SNES. They were typical platformers, with jumping, shooting, throwing and collecting the main activities in each level. They were good games for the platform at the time, so it's not surprising that they've had such a longevity, with a new port this year of Magical Quest 3 Starring Mickey & Donald.

As previously, Mickey and Donald battle their way across levels by using interchangeable costumes that give them special powers. For instance, Mickey and Donald can dress up as woodcutters, knights and magicians. The abilities offered by these costumes are slightly different for each character, except for the woodcutter one, which is the same for Mickey and Donald. Mickey can throw a harder punch with special boxing glove type of weapon, and defend himself with a shield. Donald can use a hammer, and hide himself in a barrel. The woodcutter costume allows them to climb trees quickly, and the magician costume lets Mickey throw pigeons at opponents, changing them into different, usable objects, while Donald can use a light beam from his magic lamp to do the same thing.

Besides the action elements, there's also plenty of collecting. Coins, cards, apples, hearts and dolls are scattered around, and are mainly used either for direct health points, or can be used at the store to purchase health and other powers. Bonus games can be found at different locations, but are just randomized card-picking games that garner more health. There are also three party games, which are mini-games that are tailored to use the costumes that Mickey and Donald earn during the game. These games are Knight's Battle, a game where falling blocks have to be hit numerous times to break them up; Woodcutter's battle, where Mickey or Donald have to climb a tree as quickly as possible; and Magician's Battle, a simple arcade game of collecting falling hearts.

The gameplay is fairly interesting, but the controls can be frustrating and take away some of the enjoyment. Getting either character to double jump onto high places is difficult at best, and many times players may eschew searching high places for goodies in order to keep from needlessly dying. This tends to make the game shorter than it should be, and effectively keeps players from discovering some of the more fun aspects of the game. There is a multi-player mode, which is interesting and adds to the gameplay. Players can tag-team Donald and Mickey and throw each other around to help get through the levels. This is one of the better elements of the game.

The artwork is great, and typical Disney. Very colorful and bright, with plenty of individuality. Too bad the the same can't be said for the tunes.

A fairly good port of an older platformer, but one that isn't quite as fun as it could be, mainly because of bad controls. This makes it especially hard on the younger gamers. The game is pretty short, too.

Gameplay: 6.5
The gameplay is varied enough, with plenty of collectibles, but the controls tend to suck some of the fun out of it, due to problematic jumping.

Graphics: 8.0
Typical Disney artwork!

Sound: 6.0
Pretty blah sound effects and music.

Difficulty: Medium
The levels are medium in difficulty, with some levels harder than others, especially the first level, as there are no costumes with special powers to help.

Concept: 6.0
A decent port, but there is nothing new or especially wonderful here in the presentation.

Multiplayer: 8.0
The multiplayer mode is a lot of fun, especially for kids.

Overall: 7.0
A decently fun platformer, with enough variety to keep it interesting, but one that suffers a little from awkward controls and too few game hours.