Donald Duck no Mahō no Bōshi (Donald Duck and the Magical Hat/Donald in the Magic Cap) was released for Nintendo's Super Famicom by Epoch in Japan only in 1995, starring Donald Duck with guest appearances by Daisy Duck, Pete, Grandma Duck, Butch the Bulldog, and Goofy (named only as "Announcer"). The game is primarily a sidescrolling platformer, but the initial portion of the game involves completing part of a set of minigames.
Plot
Donald and Daisy are taking a walk and begin window-shopping. Daisy sees a particular hat in a store that she wants, but it costs $300, so they are unable to purchase it. Donald wants to buy the hat for Daisy as a gift, so he peruses job listings, seeing a list of three jobs and one contest at which he can earn money. Upon collecting enough money, Donald returns to the store to buy the hat, only to discover that it has already sold out. He is then lured by a mysterious old man to a haunted clock tower full of ghosts, in return for a promise that he will give Donald the hat for Daisy.
Afterwards, the old man reveals himself to be the cursed invisible King of the Magic Kingdom, and talks of an advisor (who also resembles Pete) who betrayed him to become the Dark King, and seeks Donald's help in defeating the Dark King, transporting him to the Magic Kingdom, where he provides aid to Donald by concealing him within his magical hat. Donald is only concerned with the hat for Daisy and becomes annoyed, as the cursed King reveals he does not have the hat but promises to procure it for him once the curse is broken; having been forced into the Magic Kingdom, Donald is frustrated, but complies with the increasingly complex quest. However, minions of the dark king have run amok, and Donald must defeat his four bosses to gain a ship and reach the castle to finally confront the Dark King.
Additional game content could be unlocked by scanning barcodes with Barcode Battler II connected via a "Barcode Battler II Interface".
Although the game was only released in Japanese, it is relatively playable without understanding the language (by skipping through many dialogue scenes), and can be played on American Super Nintendo consoles that have been very slightly modified. A full unofficial translation of the game was released by gorgyrip in May 2016.
Gameplay
Donald has a life meter and can withstand four hits, and can replenish health by finding cooked turkeys (whole, or turkey legs that restore one hit); upon running out of health Donald will lose a life and must retry the stage, and eventually may get a Game Over. In most stages he can walk, run, jump, and in certain contexts run up walls, as well as hang off of objects and bounce on springs (although in Paperboy he is forced to ride a bicycle forward at all times, and in Birdnapped he will tiptoe slowly instead of walking or running).
After completing any stage, a four-number password is given that may be used to resume the game; the password icons include cameos of some characters that don't otherwise appear in the game, such as Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse.
At the beginning of the game, the player selects work from a list of four options:
- Paperboy: Donald delivers letters to a set of mailboxes around a town, including hot air balloons. He is told that to deliver the letters on time he must do it via bicycle; therefore Donald must be careful which path he chooses, and avoid dogs and oncoming cars. Donald rides forward continuously, and can switch paths by jumping and sometimes by holding a direction, and may speed or slow by holding directions; he must be careful to place the letters in the open mailboxes as he goes past.
- Window Cleaner: Donald must climb the ledges of an apartment building's windows (some of which lack ledges) by jumping and using an elevator. He must also avoid pots that are being dropped on his head, and baseballs thrown between windows, as he stops to wash every closed window.
- Birdnapped: Grandma Duck's pet bird Pippi escaped from her cage and was caught by Pete, who intends to keep the bird. Donald agrees to sneak into Pete's house to retrieve Pippi, but must be stealthy to avoid Pete's watchdog Butch by avoiding loud noises; when Donald finds loud objects, such as alarm clocks and radios, he must quickly quiet them by touching them and pushing the A button.
- Time Attack Go! Go!: Donald participates in a game show (where Goofy is announcer) wherein he tries to beat Huey's 1 minute record for passing an obstacle course (however, Huey does not appear in the game). In addition to avoiding the obstacles quickly, he must figure out the correct path to take as there are some dead ends. Obstacles include springs, swinging ropes, gelatin pits, water pits with sharks, monkeys throwing pies, and more. Donald must run by holding Y and jump, duck, or otherwise avoid these obstacles as he progresses.
After completing these tasks, Donald travels to a mysterious haunted clock tower in search of the hat, in an environment full of gears and pistons and machinery, which is played similar to "Time Attack Go! Go!" but without any time limit, through a much larger area in which Donald must be careful not to fall and lose his progress up the tower. The clock tower is also inhabited by ghosts, which Donald must defeat by shining a light on them by pressing the switches to complete the stage.
After completing the clock tower, Donald is sent to the Magic Kingdom by the cursed King, where he must avoid the Dark King's minions (by running, jumping, or pressing A to hide within the Magical Hat of the cursed king, which is an ability he retains for the rest of the game). After defeating one boss, the player is then given a selection of four more stages in which Donald must fight four additional bosses; these stages are also platforming stages, involving certain new features (including a rotating level); one involves racing the boss to the end. Donald must complete the four stages in order to gain a ship that can fly to the castle of the cursed King, where he must finally battle the Dark King himself.
