When I first rode “Toy Story Midway Mania” a few months ago, I was really underwhelmed. I mean, it’s a good ride, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t get off going, “Wowee zowee! That was something I’ve never seen before!” You know that feeling — when you step off say, “Mission:Space” at Epcot and you’re like, “Holy CRAP! I’ve just been in friggin’ SPACE!” And at the time, I said to a lot of people, “It just feels like a Wii game.” And now it is one.
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| From Midway Mania |
Yes, I like Wii games, but I don’t go to theme parks to play them. When I go to a theme park I want to have that “Mission:Space” or “Soaring” experience, where I get to do experience something, I get to have a rush of emotion and experience I can’t possibly recreate at home. “Midway” just feels like an annoying way to play a video game — what with the spinning and long waiting in lines with sweaty tourists. If I wanted that, I’d wait an hour to play Wii Sports with my air conditioner turned off and a packet of liverwurst open in front of me. And then when I played I’d have my wife spin my recliner in random directions between levels.
Don’t get me wrong, I have great respect for the folks who put together these rides. It’s hard and it’s expensive. There’s no question in my mind that it’s an incredible challenge if you’re trying to make something a game and interactive and entertaining and also make it a big enough experience that people walk out thinking, “I may never do that again in my life. That was incredible.” And maybe Midway isn’t meant to be that kind of experience. But it’s hard for me to accept that you would build anything nowadays in a theme park that wasn’t that for someone at some level of thrill.
My suggestions? For Midway — it needs a better story. The game is fun, but where’s the “Buzz has been stolen by the evil carnival owner and the only way for me to get him back is to score high on these games and win him!” And then where’s the total twist on that, where’s the point where I won Buzz, but the evil carnies realize what I’m up to and I have to throw baseballs and pies to escape the carnival before we’re all caught. Just a blue-sky, not perfect. But I really feel like there needs to be a more emotion-grabbing resonance somewhere. The story that comes first and engages me in the game.
Maybe they’ll give away some liverwurst free with the Wii version.
GapPage 
Our family just returned from WDW and thoroughly enjoyed Midway Mania. Now, we are (I hate to admit) a Wii-gaming family…my wife and sons were playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero regularly until recently, Kart was a nightly activity for a couple of months, and otherwise the Wii gets more time than regular TV.
When we heard Mania was going to be out for Wii, we started thinking about what it was that we liked about Mania, and how hard or easy it would be to replicate the pop-gun cannon mechanics with Wiimotes. My wife immediately wanted to know if the game would come with 3D glasses. So we’re already thinking in terms of “How much will Disney be able to duplicate the ride experience in a home game?”
I think we’ve already figured out that it won’t be the same. The game mechanics aren’t innovative, but the novelty of the other effects (3D presentation, the pop-gun cannons, the zippiness of the ride carts) are what we thought made the ride “park-exclusive” enough. I can almost guarantee we’ll buy Mania when it’s out for Wii, but I can also almost guarantee we’ll prefer the real thing.
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Ha! I think you got a pic of my fellow cast member chuck! ha, ha! 🙂 I love going on-line and seeing my and my fellow cast members on great pictures!
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