So. I never owned a Game Gear; I played my cousin's a bit when he was up, but he didn't like to share that much, so my time with them was limited. Thus I'd never heard of this game. Looking it up online makes me kind of surprised-there's quite a few people who evidently have heard of and not really hated this game. There's even a few let's-plays on youtube for it.

This game was released in 1995. The story-line is kind of lame: you're a laundry boy (Mickey) and you set out to rescue the kingdom because the King (Donald?) is missing. Of course, you end up on a mission to save the world. Nice how everyone's more than willing to let the laundry boy...er, mouse...do all the 'dirty' work, huh? Hah hah, I crack myself up.

Anyhow. Your weapon-you're ONLY weapon-is...magic soap bubbles. Let me say that again. Magic. Soap. Bubbles. Later you get to throw rocks, which is a huge improvement. At least I don't feel like a dope chucking rocks at things, rather than blowing bubbles at them. And I'm really trying hard to avoid any "don't drop the soap" jokes, ok? 

Despite my sarcasm here, I really didn't hate this game. Aside from some serious issues with control (see below), I kind of enjoyed it. I played all the way through it, unlike most of the games I try. It was cute, not that difficult, the puzzles were interesting and varied, and it was fun seeing Disney characters from my childhood in strange places-my favorite was all the way back in the first level, with Hiss from Robin Hood in his floating bubble spy get-up. 

I would recommend this to anyone who just needs a little fun play between more serious games, with an extra shout-out for older people who would recognize the characters (which you younger whippersnappers probably wouldn't get all the references for.)

Graphics: 6

For the Game Gear, not half bad. Bright colors, easily identifiable characters, some very interesting background work...I was slightly impressed. Not blown away by any means, but compared to some other games I've seen on this system, it wasn't bad.

Sound: 1
 
Because I can't give it a -19. So bad. So...so...so bad. Electronic, jittery, grit-your-teeth-and-hit-mute bad. I lasted about half-way through the first level and muted it, so I can't tell you any more than that. Just terrible.

Addictiveness: 5

It kept me playing, all the way through to the end. I'm not sure I'd play it again, but maybe. I missed a lot of boxes, after all, and I'm pretty sure I accidentally glitch-cheated through the ruined castle. If not, that was sure a short level...

Story: 5

Really shallow, but all of these games were like that. Young, innocent, pure-at-heart nobody embarks on epic quest and somehow manages to defeat epic evil that has defeated every other knowledgeable, experienced, well-trained hero in several kingdoms. Toss in some magic and a fair princess and you get the idea. It's pretty well been done, but what can I say? I guess we're all a sucker for a happy ending.

Depth: 3

This game is short. Easy, short, and entirely linear. No side-areas, no real secrets, and aside from a search for hidden boxes some levels, you pretty much go from point A to point B. I beat it in two hours, and that was with smoke breaks.

Difficulty: 4

Let me be honest: the difficulty score I gave this has very little to do with the actual difficulty of the game itself. Aside from a few mildly challenging puzzles and some wth? moments during boss fights, I pretty much skated through this game. There's health literally EVERYWHERE and you have unlimited continues, so yeah.

The total, entire score for the difficulty of this game resides in the controls. The hooooorrriiibbbllleee controls.

Jumping is sometimes so painful it brought swears to my mouth. Good thing i'm alone here at night. And the game's tendency to shift the screen up and down in mid-jump does NOT help things at all. Add having to grab something into a precision jump-screen shift up-grab-screen shift down...it gets really old. Running is fine and shooting is...well, it's ok. Your magic bubbles must weigh a magic ton because they don't fly very far and have a very pronounced downward curve, so you have to learn to compensate for that, but other than that it's fine.

It's when you start having to jump to do anything that the problems first come in. In the second area I nearly quit playing because i could NOT get this vine-jump thing to work. Took me quite a while to figure out you needed to push the controler in the direction you wanted to jump and THEN jump. Not simultaneously, like in every other game, because that would have made too much sense. Nope. Set the jump up, THEN jump.

It's not easy to remember that, and I fell quite a few times throughout the game trying to do fancier maneuvers. 

Oh, and that counts for everything else too-push up, then jump, to grab ropes. Push right, then jump, to switch from monkey...thing...to monkey...weasel...thing. 

Once you get the hang of it, it becomes only mildly less annoying. 

Overall: 5

This isn't going to ever be one of my favorite games, but it's not in my bottom twenty either. It's a fun little game that I'm glad I never paid real money for, but am reasonably satisfied to pay Vizzed for. It was cute. Play it mostly for the time-wasting nostalgia.