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Disney's Verhalenstudio: Mulan for PlayStation 1
Disney's Verhalenstudio: Mulan for PlayStation 1 combines an interactive picture story with puzzles and short activities. Together with Mushu, you look for five magical scrolls that tell Mulan's story. You visit her house, the army camp, the mountain pass and the Imperial City. A pointer lets you explore illustrated scenes: select a character, move an object or discover a small animation. Watching and listening carefully helps you find new reactions and clues.
Each activity asks you to do something different. You remember a pattern with the ancestors, match tiles in mahjong and guide Mushu down a snowy cliff without using up his rope. There are also dressing-up activities and songs to sing along with. Once you have collected all the scrolls and restored their magic, the Emperor lets you create your own story pictures. You choose backgrounds, colour images and add characters and music.
You play through the story on your own. Move the pointer with the directional buttons or left analogue stick, and confirm choices with the cross button. No mouse is required. In the pause menu, you choose to save and quit yourself; this requires a PlayStation memory card in slot 1 with enough free space. Your own story pictures also have a separate save button. This lets you preserve your discoveries and creative work separately for another session.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 1 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
This edition of Disney's Verhalenstudio: Mulan has Dutch-language packaging. An English language option has not been confirmed for this copy.
Manual
Disney's Verhalenstudio: Mulan for PlayStation 1 includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Disney's Verhalenstudio: Mulan
Disney's Mulan was released in 1998 as an animated film about a young woman who takes her father's place in the army. Disney also used that world for an interactive storybook on computers. The PlayStation release was called Story Studio, with Verhalenstudio as its Dutch title. That name describes its approach: the film is not simply retold, because you explore the pictures and later receive tools to create images for a story yourself.
Revolution Software handled the PlayStation adaptation. The original manual credits, among others, John Payne as lead programmer, Steve Ince as producer and Charles Cecil as executive producer. The studio adapted pointer controls for a standard controller, including support for the left analogue stick. Selecting and dragging objects therefore remained an important part of the design. The illustrated backgrounds, spoken guidance and short activities reflected the way an interactive storybook is used.
In December 1999, NewKidCo announced that Mulan was shipping in America as part of its partnership with Disney Interactive. The company aimed its campaign at young children, parents and Disney fans. In Europe, Sony released the game in separate language editions. Mulan thus belongs to the child-focused side of the PlayStation catalogue, alongside the better-known Disney platform games. Saving your own story pictures gives this release another role: beyond following a film story, it also offers a small digital drawing and storytelling workshop.
Similar games for PlayStation 1
Tigger's Honey Hunt also uses a familiar Disney world and short games between its main tasks. You directly control Tigger as he jumps along branches and platforms to gather honey. Mulan instead has you move a pointer through illustrated scenes. Both games vary their activities, but with Tigger you mainly time your jumps; in Mulan you look for reactions, matching objects and solutions within a story picture.
Disney's Tarzan also turns parts of an animated film into playable tasks with familiar characters. The PlayStation game asks you to run, jump, climb and avoid dangers along a set route. Mulan focuses on looking, listening and choosing. You do not have to negotiate one continuous obstacle course. The reward differs too: Tarzan takes you further through the jungle, while Mulan gives you room to design your own story pictures after finding the scrolls.
Hercules and Mulan share Disney characters, illustrated visuals and a story drawn from an animated film. Hercules turns its heroic feats into platform action with sword attacks, jumps and encounters with large opponents. Mulan divides its attention between small puzzles, animations activated by clicking and creative activities. You are therefore choosing between directly performing actions with a hero and exploring a scene in which different characters and objects respond to your pointer.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone also lets you discover a familiar fictional world and solve tasks explained by its characters. On PlayStation, Hogwarts consists of three-dimensional corridors, lessons and platform sections in which you control Harry and cast spells. Mulan keeps most events within separate illustrated pictures. The connection is getting to know places and their inhabitants; the controls differ between actively moving through a space and selecting objects within an image.
Disney's Pooh's Party Game also brings familiar Disney characters and short activities together on PlayStation. Its treasure hunt takes the form of a board game with rolls and separate minigames. Mulan links its activities to illustrated story pictures and the search for five scrolls. You are choosing between a match in which your board position matters and a storybook focused on exploring objects and creating your own pictures.
