N-Philes

Disney's Cinderella: Magical Dreams

Posted by D. Cassandra Garcia.

Disney Interactive seems to be the forerunner in getting young girls into the gaming world. Releasing female friendly tyke-titles like the Lizzie McGuire's, Kim Possible's and That's SO Raven's of their lineup appeal to little girls who seem to get left behind by other companies more often than not. So what better a game to release than Cinderella's Magical Dreams when the upcoming Disney Special Platinum Edition for DVD of the cartoon classic will be released next Tuesday? Timing is of the essence and they've nailed it. Whenever a classic movie is released, especially a timeless fairytale that every young girl knows practically by heart, they plead with their parents to shower them with every bit of merchandise that carries the name. This game will no doubt be on a ton of young girls' Christmas lists this year.

It's somewhat hard to review games geared to a certain demographic if you, the reviewer, can't put yourself in that mindset. Cinderella was one of my favorite movies as a child and while I've grown up a lot since then, there are just some things you never forget. I, however, seemed to at first. I put the game in my DS and after watching the opening clip of a storybook being opened, my mind suddenly went into adult gamer mode and I thought to myself, "this is going to be terrible". So I put it down and decided to play it a little bit later. My 3 year old daughter came into the room, spotted the box cover and started squeeling like any other little girl would upon finding one of the Disney Princesses in her home and it suddenly hit me that I needed to forget all about reviewing it as an adult, but to reach out to the inner child in me and get her to review it.

So I restarted the game, with my daughter looking over my shoulder with a silly, excited grin on her face, and decided to play it through with her. So the book opened up back to Prince Charming's castle, panning down to where Cinderella lives with her evil step-mother and her daughters and a clip from the film sprang to life as Cinderella raced down the stairs to start her day waiting on her terrible family, which led to the first level of Magical Dreams. Directions pop up to explain what you need to do to progress, the first of which being to jump over small obstacles like roaming hens and puddles to get to your next mission where you need to feed the stable horse. Each Cinderella played level contains crystal roses, wrapped decrees, pink ribbons and glittering tiaras that you can collect that will restore energy and give extra lives, although it almost seems to be an unnecessary task to collect them since through the simplicity of the games you may progress to the next level without any extra help.

After jumping over a lamb and a hen to get to the haystack, you need to feed the horse and check for any shiny collectables hidden in the barn. Once you are done you go back out into the fenced in yard, jump over more obstacles and go through another door to feed another horse. Feeding the horses opens up different gates, which will lead you out into the sunflower field where a twirling scarecrow, groundhogs popping out of holes and some little running bunnies try to get in your way. If you touch any of these obstacles, your lifeline goes down and after the last one, you faint in the middle of whatever you're doing. Follow the arrowed signs to get to your next mission, water a couple of wilted sunflowers, which will then open up more gates so that you may eventually get to the apple catch. The task there is simply to grab a barrel and catch some falling apples, to open more gates which will lead you to more apple catching, before finally leading you into another movie clip. Getting through each level unlocks another movie clip, which once all are unlocked, you can play scene by scene in the start up menu.

In the second part of the game, you play as Gus and Jaq, two mice friends of Cinderella, who are desperately trying to avoid Lucifer the cat as well as spiders, dripping water, steam seeping through cracks in the pipes, spools of thread with needles sticking through them and self-unrolling tape measures. You can collect buttons, the occassional mouse hat and wrapped decrees as you make your way through the walls and onto the shelves. The "end boss" of this level has the two mice throwing enough collected buttons at Lucifer to chase him away before he grabs you.

Next, you are suddenly Cinderella's fairy godmother and you must change all of her meager animal friends and rags into something suitable for the ball. You use your magic wand to burst bubbles of a certain color which changes the pumpkin into a carriage, the mice into henchmen, the horse into the coachman and Cinderella's torn dress into a perfect ballgown. There isn't much to this level, but seeing the transformations is fun and reminiscent of the film. Once Cinderella is properly attired, a clip of her carriage racing to get to the ball in time plays.

The next level is once again played as Cinderella, only this time she is accompanied by Prince Charming and the task at hand is to dance various moves while staying in the spotlight and avoiding other couples. The attendees cheer and you continue this three times throughout the level, leading up to another film clip. The bell strikes 12 and Cinderella's off, leaving her dainty glass slipper behind. You then, as Cinderella, have to run from the Prince's guards, through the towns and forrest, avoiding obstacles such as water spitting fountains, potholes, stray cats, puddles, nightwatchmen, rocks, fallen limbs, raccoons, piles of leaves, and of course, the guard's lanterns. Upon completion, another film clip plays and then you're playing as Gus and Jaq once again.

This time, we find the mice are scampering across the dining table, avoiding rolling grapes, steaming teapots, dripping water, and you even have to cross vats of what appears to be french onion soup by waiting for the french bread to float to the top. You then have to make your way through the clock, avoiding the chiming bells and gears as you move levers to release the key to unlock Cinderella's door, so that she might try on the glass slipper that the Prince's coachman has brought for all eligible women to try on so that she may become the Prince's wife. However once you do, Lucifer grabs the key before the mice can, so it's up to them to frighten the cat away by use of throwing buttons. Successfully doing so, finds the clip of Cinderella racing down the stairs just in the nick of time to try on the slipper, which of course fits her perfectly and she is then whisked away to marry Prince Charming and leave her terrible family behind.

This game gets an N-Philes score of C.

As with most of the recent Disney Interactive released games of late, this game is definitely for children, specifically aimed at ages 3-9. Fans of any Disney Princess will adore the game, provided that they are newer to the world of video games. For younger girls who play other titles, this might seem a little too juvenile even for them, but it's a great starter game for a child. The best part of Cinderella: Magical Dreams is how the game corresponds to the movie clips. Each level brings the player into the movie through interactive play and following up each level with the next scene. I found that playing the levels with the mice were much more fun than as Cinderella or as the fairy godmother, which disappointed me. The graphics were fantastic, the controls were better and it was frankly more interesting. The levels featuring Cinderella seemed grainy in comparison, the tasks dull and uninspired and the controls slightly off, as was the one with the fairy godmother. It certainly doesn't take long or much to beat the game. I played through it without a problem and I asked my smiling daughter what she thought of it, breaking the spell of the game that had her dark eyes transfixed almost in a trance as she just stared in awe. She looked up at me as she laid her head against my shoulder and said, "Mommy, I love Cinderella, you buy this for me please OK?" I simply smiled and turned the game off as she turned her attention to looking through the pictures of the instruction booklet. Looks like Disney's found another fan.

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