Disney + Animal Crossing = Disney Magical World

disney-magical-worldWell, pretty much anyway. Disney Magical World might be more like Animal Crosing -lite or Diet Animal Crossing but it makes up for this with several cool features that you can’t find in Animal Crossing. Like in AC, the game progresses in real time. However, unlike AC the time of day doesn’t affect very much. The only real significant things I noticed are visual changes, shop item changes, and requests and whatnot changing out every 12 hours. The time of year does seem to play a part though given that right now in my game there are giant easter eggs and bunny outfits all over the place. I’m actually very excited to see what shows up around Halloween and Christmas but I can only hope the game can keep me interested that long.

Meet Mickey Mouse and all sorts of wonderful characters
Meet Mickey Mouse and all sorts of wonderful characters

What’s it like? What can you do in Disney Magical World?

Well, the game takes place in a small kingdom setting that consists of a main square with several connecting paths that lead off to shops, the castle, and other worlds.The main hub is full of normal people like yourself but is also spotted with various Disney characters from Mickey’s universe. So you will see characters like Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, Goofy and several offshoot characters like Scrooge, HD&L, and Chip & Dale. Every now and then additional Disney characters might pop in as well.

As for spending your time, you can fish and pick various materials that regenerate over time and sell that at McDucks to earn some extra cash. The far better way to earn money seems to be running your Cafe that you acquire early in the game. When you are done with that you can head off to one of the four connected worlds to complete various special episodes. With all of the money and materials you rake in from all of these things, you can create tons of different outfits and furniture to furnish your cafe and room. I’ll further delve into some of these things below.

Fishing & Gathering

There isn’t quite as much to do here compared to Animal Crossing. There are several different kinds of fish you can find but they don’t seem to be seasonal. They actually only seem to change when you start to upgrade to better rods, which will happen soon enough. It’s not so much about the fish though, unless you want to collect certain sticker goals, but about what they give you. See, you don’t actually keep the fish. Once you catch them they cough up some kind of item for you and you toss them back in. There are several rare materials that require you to fish them out. Around town there are several sparkly spots that generate resources. They seem to mostly be common items but every now and then you will get some rarer materials. Visiting other worlds is pretty much how you are going to get everything else you need.

Your Cafe

disney-magical-world-your-room
Upgrade your Cafe and you will get your own room!

You don’t have to handle any person-to-person transactions here. You are just in charge of the decor and what is served. There are dozens of different themes you can deck your place out with and they vary from tons of Disney themes from Mickey, to Stitch, Pooh, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, etc. Each theme set has SEVERAL different components including things like wallpaper, flooring, tables, chairs, and decorations. It’s not quite as simple as buying them either since you need to also have several rare materials along with a fat stack of cash. The benefit to going with a specific theme is that you can decide to throw a party and if your combo rating is high enough then the character from that theme will show up! You get to take a picture with them and they give you a nice cash boost for your party.

Create food to sell to your guests who visit your cafe

The food in your cafe is all made by you. You need to make a light entre, drink, and dessert. Initially each dish will come out with something like 50 portions but as time goes on and you get better you will be able to increase that number. Your food is sold in real-time as customers show up so you can stock your place and head out to do other things while it generates money. All of the food is also tied to a specific theme which will add to your combo bonus, especially if it matches the decor.

I forgot to mention it earlier but you are also in charge of dressing your staff, which consists of a manager and a waiter. You can even import a Mii character for the waiter position. Again, their outfit theme will tie into your combo bonus so it’s always a good thing to keep in mind. For my Cafe I have a Mii character of Keen serving people while dressed as Minnie Mouse. I find that way more amusing than I probably should.

There’s so much more to share about Disney Magical World.  Stay tuned for Part 2 coming this weekend!