Fantasia: the Video Game

Due to the wonder of a handy app called Retroarch, I have been able to play a variety of Disney computer games from yesteryear.

Various roms are available around the internet for games based on Snow White, Pinocchio (reviewed elsewhere on this blog) and Fantasia.

The computer game for Fantasia is notorious.  It is way too difficult right from the very first level.  I have tried to play it a few times and have only ever reach the second level about once.

I've resorted to a Youtube walkthrough to know how the game plays out.

The player controls Sorcerer Mickey moving through a variety of levels based around different Fantasia sequences.

After a brief trip to the concert hall (from Fantasia's between segment interludes) first off is the Sorcerer's Apprentice - a castle level with walking broomsticks, flying books and toadstool like creatures.  Mickey then leaves the castle to hop of lilypads, pelicans and crocodiles (who look a bit, although not very, like those from Dance of the Hours).

There is a brief underwater interlude, accessed through contact with a fairy from the Nutcracker Suite segment) which is rather reminiscent of a similar level in the Pinocchio video game before Mickey returns to the gardens and then back to the castle to face another onslaught of walking broomsticks.

This sends the first level and then Mickey is off to primeval times in a level based around the Rite of Spring segment of Fantasia.  Avoiding various dinosaurs, including pteranadons., some weird-looking snakes and enchanted books again, Mickey makes his way to a rocky outcrop where a giant clawed foot descends from the top of the screen.

Here there is another fairy who transports Mickey to a cave system populated by more mushrooms, flying creatures and crystalline outcrops.  Returning to primeval times, Mickey then moves to a more Mesa-like wilderness with walking cacti and flying bugs.

The next level is loosely based on the Nutcracker suite section with various of the floral creatures depicted in the film - such as the Russian dancing thistles as well as fauns as seen in the Pastoral Symphony segment.  Here, Mickey is jumping upwards on little islands rather than scrolling across the screen.  He passes a door with an Alice in Wonderland style doorknob.

A fairy yet again transports Mickey to a Pastoral Symphony themed landscape where he has to jump down past various creatures, this time including white pegasi.  Then it's back to the Nutcracker area until the player reaches another fairy and is transported again.

This time, Mickey is in a Dance of the Hours-inspired level with ballet-dancing ostriches and hippos before travelling back, again, to the Nutcracker area.

Returning to the concert hall, Mickey then heads into a level themed around the Night on a Bare Mountain sequence.  This, in the film, is a horrific sequence with a number of quite terrifying creatures.  These creatures return for this level to bother Mickey on his progress through the level.  The level is dark and hell-like and quite 'unDisney' - much like the Bare Mountain sequence.

This is the final level and the game ends with Mickey revealing the players high score (gained from defeating various baddies and gathering items such as notes and blue orbs throughout the game).

All through the game, electronic and tinny versions of the Fantasia music plays.  It's absolutely horrid!

So far I have played the three Disney themed games.  Snow White was a poor game but compared to Fantasia it was positively entertaining.  Fantasia's issue is that the game play is terrible and the controls tricky.  It's far too hard which is a shame because the nature of Fantasia means a wide variety of themes for the levels and enemies.

There's a great computer game to be based on Fantasia.  This isn't it.