DISNEY'S TREASURE PLANET: TRAINING ACADEMY

Collect all 3 games and unlock Ship Shape game free!

TREASURE RACER - Set your Solar Sails and Race!

It's the ultimate cosmic space race with racing ships from all over the galaxy! Your challenge is to guide Jim to victory across intense obstacle-packed tracks.

BROADSIDE BLAST - The Ultimate Cosmic Shooting Gallery!

You're under the cosmic gun to shoot down unmanned target ships and with the least rounds of cannon power! Practice makes perfect in this multi-level celestial shooting gallery.

ETHERIUM RESCUE - The Interstellar Academy has a Mission for You!

Your mission is to rescue the lost cargo of a crashed freighter ship - but look out for those deadly space rocks!

~ from the back of the boxes

Released in November 2002, just four months after Lilo & Stitch became a surprise hit (or February 2003 for the typically late UK launch), Treasure Planet launched without much fanfare becoming one of Disney's biggest bombs. As such, the promotional material surrounding it was a little a-typical, particularly in the PC gaming department. While consoles got an OK action adventure, the PC master race managed to get a pretty decent and mature strategy game that's still sold to this day. As for the edutainment side of things, the closest anyone got was a MacDonald's tie in called Training Academy.

While Happy Meals had the usual toys, the new Mighty Kids Meal was aimed at older children and featured on of three CD-ROM games. Each CD ROM featured an arcade mini-game and a few tracks from the movie's soundtrack playable on regular CD players. If you installed all three games, a fourth would unlock finally bringing the package to something closer to an Activity Centre; the closest Treasure Planet actually got.

Race other galleons in Treasure Racer (left).
Shoot ships in Broadside Blast (right).

Let's take a look at the first game; Treasure Racer. On a sea of stars, we control an interstellar pirate ship around a circular track of star dust. The "roads" are blandly drawn, being only a slight glowing milky way and each one looks exactly the same. There are 10 in total, so it's not a long game but you have to bear in mind that this is a free promotional tie in. When you take this into account, it does temper some disappointment.

Etherium Rescue, at first glance, looks pretty much the same as Treasure Racer. The same starry background plays host to the same space galleon re-using some of the same sprites as before. No matter how you spin it, it fails to excite the imagination. As a game, however, this one does fare a little better. It plays a little like Asteroids where you can blast rocks into smaller pieces, but your main aim is to collect crates. These yellow cubes float around the map while other coloured crates gives you power ups. Collect the prerequisite amount of cargo and you've completed the level.

Avoid asteroids and collect cargo in Etherium Rescue (left).
Platform to the ship's flag in Ship Shape (right).

The last of the main games is Broadside Blast. It's a mouse-controlled shooting gallery where you have to blast everything in sight to rack up points. Several modes, such as Blast Mode, Accuracy Mode or Cannonball Mode vary the action, but with it being set upon the same background as the other two, re-using many of the same sprites and being extremely derivative in its gameplay, it does leave a lot to be desired.

Faring a lot better is the hidden fourth game in the collection. Once all three of the others have been installed, this fourth one will pop up and become playable. It is vastly different to the other games by not taking place in the void of space, but on a pirate ship. Called Ship Shape, you control Jim in a platformer where the aim to collect all of the gold coins before reaching the end flag. The young deck hand has no offensive attack, only being able to run, jump and climb ladders but it's enough to avoid the rats, cannon balls and other hazards along the way.

Treasure Planet: Training Academy isn't the best Disney mini-game collection out there. Far from it in fact. What saves it is the fact that it was free. Some markets did put out all three CDs together to sell in one collection, though while I cannot confirm the prices, I doubt they charged much for it. At any rate, the retail copy is rarely seen in the wild from what I can gather. It's a small and obscure piece of Disney history, but one that deserves archiving if not necessarily for playing.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox running Windows '95 to bring the game to modern systems. Digital Manual included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 135 Mb.  Install Size: 437 Mb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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Disney's Treasure Planet: Training Academy is © Disney Interactive
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me

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