Walt Disney World has moved into testing its soon-to-debut Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. Beginning this week, Disney guests visiting the theme park are able to play-test the interactive game. Sorcerers is available at unannounced dates and times during this beta phase, and the game was open most recently on Jan. 12.
In Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, Merlin the Magician from “The Sword and the Stone” recruits guests to save the theme park from evil plans of various Disney villains. Using a special map, guests locate “Mystic Portals” around the park. During each challenge, guests will attempt to defeat the Disney villains using spell cards representing the powers of various Disney heroes.
Sorcerers is free with theme-park admission, and is one of the forms of hands-on entertainment in Magic Kingdom.
While the play-test phase does not reveal all the game’s elements, and tweaks are still being made, my recent experience with Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom suggests its appeal and potential.
No set date for the opening Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom has been announced, although the game has been slated for early in Walt Disney World’s 2012 calendar of opening of attractions and events.
Warning:While the game is being playtested and elements are subject to change, this article contains spoilers, as do the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom photos.
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom: game play basics
For our Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom play-test, a team of two signed up at the Fire Station on Main Street, U.S.A. (There is another location in Liberty Square that has not opened.) We were given one key, a card with an RFID tag; five spell cards; and a special Sorcerers map that showed the location of the various portals.
After a brief orientation at the Fire Station, which introduced the good vs. evil narrative and how to use the cards, we were off to Fantasyland to test our powers. Fantasyland one of five lands that will be available for play – the others being Adventureland, Liberty Square, Frontierland and Main Street, U.S.A.
Briefly, guests find their first mystic portal using the symbols on the map. Portals are video screens hidden in various spots around the park, out of the way of busy foot traffic, and are indicated by a round “Circle of Power” on the ground.
Guests, who are called sorcerers in the game, wave their key card in front of a keyhole to unlock the portal. Merlin introduces guests to their basic objective – defeating a particular villain and sidekick, opponents who vary by land and quest – before telling them what portal to visit next as part of the challenge.
At the portals, guests are challenged by these villains and attempt to defeat them by casting their spell cards – presenting a card to the portal’s cameras. Cards depict the powers of various Disney and Disney-Pixar characters.
Presumably, the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom will offer several different levels of difficulty. During our play-test, the game was operating in “easy” mode, which meant defeating the villains seemed guaranteed no matter what card we used. Other difficulty levels will be available when the game debuts.
After casting a series of spells that (hopefully) defeats the Disney villain, guests may continue onto the next challenge. Guests are assigned, rather than choose, a new land and quest. In several hours of play-testing, which took us to the same lands and portals more than once, the narratives never repeated – and we saw guests with narratives we didn’t experience.
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom: Mystic Portals
There are 20 Mystic Portals located across the five lands. Because portals disguise the screens from non-playing guests, they are often part of windows, displays or nooks. During any one quest in the game, guests may visit portals more than once – bouncing back and forth within a particular land.
In our play-test, it was sometimes hard to see the video on the screen due to the sun or hard to hear the audio due to theme-park noise. Hopefully, these issues will be addressed prior to opening without being too disruptive of other guests’ experience.
As out of the way as the portals were, the game itself attracted a fair amount of attention from players and other non-playing guests. The portals attracted several young children; those without cards seemed disappointed that standing on the Circle of Power or touching the keyhole wouldn’t activate the video.
Because Sorcerers does attract attention from non-players, then, lines formed during the play-test. And it’s reasonable to assume lines to play will happen once the game debuts, possibly affecting the surprise factor during play.
The portals, and narratives (below), wouldn’t allow us to repeat or skip elements. If we attempted to visit a portal that wasn’t listed on our challenge, we were instructed back to the proper symbol/location on our map. Whether or not such options are added once the game debuts, the game’s “memory” or our play would be useful for incorporating Sorcerers with rides and other attractions.
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom: Narrative and characters
Character and narratives change throughout the game – although the basic idea is the same (defeat the villain using your spells). Indeed, the characters may be added or subtracted before Sorcerers officially debuts. This design may allow Disney to keep developing the game and adding a desirable repeatability to playing.
That said, the game’s starring roles belong to Merlin, as the sorcerer who recruits guests, and to Hades, the big baddie from “Hercules” who has recruited other Disney villains to his takeover scheme.
During our play-test, we encountered heroes (and their sidekicks) and villains (and their sidekicks) from “The Little Mermaid,” “Pocahontas,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Princess and the Frog,” “The Lion King” and “The Emperor’s New Groove.” The storylines were slight but amusing, but the focus in “easy” mode was really on flashing the spell cards.
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom: Spell cards and levels
There will be 70 spell cards that can be collected. The cards displayed three values – attack, boost and shield – though they seemed to make no difference in play. Cards are further distinguished by function, such as flying, energy, wishful, gross and quick. And there are different types of character groupings, including Princess, Hero, Animal, Warrior, Toy and Machine.
The effects of the cards’ spells range from a cartoonish, Acme-production type of spell – the Caballero Donald’s Pinata smashes the villain’s face – to flashy effects of a high-tech, sci-fi spell like Eve’s Laser Blast. (Eva is a “Wall-E” character).
The cards’ number and variety suggest the game’s appeal on several levels. Some preliminary thoughts and speculation as to their future use:
- Although not demonstrated in the “easy” play-test mode, having cards with different values and functions suggests strategic play may be necessary to succeed at higher levels of difficulty. What the game’s challenges may hold, what’s at stake in these levels, is still part of the surprise.
- The different strengths of cards, and their values, seem to encourage collecting cards to create a strong playing deck. (Five cards were distributed on the first play, and may be kept.)
- Trading may become a factor in creating strong Sorcerers deck; in our play-test of the experience, trading was already taking place, with savvier players requesting cards with
- The artwork, values and groupings by character also encourage guests to collect the cards as souvenirs.
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom might strike guests as somewhat similar to Epcot’s Kim Possible in its movement around parts of a park. But the games also promises a strategic play element found in Magic or Pokemon. To distinguish between the two: Sorcerers seems to be less focused on exploring details within Magic Kingdom than it is in offering a game that takes place at Magic Kingdom.
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom: Worth playing?
Again, as with any play-test, any assessment of Sorcerers has to be couched in maybes and speculation. We didn’t experience the game fully operational.
So is Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom worth spending time on during your Walt Disney World vacation?
Yes, we thought it was worth trying at least once …and we’ll be back to try it again in its fully operational mode. Sorcerers seems a fun add-on to the overall Magic Kingdom experience, if not an E-ticket attraction.
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