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VC Alternative, Week Ten: Mickey Mouse Dream Balloon
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Skrybe
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PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2007 12:59 am    Post subject: VC Alternative, Week Ten: Mickey Mouse Dream Balloon Reply with quote

Today, Lost Levels brings you the unreleased NES game Mickey Mouse Dream Balloon.



Mickey Mouse Dream Balloon is a localization of the Kemco title Mickey Mouse 3: Yume Fuusen. Technically, one could argue that MMDB isn't actually unreleased, as the game was published in the US as Kid Klown, albeit with a full graphical overhaul and totally different story. The game is a simple platformer, one of many available on the NES at the time. While it isn't a bad game by any means, neither is it an especially original offering to the genre.



This prototype is of an earlier build than the version that would become Mickey Mouse 3/Kid Klown. The difficulty was tweaked heavily between this version and the final. Enemies have different patterns, bosses take different amounts of damage, and some areas, like part of stage 2, use completely different layouts.



Download Mickey Mouse Dream Balloon here. Extra special thanks go to Rob Budrick for providing this game.
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kap
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PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2007 3:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

MICKEY MOUSE! I really don't have anything to add here.

rbudrick, can I just call you budnik?
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handofg0d



Joined: 13 Jun 2006
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PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2007 12:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This one strikes me as an odd title. Why bother localizing it as Mickey Mouse when they knew Capcom had the rights to that license? I would have thought it went straight from the Japanese MM3 to the US Kid Klown (with some proto builds in a transitional state along the way obviously) but this seems to be an all out localization before they even started to change it over to Kid Klown.
My best guess would be that this was at a time where the rights to the Disney license were sort of up in the air for the US market... but this doesn't hold up to logic. Because it's two predecessors were already brought to the US market, both of which had license changes.

Mickey Mouse (1), released for the GameBoy became The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle (GB) - not to be confused with the NES version of Crazy Castle which was a Roger Rabbit FDS game in Japan.
Mickey Mouse II, also on the GameBoy became The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle II (GB).
So by the time they were bringing over Mickey Mouse III: Dream Balloon, they should have known damn well it wouldn't hit the US as a Mickey license.
Not to mention that Capcom had already released (a Hudson game) Mickey Mousecapades back in 1988 - it was pretty obvious that Capcom held the rights.

So why would they bother then, to localize it as a Mickey Mouse title? Were they shopping it to Capcom to be published? Was it intended for another english-speaking, but non-US market?
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Drakee



Joined: 24 Mar 2007
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PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2007 6:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

so, why is Pluto stoned? gahahaha
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Sardius
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PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2007 6:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

420 dump prototypes every day
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kap
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PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2007 7:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hahaha, awesome catch.
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TheRedEye
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PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2007 8:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

taht's good weed
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rbudrick
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PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2007 8:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Kemco had the rights to GB and FC Disney. Capcom has US NES rights. About as simple as that. Much like Bulletproof had Tetris rights for FC and a couple computers (iirc), and various other companies had it for other formats.

Companies commonly pull this kind of licensing thing, though you may not see it much nowadays.

Pluto was hanging out w/ Scooby and Shaggy in the van clambaking.

Quote:
rbudrick, can I just call you budnik?


I think there's another thread where I mention I've heard every variation in the world of Budrick (search for rubrdick...lolz), but unfortunately, budnik I have heard before. Yes, it's true. I think it's one of those variations where people ran out of shit to twist Budrick into. Kap, don't tell me you can't think of a new one for me!

I am convinced that people I know have spent long nights and sometimes years into thinking of new variations of Budrick. Butt Trick and Rubrdick pwns so far, though.

-Rob
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ICEknight



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PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2007 8:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If there wasn't enough wierdness going on with this game (or any of Kemco's licensed games, for that matter), I'm fearing there might exist yet another prototype using the Japanese "Tong King Show" design we know from elsewhere. Just look at the background silhouette in the level select screen and compare it with the Kid we saw in all his later games:



Both don't seem to feature proper clown shoes (unlike the in-game character), and even the hairdo looks a bit similar.

I'm thinking Nintendo Of America did yet another localisation for the Kid Klown game they were sent from Japan, in the lines of Totally Rad, etc.
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kap
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PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2007 10:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

rbudrick wrote:
Kemco had the rights to GB and FC Disney. Capcom has US NES rights. About as simple as that.


I think the question was more like, why not turn it into Kid Klown or some other character immediately instead of changing everything else and leaving all the Disney stuff in.

rbudrick wrote:
Butt Trick and Rubrdick pwns so far, though.


I do love rubrdick.

But not like that.
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AlabasterGothe



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PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2007 5:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is a pretty cool find, I was playing the Japanese version last night, but now I'll play this instead. Cool
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handofg0d



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PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2007 2:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kap wrote:
rbudrick wrote:
Kemco had the rights to GB and FC Disney. Capcom has US NES rights. About as simple as that.


I think the question was more like, why not turn it into Kid Klown or some other character immediately instead of changing everything else and leaving all the Disney stuff in.


Right - because this localization went as far to keep the Disney character names in the English dialog. It's not like this was a transitional state where they changed the dialog but not the sprites.
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ICEknight



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PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2007 6:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote






Ok, I made that up. =(
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iamstillhiro1112



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PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2007 6:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I guess they had some hope that they would get the rights to the Mickey Mouse liscense to translate all that stuff.
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Tongueman



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PostPosted: Thu May 17, 2007 3:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Have you guys ever noticed that some of Kemco's games -- particularly this one -- feel stuttery and lazily programmed? Almost as if they were developed by Micronics...
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BMF54123
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PostPosted: Thu May 17, 2007 7:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes indeed. I played The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout all the time as a kid, and always wondered why it ran so much slower than all my other games. It doesn't seem to be locked to any particular framerate at any given time, and basically just runs as fast as the CPU allows.

I remember looking through the sprite data and encountering a bunch of "empty" sprites with no apparent use, though in retrospect, they might have actually been used as a primitive means of speed throttling in low-activity areas...
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Deadguy2322



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PostPosted: Fri May 18, 2007 6:29 pm    Post subject: Not the best job... Reply with quote

I noticed that they misspelled Minnie Mouse's name all the time. [CONSPIRACY] That's why they had to take the Disney characters out! Lack of attention to the strict standards of Disney![/CONSPIRACY]
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mrdomino



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PostPosted: Fri May 18, 2007 11:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

iamstillhiro1112 wrote:
I guess they had some hope that they would get the rights to the Mickey Mouse liscense to translate all that stuff.


They did get the rights at some point - Mickey Mouse II for the GB was released in parts of Europe as "Mickey Mouse" (but in the US it became a Bugs Bunny game), and Mickey Mouse V was released in the US as "Mickey Mouse: Magic Wands".
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BMF54123
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PostPosted: Sat May 19, 2007 5:35 am    Post subject: Re: Not the best job... Reply with quote

Deadguy2322 wrote:
[CONSPIRACY] That's why they had to take the Disney characters out! Lack of attention to the strict standards of Disney![/CONSPIRACY]

That might almost be semi-believable, if it weren't for the DuckTales proto.

(THE BOSS CAN BE DEFEATED BY LOWERING SCROOGES CANE.)
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Tongueman



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PostPosted: Sat May 19, 2007 12:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not if Magica DeSpell manages to raise Scrooge's cane first. (wink wink)
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