Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse

• Release Date: 1990
• Genre: Action
• Style: Side-Scrolling Platform
• Similar Games: QuackShot Starring Donald Duck (Sega Genesis), World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (Sega Genesis), Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (Sega Genesis)

Game Description

While dancing in the meadow one clear spring day, Mickey and Minnie Mouse are startled by a sudden covering of gray clouds over the blue sky. As Mickey turns to tell Minnie not to worry, a sudden flash of lightning blinds them both. In the blink of an eye, a wicked witch named Mizrabel snatches Minnie and takes her back to the Castle of Illusion. She intends on exchanging her own evil visage for that of Minnie's beauty.

As Mickey Mouse you must run, jump, and swim through the five levels of the castle, looking for the Gems of the Rainbow, the only power strong enough to defeat the evil witch. The five levels include: the Enchanted Forest, Toyland, the Storm, the Library, and the Castle. Throughout the game, you'll be mystified by enchantments, oddities, and illusions, each designed to foil your rescue. You'll swing from lamps, float on sugar cubes, dodge giant boulders, cross falling bridges, and perform many other unbelievable acts. Creatures such as clowns, toy soldiers, bonefish, armored knights, trees, and mushrooms are constantly on the attack. You can rid yourself of these creepy critters by bouncing on them or by pegging them with apples, marbles, or candles, each of which you will find scattered in abundance throughout the game.

Many other mysteries await you in the Castle of Illusion. Would you dare enter this strange place?

Roots & Influences

Super Mario Bros. (1985) for the NES began the whole side-scrolling platform phenomena. The game made popular hopping on enemies to defeat them and other groundbreaking elements of gameplay.

Swinging on vines in videogames was introduced in Pitfall! (1982) for the Atari 2600.

Review: Overall

Like most video games based on Disney characters, Castle of Illusion‹Starring Mickey Mouse is a success. It's not as good as Capcom's The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse for the Super Nintendo, but it is always cute, sometimes clever, and usually entertaining.

Mickey himself is extremely life-like and very well animated. The way he holds his hands behind his back and shakes his hips from side to side when he is not walking is great; it's such a Mickey thing to do. Also, the fact that you have to bounce on the enemies (push another button after you jump) instead of just jumping on them is enjoyable. This adds an element of challenge to the action missing in most other games of this type. (And he can jump really high!)

Castle of Illusion has plenty of neat moments and surprises. One of the most interesting is in level two when the screen flips upside down. It gives you a whole new perspective on the action, really putting your eye-hand coordination to the test.

Graphically, Castle of Illusion is pure gold. Many of the background scenes are gorgeous, and the characters look great. Check out the toy soldiers and the spider webs; you'll be impressed. The coloring is nice as well. The deep shades of green in the trees and the pastel colors of Toyland really stand out.

The music in this game is pretty good, but none of the tunes are particularly memorable. From a technical standpoint, the music gets a high grade, but there's not a single song that you'll be humming the next day.

Castle of Illusion is not exactly a must-have, but if you do find a copy for a reasonable price, you certainly won't regret picking it up.

Review: Enjoyment

This title is fun enough to satisfy gamers and fans of world's most famous cartoon mouse. It's not perfect, but it is good and it will hold your attention.

Review: Graphics

Mickey has never looked better, and the levels are colorful and imaginative. The only real flaw with the graphics is that when Mickey is swinging on a rope, the scrolling gets awfully choppy.

Review: Sound

The sound effects and music are very high quality.

Review: Replay Value

The levels offer plenty of variety.

Review: Documentation

The manual is very informative.