Fans have just released two new improvement patches for the ill-received Sega Mega Drive title Fantasia from the developer Infogrames and its publisher Sega.
If you were a fan of Disney and video games in the early '90s, you'll know that we were pretty much spoilt for choice when it came to great 2D platformers starring Mickey Mouse. There was Sega's superb Castle of Illusion, World of Illusion, and Land of Illusion, Capcom's incredible Magical Quest series, and of course, Traveller's Tales' Mickey Mania. But that's not to say there weren't some disappointments thrown in there too, with one good example of this being 1991's Fantasia, based on Disney's 1940 musical film of the same name.
Fantasia was notably slammed by critics following its release, with the British Mega Drive publication Mega, for instance, giving an import copy of the title just 11%, while its competitor MegaTech awarded it 49%, criticizing its "naff sound" and poor design.
To add to the game's woes, there have even been subsequent reports that it was potentially licensed by Disney in error (notably in author Ken Horowitz' Playing at the Next Level: A History of American Sega Games), with the story going that, after realizing its mistake, Disney requested Sega pull the game from stores and destroy any unsold copies. We should note that this is something we haven't been able to corroborate ourselves in our own conversations with former Disney staff but is something that has only further added to the game's negative reputation over time.
The new fan patches for the game were released over the last few days by the hackers Tryphon and Razor and come in two flavours: a Mega Drive / Genesis version and a version for the Sega CD that adds Mode 1 audio (implemented with the help of @Bonemagee). These intend to target several areas of the game, making the title a far more enjoyable experience all around.
Mickey's hitboxes, for example, have been altered, making it easier to attack and defend, while the turnover, jump preparation, and reception animations have been removed entirely, to help Mickey keep his momentum. The swimming physics have also been improved and a bunch of other refinements have been made to Mickey's magic system. There are even now a couple of cheat codes implemented, which we've listed below:
A+B+C+Start on the title screen - invulnerability.
A+B+C+Right when paused - go to the next scene in the current stage.
A+B+C+Up when paused - go to the first scene of the next stage.
Right now, the patches don't seem to be available via ROM Hack Plaza, but are available to download in the description of the videos posted on the Razor & Zenon Sonic Videos YouTube channel, if you want to try them out for yourself.
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[source youtu.be]
Comments 8
I bought this instead of Castle of Illusion. I didn't even like the movie. I think I just thought being the Sorecerer's Apprentice seemed cool.
It's awful.
I hope this makes it less so
Well it definitely worked some! The skittish timing of the floating platforms still drag it down, but at least you've got half a chance of landing on one now!
Pretty great work all round, I'd say! I never thought I'd ever be driven to touch Fantasia again
It's much more playable now. The Mega CD update is how it should always have sounded like.
I remember drooling over screenshots of this game in a magazine back in the day and then being crestfallen when the reviews eventually came out. I loved all the Mickey and pals games on the Master System and Mega Drive, so this one was a huge disappointment to me. Will have to finally check it out.
I bought this game with my holiday money one year, It was such a huge disappointment, considering how Sega managed to stike gold first time with Castle of Illusion, and they follow it up with this tripe.
This enhancement feels like "what if Sega released a Mega CD version of Fantasia?".
Amazing how Infogrammes got away with this mess for years, did they EVER make anything decent in this generation?
I'd totally forgotten about this game. I played it after Castle of Illusion since that was such a good game. OMG, not even close. yeesh. It's fun to see someone want to try to fix some of the problems. I don't think they'll be able to push it into the same magic of CoI. I like the comment above, "Mega CD version of Fantasia". Yeah. Such wasted potential with this license. But, in my experience back in the day Infogrammes was not usually high quality gaming.
For some reason, the Spanish press loved the game at the time. Gushed over it. It was weird to read the British reviews and the Spanish ones, as in "are they talking about the same game?".
And yeah, it was malo, muy malo.
I have gone on record as saying this is the worst game i have ever played...and yet i still find myself coming back to it. That being said...the fact that there are continued efforts to make the game...playable and improve on it make me want to keep revisiting it. I'll have to check this out for myself.
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