Genre: Educational – Chlidren

Publisher: Hi-Tech Expressions

Total time played: 30 minutes

Short review: A children’s game with mediocre gameplay graphics. The game is short and simple, perfect for young kids, kind of a bore for men in their mid 30’s.

Interesting links related to Mickey’s Adventure in Numberland

• Soundtrack
• Video playthrough (24 minutes 32 seconds)

Cheating My Own System

It has been almost 2 months since I completed Ninja Kid and since then I have not finished a single NES game. I had decided to make things more interesting when I beat a game by randomly selecting the next game to play. The game I chose after Ninja Kid I am going to keep secret but let’s just say I’ve had a hard time completing it.

As my quest to collect every NES is winding down there are very few games I need. This week I ordered two of those games off of eBay. First, I got Magician and second I got Mickey’s Adventure In Numberland. I always clean and test games when I get them and like many of the other children’s games in the library I beat this game on my first try.

Stage select screen. That red brick building appears to have the SS Nazi logo for some reason.

Numbers and Letters

I had previously beaten Mickey’s Safari in Letterland and Mickey Mousecapade. Both of those games I liked more than this one. Both Numberland and Letterland are slightly educational where the child (or 35 year old man) play the game they learn about letters or numbers. The point of this game is to play through 10 levels (actually 5 levels 2 times each) and collect the magic number.

The levels are littered with obstacles that are easily avoidable and a bunch of numbers. You must find the number shown at the bottom of the screen and then find the elevator to exit the stage. If you exit the stage before finding the number you must play the stage again.

Mediocre graphics

Difficulty

I decided to just play the game on the hardest setting, SUPER ADVANCED. And, like I expected it was still very easy. Even with a 1 year old running around my living room I was able to beat the game only losing one life, and that life should not have been lost. I think the only difference in difficulty is on easy there are no stage obstacles.

The best enemy in the game is a ringing telephone. If you hit the phone you lose a hit point. Unfortunately the game features no boss battles.

Mickey has never looked better on the NES.

How to play

Like most easy platform games on the system you move with the D-pad, jump with A and shoot your projectile (in this case, bubble gum) with B.

Each level is the NES version of “open world” You can go up, down, left and right. You will need to explore every inch of each stage to find the hidden number. There are false floors and false walls. But, even with all of that, the stages are all small enough to explore in just a couple of minutes. I never ran into an issue of not being able to find the number.

After completing the stage you must answer a simple math problem. Not bad since I know my arithmetic but may be a bit tough for young players. Luckily it is multiple choice.

Nice try Nintendo, trying to sneak math into a game.

Collectibles

There are a few things to collect in each stage, only one is mandatory.

• bubble gum – The more gum (red dots floating up and down) that you collect the more bubbles you can blow. Bubbles kill all enemies in a single hit. There are very few enemies and they are easily avoidable so the gum isn’t really that big of a deal.
• Numbers – There are red boxes littering the stage that move left to right and have a counting number. If you jump on the box when the stages hidden number is displayed you earn a star. Stars and Bubble Gum act as points that are tallied at the end of each stage.
• Hearts – You start each stage with 3 hearts, that means you get hit 3 times before die. You can collect additional hearts that replenish your health.
• Secret Number – You must find the secret number (displayed next to your life bar at the bottom of the screen) in order to complete the stage. Once the number is collected you can exit the stage.

Final Thoughts

Title screen and cut scenes have brilliant a depiction of Mickey Mouse. The in game graphics are very average. The music is better than I expected but not super memorable. The controls are slippery, jumps are high and slow and I felt like I slid on the ground a lot. But, the game is short and easy enough for none of these to become an issue. There is some voice work in the game and it is all easy to understand, a rare feat on the NES.

Definitely not a game for adults but as a small child (6 and under) I think the game could pose a moderate challenge and a small amount of fun.

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