Have a no-clothes encounter with the world’s most famous mouse by playing that new Disney Mobile game, Hidden Mickey

Alice Hill

10 years ago

I know. Like any of these theme park news sites actually
needs another article with the words “Hidden Mickey” in it. Yes,
please, another thousand articles about “Look at the shape of these
planter pots!” and “But if you look here, behind the drinking
fountain … Wow!” But this, I assure you, is different. This is Hidden
Mickey, an online game for the Mickey Cartoons website. Based off the recent Mickey short,
“No Service.”

I’ll be honest. I’ve been raised as a Disney fanatic. I’ve
grown up around animation cel worship, around whispers of banned cartoons. I
never really pictured myself playing a
game sponsored by Disney, on an official Disney website, where you then get to
play as a nude Mickey Mouse. But with animation shorts this great, how can you
not make games off of them?

And what’s really great about this game is it keeps true to
the animation style that Paul Rudish and his team created for these new Mickey
Mouse shorts. This game has a ton of fun, visual gags. Normally with flash
games online, you’re lucky if you get a walk cycle for a character. With Hidden
Mickey, you get a unique animation for every object you interact with. Not to
mention the animations that happen in the background (Such as triggering
seagulls to start attacking a kid and stealing his candy, or make them to raid
a sunglasses stand). The art is absolutely lovely as well. Even the loading
screen looks nice!

The Hidden Mickey game itself, however, leaves much to be
desired. Well. That’s a bit harsh. For a flash game on a website, it’s actually
pretty good! The game itself is sort of a stealth-based dealie. Hide from
everyone around you lest they see you nude, collect a bunch of coins, and eat
junk food on the pier. Sounds good enough. (Sounds like a normal Tuesday for
me, actually.)

The only thing that really annoys me about this game is how
slowly everything moves. People crawl by. Half the game is spent waiting to be
able to move, and the other half is watching Mickey slooooowly move from point
to point. I’ll be honest, I actually lost Hidden Mickey on my first try (I got
cornered between Pete & a female character and Mickey basically had a panic
attack & died) and I would’ve taken another stab at it again but I honestly
didn’t feel like waiting around that long.

I did, however, totally cheat and look up the ending on
YouTube. It’s pretty unceremonious. You walk around, find more stuff, go
through the level, and there’s an ending screen with Donald glaring death at
you as you walk arm-in-arm with Minnie.

Anyway, I’m reeeaaally not the target audience for Hidden
Mickey (I’ve spent this past month playing Skyrim. And I only just now emerged
from my cave, squinting into the sunlight, to write this article). So I can’t
exactly say “This game is terrible.” In fact, Hidden Mickey is pretty
fun! I think with a few little fixes, it could be a really fun mobile game.

But even then, Hidden Mickey is a great game for kids. In
fact, the adorable animations alone make it worth checking out.