Developer:
Playworks International / VGS Virtual Game System
Barcode:
6 2380200143 5
Virtual Mickey, also known as Cyber Mickey, is a virtual pet of Mickey Mouse. Unlike other virtual pets, the goal isn’t to raise him, but to become his best friend. As someone who loves Tamagotchi and Disney, it was a no-brainer I bought this one with my saved up money as a kid.
The packaging reads: Virtual Mickey is a product of high technology and fun. Once you start the game, you become Mickey’s Friend.
The idea is that you become his best friend and interact with him every day. You start out by selecting a school day, holiday or relaxing day. You have a 99 point system with 2 points for every 2 hour sector. If you interact with him every day, you will increase his total score every day. You can be Mickey’s Best Friend Forever!!
99 Point System, 1 Sector = 2 Points. Mickey Makes Friends with you. You need to be his friend to gain points. Clip and band included. You have 8 activities. Alarm Function.
Virtual Mickey comes with a bunch of accessories, like a ball chain, a clip and a wrist band. It was released in 3 colours, red, yellow and black, all Mickey Mouse’s colours.
It was officially licensed by Disney and released under the “Mickey for Kids” line.
Mine is the red version, and comes with a red and blue clip, a black and red strap and a ball chain, and is the original one from my childhood. It has 4 buttons on the bottom which are made of a softer, more rubber like material and are yellow.
The screen is 32×16 pixels with two rows of icons above and below it. The main area is a light grey, while the top and bottom row is purple, with swirls.
The back is plain, with a hollow raised section for the strap or clip to attach / slide under. The branding is on top of this and reads in raised font: © DISNEY WWL MADE IN CHINA. The battery compartment has 1 screw at the bottom to open it. The reset button is deep inside and on the right.
It fits 2 LR44 1.5V batteries. Tiny text in the corners and middle show which batteries and how to place them.
Gameplay
The screen is not back lit, so light needs to catch the screen if you want to see something. I had to angle it slightly to get good pictures, so excuse my hands in the photo’s. As some options are only available at certain times, the lighting in the pictures also varies.
The goal is to gain points. Every time you fill all his stats, you can +2 points. Once you reach 99 points you’ve become his best friend and the game is over.
There are 9 options to choose from in the rows. The first and last button cycles through these options by highlighting the icons from left to right or vice versa, top to bottom or vice versa. The second button confirms the selected icon, or displays the clock if none are highlighted. The right button cancels or clears any highlighted icon.
The first option is Feeding, displayed with a little hamburger. When selected there are 2 options to choose from; food or drink. These are symbolised by a Cheese Icon or Soda Bottle Icon, and will animate when highlighted.
Either option will fill his Hunger meter. Mickey can’t die, so there’s no worry about overfeeding him. He’ll eat most times of the day, although he may refuse it when at school and when asleep of course. This is the easiest stat to fill.
Both options are fully animated, and have Mickey eat the Cheese or drink the Soda, in a couple of frames.
The second option is Sport, displayed as 2 hands. When selected there are 2 options to choose from; Game or Workout. These are symbolised by a Hand Icon or Weights Icon, and will animate when highlighted.
Game is a little betting game where you and Mickey both show hands with an amount of fingers showing, and you have to guess if Mickey will display higher or lower than your hand using the first (higher) or second (lower) button.
When you win Micky will display hearts. If you lose, Mickey will nod his head no.
If you win, this will fill Mickey’s Happy meter. Mickey plays the game most times of the day, unless he’s asleep or at school. This one is also quite easy to fill.
Workout is a little animation where Mickey works out by sweating and lifting weights.
This will fill Mickey’s Body meter. Mickey only wants to do this around 10AM or 3PM I found, when not in school, and not always, so is quite fickle and tricky to get.
The third option is Relax, displayed as a TV. When selected there are 2 options to choose from; TV or Write. These are symbolised by a TV Icon or a Pencil Icon, and will animate when highlighted.
TV is a little animation where Mickey watches TV.
This will fill Mickey’s Happy meter. Mickey only wants to do this around 3~5 PM and 7PM I found, and not always, so is quite fickle and tricky to get.
Write plays a little animation of Mickey writing.
This will fill Mickey’s Intelligence meter. Mickey only wants to do this around 11AM and 3~4 PM I found, and when he’s not in school. Another quite tricky one, as if you miss the timeslot you won’t be able to till next day.
The fourth option is School, displayed as an open book. When selected Mickey will open a book and be in school, or close the book and return from school.
While in school the screen shows a text book.
Mickey goes to school from around 9AM to 4PM. Whether it’s a school day or not is determined at the start of the day. If you don’t bring him to school manually by selecting the option, he will still end up going himself, but you gain a penalty. While he’s in school he’ll refuse most options. I’m guessing this acts as a “pause” while the player themselves are at school / work, but he still loses stats during the day.
The fifth option is Bathroom, displayed as a shower. When selected there are 2 options to choose from; Bath or Brush Teeth. These are symbolised by a Shower Icon or a Toothbrush Icon, and will animate when highlighted.
Bath will play a little animation of Mickey being in the bathtub, with a rubber ducky floating by.
This will fill Mickey’s Body meter. Mickey only wants to do this 8-9AM or 8-9PM I found, within the first or last hour of getting up and going to bed.
Brush Teeth will play a little animation of toothpaste going on a tooth brush and Mickey brushing his teeth.
This will also fill Mickey’s Body meter. Mickey only wants to do this 8-9AM or 8-9PM I found, within the first or last hour of getting up and going to bed.
The sixth option is Light, displayed as a ceiling light. When selected there are 2 options to choose from; Light On or Light Off. These are symbolised by a Lit Light Bulb and a Dark Light Bulb Icon, and will animate when highlighted.
This will turn the lights on or off by playing an animation of a desk light turning on or off. Mickey will then wake up or sleep.
You can turn the lights on / wake Mickey up around 8AM~8.15AM. If you wake him manually up, you can choose whether it’s a School Day or Holiday. This is represented by a Book Icon or Smiley Icon respecively.
On a school day Mickey will attend school from 9AM – 4PM. On a holiday he will not. If you do not wake Mickey he will still wake up, but you won’t get the option of choosing what day it is. I’m not sure if he resorts to Mon-Fri being a school day, or goes with the last chosen option.
You can turn the lights off / put Mickey to sleep around 8.45PM~9PM. If you do not turn the lights off he will still go to sleep, but you get a penalty.
When Mickey’s asleep he’ll have his eyes closed and Z’s coming out of his mouth.
The seventh option is Weather, displayed as a sun behind clouds.
Sometimes Mickey will show he’s warm in the sun.
This option will then give him a cap.
Sometimes Mickey will show he’s grumpy in the rain.
This option will then give him an umbrella.
I’m not sure if the weather is determined by the date; for example I played in Summer and got a lot of Sun, but not much Rain.
You could ignore Mickey’s plea and he’ll turn to normal after a while anyway, but you’ll incur a penalty.
The eight option is Medicine, displayed as 2 pills. This will give Mickey some pills.
This will fill Mickey’s Body meter. Mickey only wants to do this 8-9AM or 8-9PM I found, within the first or last hour of getting up and going to bed. I never saw Mickey sick either, so I think these are more like Vitamins.
The ninth and last option is Mickey’s Stats, displayed as note board. This shows his various meters and points.
His Hunger Meter is displayed by Cheese Icons with a max of 4. Using the Feeding option fills these up, and as you can do this most times of the day, is quite easy to keep full.
His Happy Meter is displayed by Smiley Icons with a max of 4. Using the Game and TV options fills these up, and as you can do the game most times of the day, is quite easy to keep full. I think helping Mickey with the Weather also fills this meter.
His Body Meter is displayed by Mickey Icons with a max of 4. Using the Bathroom options, Medicine and Workout options fills these up. You only gain 1 per 2 hours, so doing a Bath, Brush Teeth and Medicine in 1 hour will only give you 1 instead of 3. As Mickey doesn’t always want to Workout, this can be quite tricky to fill up. However, you’ll easy gain 2 per day by doing his bathroom routine every morning and evening.
His Intelligence Meter is displayed by Book Icons with a max of 4. Using the Write and School options fills these up. As Mickey does not always wants to Write, and only goes to School if it’s a school day, and renders him useless for most of the day, I found this one the hardest to keep up. You have to time his daily Write routine.
The calendar with number shows how many days Mickey is active. It took me 39 days to finish the game last time, although he glitched on day 11 and I lost all stats and points, as well as around day 25, although I only lost half my points this time, so I think it can be done <20 days.
The last screen shows your points, represented by Mickey and a number. Once you reach 99 points the game is over and you’ve become Mickey’s best friend!
Mickey does not change or evolve over the course of the game. He only shows his face in various moods depending on his Happy meter. The trick is to gain points and the joy is to see all the different animations. You gain +2 points every time ALL his stats are full (4). If he then drops a stat and you fill it again, you gain another +2.
When you finish the game, the screen displays Mickey fireworks indefinitely. The only option you have available is his stats. Every time you reactive the fireworks (coming from stats or clock) the jingle will replay.
The game remains like this until you reset.
It is of course, also a clock with date. In this menu you can also choose to have sound on or off, represented by a music note.
Accessibility
- Visual
Mickey uses very few and simple sprites / animations, but the fun is in seeing these. The icons on the sides can be too small and hard to see, but could be doable if going off memory. The screen is not back lit, so good lighting is needed to see the screen. Using the third Cancel button will always place you back with no options selected, should you play blindly and need to know where you are. The menu options are Icons, so no screen readers can help. - Fine-Motor
Mickey doesn’t require any fast paced input or precision action. There are 4 small buttons it uses which are all closely placed together however they are easy to feel. Only 3 buttons are needed to play. Mickey can’t die and penalties are easily recovered. - Auditory
I have to admit mine’s audio speaker or chip is a bit broken, and sounds crackly and sometimes did not play sound at all, so I’m not 100% sure on all of these.
Mickey rarely needs your attention and doesn’t beep much. (On occasion he didn’t beep at all for me, like when it was raining.)
Scrolling through an option or accepting as well as a cancel gives a confirmation beep. A successful jingle plays when playing the games and winning, as well as a fail jingle when losing. Several animations have a little jingle accompanying it, like the TV, Workout and Bath. Others however, have none, like eating.
There is also no sound to let you know it went to sleep or school. It does give alarming beeps when it wants to go to sleep / wake up / school however.
Mickey very much runs on the clock, so you could potentially play him by simply knowing the time. - Cognitive
You have to remember at what times Mickey likes to do what activities.
Mickey can’t die, which is quite unique for a virtual pet.
Power up
With Tamagotchi’s becoming quite the rage I ended up with quite a few of them. I absolutely love these little things. I like small things, pixel games, and animals, so what’s not to like here for me? But when I saw a Disney one, I of course needed it!
Me and my friend both bought Mickey and played with it, but we couldn’t figure him out as kids. Unlike our other Virtual Pets, Mickey does not evolve, or die. He seemed to be more an animated watch, and did things at certain points in the day. We just tried to keep him happy. We never got the point system, nor saw the ending.
I find these so lovely now. I just love small things and pixel games. They are easy to get into, have simple mechanics and not a lot of button presses, and I am fascinated by early video games.
When I replayed Mickey as an adult, I figured out how he works. I was gaining points, and quickly realised he was different from the other pets. He really feels more like a game that plays out over several days, than a virtual pet. I found my grove with Mickey and checked on him at certain times of the day, keeping his stats up until we finally reached those fabled 99 points (even if he did glitch on me and reset twice!). Seeing the fireworks after 2 decades of owning him felt good haha.
I hope to get a few more virtual pets, maybe find some more obscure ones. Until then I’ll keep playing my childhood ones.
The goal with Mickey next time is to get 99 points in less days. Hopefully with less glitches and figuring him out!
Recommendation
If you like virtual pets or small simple pixel games, you’ll like this. Unlike other pets, Mickey does not die nor evolve, making him low-key and easy to take care of. Trying to get the end in as few days as possible also gives some replayability.
If you like deep complex video games, you probably quickly get bored with this one. After a while you realise you’re in a loop till you reach those 99 points. And with only a few animations and no evolutions, you’ll quickly have seen it all.
And of course, they can be pricey now which could also turn you off of these.
Do you have an Virtual Mickey? Are you thinking of running this one (again)? Is there any information you’re missing? Let me know in the comments below!