I think we all grew up with the Disney classics. The Lion King, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, the list goes on. Even now the company still manages to define childhoods with new classics. Disney is one of if not THE most recognizable company in the world. And as far as video games go they didn’t do half-bad either. From the 16-bit era with games like The Lion King and Aladdin to even now with sadly discontinued Disney Infinity and the massively popular Kingdom Hearts. The latter is always such an adventure because every time you come across a new world and characters you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Disney Magical World 2 manages to evoke that exact same feeling as Kingdom Hearts does, but considering KH is an action RPG with a rather convoluted plot it’s pretty hard for some people to get into. Certainly kids. But Disney Magical World is a community simulator. This means the game plays like Animal Crossing where you just relax and go on carefree adventures with some of our most beloved characters from the company.
Disney presents: Disney’s Animal Crossing. For the people who don’t know what Disney’s Magical Kingdom 2 is let me explain. What you basically get in this game is Animal Crossing but with Disney characters AND more side adventures, unlike anything Animal Crossing has. I don’t know exactly why but when playing these kinds of games I become very cynical. Now that doesn’t mean I judge the game harshly or anything. It just means I take some things too literal and logical. Like how the kingdom is ruled by a king that’s not Mickey but everywhere I go I see Mickey’s silhouette is stamped on everything. Why is that? The game itself never says they are Disney characters so in this world Mickey is just an incredibly likable villager in this kingdom where his face is plastered on it. But I digress.
When you arrive at the kingdom you are greeted by Mickey, Donald, Minnie and Daisy. These four characters will be the one’s you interact with the most. Throughout the first two hours of the game, they will guide you through all the mechanics before letting you loose in a world with so much to see and do. As I said before the game mainly is like Animal Crossing but with Disney characters. While the game lacks that special kind of interactivity the AC series has, it offers more things to do than that series. You can decorate your house and dress up in anything you want, and I do mean anything. I gotta give a big company like Disney credit for allowing both boys and girls to dress up in all clothing available. Girls can wear what they want and even boys can wear the dresses if they choose to without any changes. It’s very open minded and I appreciate the option a lot.
The game is filled with quite a few Disney characters aside from the standard classic Disney cartoons. I won’t spoil any of the characters I already met but be assured that Disney fans will love seeing all these characters and interacting with them are a delight. You get filled with a feeling of bliss every time a new character wanders into the conversations. That feeling of “ohh it’s X character from X series” is one of the best feelings to get in the game. When newer characters are presented you just think about how good the source material was, and when an older character is introduced a wave of nostalgia just crashes over you. Aside from the main world, you get to go to some other Disney worlds which just like meeting the characters is a delight. These worlds aren’t really worlds as much as they are small areas but running around in them and meeting the characters from that series is still a blast.
Aside from the standard community simulator stuff like decorating your house, dressing up, talking and doing quests for the villagers and collecting material there are quite a few different things to do. For starters, you actually run a cafe where your main source of income comes from. You get to decorate the cafe and choose the recipes in on the menu. The more thematic your menu and cafe is the more theme points you get. With these points, you can invite certain characters over for a party. So Mickey won’t show up to your cafe unless you make sure every inch of the establishment is covered with his face.
One of the other main things in the game in a light dungeon crawler-esque game. All around the game’s world ghosts are causing troubles and you are the only one that can stop them. You arm yourself with a wand and have to go through maps with treasure and items while fighting ghosts. Most “dungeons” are only three levels with at the end a boss. It’s nothing deep but nonetheless, it’s pretty fun. This along with many other neat games and mechanics makes the game stand strong against Animal crossing.
Early conclusion:
I really liked from what I played of the game so far. And the fact is that I haven’t even seen half of what the game has to offer. Disney Magical World 2 has a lot of offer for fans of Disney or people looking for a break from Animal Crossing.
