Mickey Mousecapade tips

TAS video: youtube.com/watch?v=05UrWfe0kDI
    -Only gets the star/weapon for Mickey
    -Very risky strats (mostly with bosses)

Infinitemystery’s SGDQ submission video: youtube.com/watch?v=mpoVhdzgU9A
    -Gets star/weapon for both Mickey and Minnie
    -2 Death warps in Fun House
    -For kicks - Infinitemystery’s SGDQ submission video of the JP version: youtube.com/watch?v=R2WDVbmIILY (less starting health, different sprites - which actually make more sense than the US version’s sprites)

[EXPLANATION FROM WHITMAN PRICE]

Controls :
B to fire weapon (you need to collect the star weapon first)
A to jump (jump height varies by how long you press/hold A)
Up or Down to climb ladders (also while standing still, Up or Down makes Minnie come closer to Mickey)
Left or Right to go left or right
Start to pause, Select does nothing

Minnie cannot be controlled, she is the worst. She essentially follows Mickey’s movements but stands 2 steps behind him. When standing still you can press Up or Down and she will stand in the same spot as Mickey. This makes jumping with her a lot easier and is extremely helpful in the Castle.

Minnie does not take damage from touching enemies or bosses, but if she dies then you die, so don’t let her fall into a pit in the Ocean or Woods level. You also cannot leave rooms without Minnie, so if she gets stuck on the top floor when you are trying to exit on the bottom floor, then you have to go back and get her, which is very important in the Castle.

Firing your star weapon is important. Mickey gets 2 shots when he gets the star item. You can have two shots on the screen at once for him. When Minnie gets the star item, she gets one shot and fires along with Mickey. You can only have three bullets on the screen at once. So, you want to mash in a rhythm at some points to create a steady stream of bullets. This rhythm is very important against the bears and enemies in the Woods. You can get up close to bosses and mash to hit them in the face quicker, but it is dangerous since bosses 1 hit kill you if you touch their sprite.
From a neutral position you can jump and then either go forward or backwards. When moving left or right, you are committed to your jump in that direction. If you jump to the right, then press left in the air, you will come to a dead stop and fall at that point.

Jumping onto ladders is tricky because of Minnie. In some cases it is better to hesitate and get her right on top of you (with Up or Down) then jump together. If she is behind you when you jump, then you have to overjump a little to get her higher up on the ladder. If you do bad ladder jumps, then Minnie will be on the ground when Mickey is at the ceiling and you will have to wait for her to climb all the way up. After climbing up ladders, Minnie will be at the same spot as Mickey, so if you immediately start hopping to the left/right then they will stay close and you can save a little time in certain rooms.

Another interesting thing about jumping is that if you get hit by an enemy while in the middle of a jump, you stop to take damage, but if you keep holding A and the direction, then you will finish your jump. This can be helpful in the Ocean and other levels. You do not get a new jump after the hit, but if you were going to make it to the next platform, then you can hold A and right and you should still make it after getting hit.

You can also buffer inputs after room transitions. For example, this allows you to hold Up+Left+A to immediately jump onto ladders when entering rooms. I mainly just use this in Level 1, but it is not really needed.

Game Info and Strategies

General

You cannot skip or speed up cut scenes between levels.

You start with 5 lives, 0 counts as a life.

The easiest/fastest 1-up to get is in Level 1 in the room before the first key. This doesn’t cost too much time (around 5 seconds), so it is not a bad idea if you are worried about lives. It is easier to get this 1-up after getting the key on the way back.

It takes 10 bullets to open those hidden background objects and secret doors.

All bosses and minibosses will insta-kill you if you touch their sprite (except for the cat in the Fun House). Don’t get too close to them, but you can take damage from their projectiles and then pass through the boss while you are invincible which is very helpful. Invincibility doesn’t last long though, so you still have to get past them pretty quick (Pete in the Castle is tough, you want to get hit by his knife when you are right near him, then run through to the next room).

Fun House

Don’t want to die in the wrong place, you get moved to lower floor in some areas.

You should death warp in the Fun House after you get Minnie’s star weapon. This will take you to the room below, which is right near the exit of the stage. Much faster than going all the way back around.

Ocean

This level is pretty straight forward, it is all about timing your jumps and shots to avoid and kill enemies. The waves are the toughest part to avoid, but you kind of have to slow down and wait for them to come at you so you can do a neutral jump left to right and go over the wave and under the jellyfish. It is fine to take damage in this level. If you are at half health for the boss fight, then you should have no problems.

In the Ocean and Woods levels you get a diamond drop (full health) after every 8 enemy/projectile kills. This could be helpful in Ocean if you are taking too much damage, but is very important in the Woods.

Stay on the left side of the screen against this boss, he will occasionally jump to the middle and he will one-hit kill you. His patterns appear to be random, but ideally he doesn’t jump at all and you can just kill him quickly. Unless you are low on health, you don’t really need to worry about avoiding his projectiles.

Woods

This level is mainly about learning the correct path and where the hidden exits. That and the bears, lots and lots of bears. The bears are OP so you need to kill them fast and you need to get lots of health drops in this level. You can fight all of the bears pretty safely, except for the 2nd set of bears in the Fall/Brown season. That jump and the Castle level are the hardest part of the game. For this set of bears, there is a big pit that is followed by 2 bears that are right in your face. Do not get scared and turn back or hesitate in your jump. If you do not do a full jump there, then Minnie will not make it over the pit and you die. You can get lucky and only take 1 hit from the bears, but that is rare so you need to have a good amount of health before this jump. If you are too low on health, you can suicide or farm 8 enemy kills to get a health drop. The main thing to do is just stay on the ground and keep shooting until the first bear is dead. Then, you have more room to move and can dodge the second bear. You can actually jump over the gap and shoot your weapon at the same time to get a few early hits on the bears, but it can be tricky. Plan to take two or three hits from the bears/rocks and then get a health refill as soon as possible.

The other enemies aren’t too bad and don’t do nearly as much damage. The Medusa head guys that fly up and down are hard to kill, but if you just keep going then they won’t follow you. If you slow down, then they will come back at you from behind.

You can sometimes get a honeybee in the last part of the Woods that you can bring to the boss fight and instakill. If the orange flower near the end of the level doesn’t have a bee, then it has a full health refill.

The boss is kind of tough and dangerous because he can jump to the left very quickly, so make sure not to get hit by him. You have to hit him in the head also, so sometimes if you aren’t getting hits it will take a while and you will end up dying from his projectiles.

Pirate Ship

If you have zero lives going into this level, then it is probably quicker to jump off the ship and game over. You can beat the Pirate Ship on your last life, but not the Castle, and it is quicker to suicide in the Pirate Ship.

The Pete boss fight is very difficult and/or impossible to do quickly if you have low health (I will fight him quickly if I take 3 shark hits, but if I get hit once by any of the fast little short guys, then I will play fight safe.) The safe strat against Pete is to get Minnie to climb the ladder by herself and shoot

Castle

It is extremely difficult to get through the Castle without at least one death. If your health is too low going into the final rooms, it is better to take a death and then finish the bosses. If you have zero lives going into the Castle, then you are in trouble.

The Castle has some nice spots where you can set yourself up to win, by dying and regaining health.

If you game over, you can hold Down+A then press start to begin at the level you died on. You will have full lives and you will keep your star weapons. (Probably not allowed for the race.)