Stephen Duetzmann – Editor in Chief
Disney
Content Rating: Everyone
Release date: July 11, 2013
Android (also available on iOS)
Overall Review:
Where’s my Mickey is the newest game in a series of physics based puzzle games published by Disney. The previous entries (“Where’s My Water?” and “Where’s My Perry?”) were wildly successful so it was inevitable that Disney would find a way to release another one in order to hold people’s interest. I may have known that a follow-up game was coming, but I had no idea that it would be so good.
The Mickey Mouse character is going through a rebranding process in recent years. He was, at one point in his history, one of the most well recognized characters in the world. This universal recognition has diminished in recent years as a result of the massive popularity of other cartoon characters. He also has not been front and center in our living rooms for a VERY long time. The release of this game feels like a calculated move by Disney. And I don’y mean that in a bad way; It works.
“Where’s My Mickey?” oozes charm. There is no other way to say it. The animation style is sharp enough to hold its own against other HD gaming experiences available, but still holds onto the classic Mickey Mouse aesthetic that many of us grew up watching.
The game itself is a puzzle game where players remove dirt by dragging their finger along the screen to allow water to reach a pipe at the bottom of the level. The early puzzles are a breeze for even the youngest of gamers, but the puzzles get fiendishly challenging as the levels move on. The good news for those of us who have trouble with puzzled is that experimentation is encouraged and restarting a level only takes tapping a button on the screen. There is no penalty for failure (which is a boon for young kids and for people like me).
Completing a puzzle results in a short, but funny, animation celebrating your success. They are pretty clever and they are varied enough that you won’t see the same one more than once or twice. This is great news since the same animation over and again would rob the game of some of its charm.
Family Gaming Assessment:
I’ll keep this section short and sweet. There is literally nothing that could be considered offensive in this game. Feel free to let your children play it alone , but be sure to play it with them to get the most fun out of the experience!
Playability Assessment:
This is a puzzle game that ramps up the difficulty rather quickly as the game goes by. Kids who have experience with the other titles will likely have more success, but new players might get frustrated if they cant solve puzzles. I highly recommend playing this game with your child if you think that they might get frustrated quickly. Take time to talk puzzles out with them and encourage them to experiment with different options. They’ll see the results quickly and can learn from those mistakes. That can be a great learning opportunity in and of itself because of the immediacy of the feedback.
The good news is that the controls are unlikely to get in the way here. This is a touch based game in the truest sense of the word. Players remove “dirt” by dragging their finger across it and there are occasional hoses that need to be turned on and clouds that need to be tapped to make them rain. There is nothing more complex than that.
Conclusion:
Buy this game. Today. You and your family will love it.
It isn’t free but .99 is well worth it for the amount of game that you get for it. Finexal
