Mulan

Mulan
Title screen.
Publisher	X Boy
Developer	Chuanpu (?)
Console	Sega Mega Drive
Date	2000
Engine	Chuanpu MD Engine

Mulan is a game for the Sega Mega Drive based on the Disney film of the same name. It was likely developed by ex-Chuanpu developers and published by X Boy. A second release exists that does not credit X Boy but it is unknown if it was published by another company or by X Boy without their logo.

Gameplay

Screenshot of the first level.

In this action platformer game, the player takes control of the titular character, Mulan, through four levels (with usually more than one sub-stage) in a recreation of the film's plot with each level, save for the third, having a boss to defeat once the player reaches the end of the stage.

Health in this game is tracked by a simple HP gauge, with 99 health as its maximum. Each hit taken from an enemy deals a variable amount of damage from between 10 and 20 HP, although health can be restored by picking up food items, such as meat.

Atop of food, the player can find many other items, such a "flaming orb" for invincibility and a miniature of Mushu, which will earn the player another life. Coins can be found within each level, although all coins will be lost with every hit you take. Another item, the vial, earns the player 5 coins for every one obtained.

Mulan can attack with her sword by using the B button, using this in combination with a jump (C button) or while falling through the air causes a weird flutter effect which can be used to slow Mulan's decent and create shortcuts through the level, all while mowing down enemies.

ROM Variations

Mulan has several different variations in its dumped form. A "clean" version exists that keeps the original copy protection scheme intact and will not work on any emulators other than those that are specifically programmed to handle the protection routine. When running an unpatched image either on real hardware or emulation, the game will crash prior to loading the first level. Patched versions exist in varying degrees to allow it to work up to certain different points depending on the emulator or hardware used.

A completely patched version exists that correctly removes all the copy protection routines. This fully patched version is the image that almost all physical copies of Mulan in circulation used, due to them being counterfeited and not manufactured by the original production company.

Stages

Level 1: Wanna be a man - This level has 4 sections. The first one uses a remixed version of the theme of the battlejunk stage from Shui Hu Feng Yun Zhuan but the second one is from The Lion King's title screen. Fourth, you battle General Li Shang. You can reflect projectiles back towards him, although the wood sticks could cause damage to the player very often.

Level 2: Greatest Wall - The enemies look stronger and have new abilities. The level's music is taken from Braver Battle Saga.

Level 3: Snow Planet - In the beginning, you get chased by a snowball. your choice is to destroy it or flee. This stage is ripped directly from Beauty and the Beast: Roar of the Beast and even has the bear enemy for that game, but they're recolored to polar bears. The music is from the beginning sequence from Ya Se Chuan Shuo.

Level 4: Palace War- The background is taken from Simba's Destiny from The Lion King. The level's music is once again the battle junk stage from Shui Hu Feng Yun Zhuan, however, it is not remixed this time. The second part, you battle Shan-Yu. 

Video

Pirate Showcase -53- Mulan (Genesis)

Gameplay with text commentary featuring the first stage and some glitches and features from the game.

Trivia

• The game features a text crawl in the introduction that follows the plot of the film quite well. Atop of that, it's in many different languages such as, to give a few examples, Chinese, English and Arabic.
• Many resources from this game are stolen from other games (coincidentally most of the Disney ones) such as the spikes from Disney's Aladdin, a couple of backgrounds and a monkey sprite sheet from The Lion King and Bram Stoker's Dracula, to name a few. There's also a sound effect stolen from the Mega Drive version of Toy Story.
• At the title screen, go to the Options, press Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, B,B,C. An image with a logo (CU) and some Chinese text "倉信貿易有限公司 版權所有. 翻拷必究 (Cangxin Trade Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.)" will appear.
• The game header is almost identical to the ones of Pocket Monster, Pocket Monster II, Aladdin II (Mega Drive) and Hercules 2. Knowing that they share similar traits, it's likely they share the same game engine and developers.