Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Developer:

Sega

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Release Date:

1991 (1990 NA)

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Systems:

Mega Drive, Master System, Game Gear

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And the Super Adventures award for 'Ugliest Title Screen of 2019' goes to... that picture up there. Sorry Keio Flying Squadron 2, your title screen may be pretty ugly, but you've been outdone by this indistinct grey mess.

This week I’m playing Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, known in Japan as I Love Mickey Mouse: Fushigi no Oshiro Daibōken. Me, I’m indifferent to Mickey Mouse. I never watched his cartoons as a kid and I didn’t play his games, so he’s always been roughly on the level of Ronald McDonald in my mind. But as far as Disney logo symbols go, he’s second only to the Sleeping Beauty Castle!

Castle of Illusion is the first game in the Illusion series, which is pretty much four games and a remake, and I've never played any of them! Well okay, I've probably put a couple of them on for five minutes each, but I've got no nostalgia for them. On the other hand, I did play another Mickey Mouse Mega Drive platformer for the site a few years back called Fantasia, which was... not good. I can't blame Mickey for that though (plus it was by an entirely different developer), so I'm going to give him another chance to win me over here.

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That’s not a city.

The game begins with this intro showing Mickey and Minnie frolicking in the outdoors without a care in the world. I mean it doesn't literally begin here, there's the SEGA logo first (it does not say "Say-gah"), but after that it's goes straight into the intro.

Seems like they're going to have to cancel the video game as everyone's pretty much living in peace right now.

Suddenly the sky turns dark and a miserable witch called Mizrabel, literally the only person in the land who isn't joyful, turns up. Then she swoops down and kidnaps Minnie!

The game also made its way to the Master System and Game Gear, and to be honest I think this scene actually looks better on the 8-bit machines somehow.

Master System

It's less animated but it's a better angle. Man Mizrabel did well reaching down to grab Minnie without falling right off that broomstick.

Mickey's girlfriend's been kidnapped from right in front of him so he does the only thing he can do: he goes to the police. But he soon finds that on the mean streets of Vera City people disappear all the time and they rarely ever get found.

Oh sorry, I just remembered that it's land of peace and joy where literally only one person is a villain. But Mickey decides that vigilante justice is what's required here, so he follows the witch all the way back to her lair...

Master System

... the Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse!

I decided to show off the Master System version again here, because it actually looks nicer again despite the weaker hardware. It helps they didn't try to fade to black and white before putting the logo on top, screwing up all the shading in the process. Plus Mickey doesn't have an unhealthy radioactive glow on this version.

Stop smiling Mickey, your girlfriend just got kidnapped! Actually it doesn't seem like he’s messing around here, with two buttons dedicated to firearms. I'm dying to find out if he'll be dual-wielding pistols or if the other button is for a secondary fire mode, like an under-barrel grenade launcher. Man, even the C button doubles as attack!

There’s a difficulty select that switches between Normal, Practice and Hard, but it doesn’t say whether they increase the number of continues, or give me more lives, or cut you off from seeing the good ending. I suppose it doesn't matter for me, because I'd be leaving it on the default Normal mode either way.

Well I could play with the sound test for a bit while Mickey hangs around on his swing, but he hasn't bothered to tell anyone else about the kidnapping so if we don't save Minnie no one will!

Oh hang on, turns out that this guy knows. Well thanks for the help, trustworthy old mouse I’ve never seen before who hangs out by the Castle of Illusion. Now I know to be on my guard against fake mice disguised by Mizrabel's powers of illusion.

Man, even if Mickey Mouse rescues Minnie Mouse from Mizrabel he’s never going to know for sure that he didn’t inadvertently defeat his girlfriend and take home the witch instead. That’s messed up. Also maybe creepy old mice shouldn't be so quick to judge someone's appearance as looking 'evil'.

The old mouse continues by explaining to Mickey that this is a ‘seven rainbow gems’ kind of mission, but the gems are protected by the Master of Illusion!

Then some toy soldiers appear and Mickey instinctively kills them by leaping on their heads and crushing them into fairy dust.

I was going to call them giant toy soldiers but it occurs to me that it might just be that the trees are small. How big is Mickey Mouse anyway? Is he Bugs Bunny height, or is he small like Jerry Mouse/Pinky and the Brain and Mizrabel is just a really tiny witch? I've got a Mickey Mouse-shaped hole in my cartoon knowledge but I don't know what size it is!

Mickey heads inside the castle, finds a forest behind the first door he opens and then heads right in. Uh dude, you know that that’s the exit, right? You can see trees through every window.

This seems like it should be a level select that I can run around in, but it's all cutscene and I've got no say in what door he opens.

Well here I am in a fluffy illusionary forest then, with three mouse scalps and limited power. It really does look like an illusion as well with that flat painted background; not many levels of parallax going on here.

Hey, why the hell am I taking damage from jumping on enemies now? Mickey was crushing toy soldiers with their pointy bayonets sticking up just fine in the cutscene, but now whenever I land on a mushroom I'm the one that gets hurt! Jumping on mushrooms is the very foundation that the platforming genre is built on, how can this not be working? I'm very confused.

And I just lost a life in the very first minute of gameplay because I was so stunned that I couldn't squish a mushroom that I had to try it again to make sure. Now I only have two scalps left.

I figured it out! To crush enemies I have to press jump twice (or pull down in the air)!

That's not my only offensive capability, as I can also throw apples like in Aladdin... though my supply is limited so I probably shouldn't. I'm going to stick to slamming down on enemies ass-first whenever possible and worry about the stain it leaves on his shorts later.

Master System

The Master System game also starts off in a forest with Mickey lobbing stuff at belligerent flora, but it's put me on a very different level, with ladders all over the place, and caves. Also Mickey doesn't collect apples in this version, though he can pick up a single boulder and then lob it, like in The Blues Brothers or Chip 'n Dale. And there's treasure chests to find with cake in them! Mega Drive Mickey never gets treasure chests or cake.

Castle of Illusion on the Master System seems like an entirely different game featuring the same plot and level themes, but that works out for me because it means I don't have to keep comparing the two. I don't have to compare the Game Gear version either, as I imagine it's exactly the same as the Master System game (except with a smaller screen).

Though I will mention that they added a timer for this version and I've no idea why. Plus they've changed the aerial butt-slam button so that you don't have to press jump twice anymore. I like it much better this way, even if I still don't like having to do it at all.

I'm not keen on swinging from vine to vine in the Mega Drive version either, not when Mickey has to grab the next rope in the exact spot the game wants you to or else you go down the hole. They could've been more forgiving with the hitbox there.

At least now I know the game has instant death bottomless pits, so I can cross that off the checklist. That star I grabbed was an extra hit point by the way, not that it matters now. Pits devour all hit points.

And that's how to lose all your lives in the forest level at the very start of the game.

I decided not to use a continue here, because what would be the point? I'll be replaying everything I just did either way. It's daft to even ask me now really.

This time I was able to get past the vine swinging, but then an oversized apple fell on my head out of nowhere with no warning! It's not the kind of thing you really want landing on you, seeing as it's as wide as the average tree trunk. Mickey was so traumatised by it he transformed into a flag for a bit.

Oh come on! I thought apples were supposed to be good for you!

This time I made sure I didn't hang around, which was the exact wrong thing to do! I figured that giant apple-sized pit was a place for the apple to drop down into and made sure to get out of it fast, but it turns out my grasp of giant apple physics is tenuous.

Whoever's dreaming up all these illusionary apples should just stop, because there's no checkpoints in this and I don't feel like doing the bit with the vines again.

This stage looks a bit different. Though endless gigantic spider webs in every direction aren't something you ever want to see really. Unless you've been kidnapped by the Green Goblin.

It's got me jumping from floating leaf to floating leaf, which isn't too much of a challenge even with all the spiders around. Though the game sure likes to encourage me to make blind jumps into the void, like here where there's hit point star right under me. Crouching won't drag the camera down so I just have to take it on faith there'll be something down there for me to land on.

And there was! It wasn't a cruel trick. But I messed up and sent Mickey falling to his doom instead. Oops.

I landed safely on the hidden leaves on my second attempt and got the hit point! But I didn't know how to get back up because it put me in another blind jump situation, so I leapt off towards the next spider web. I chose... poorly.

And that's how I lost two lives trying to get one hit point.

Oh, plus some of the leaves move around, like this one that just drove me straight into a spider when I landed on it. You can't tell the difference between the two kinds of leaves by looking at them, so it's always a fun surprise!

The entirely different Master System game also has leaf jumping in it, though it's somehow fairer and more cruel at the same time.

Master System

The leaves are tiny here, but at least when I miss one I know it was my own fault. Or maybe it's because of the awkward floaty jumps that won't me shift much in the opposite direction when I'm trying to fine tune my landing, who can say?

Fortunately I wasn't sent back all that far, because the Master System game has mid-level checkpoints!

Game Gear

Out of curiosity I did check out the Game Gear version in the end, and yeah it's basically the same thing as the Master System game except with a smaller screen. Plus they've moved the text to the bottom of the HUD for some reason.

Though hang on, the game doesn't look any smaller in this image.

Actual size

The Game Gear has a resolution of 160x144, compared to the Master System's resolution of 256x192, so this is an impossibly big screenshot. Something very weird's going on here.

What's happened is that they've basically just released a Master System game in a Game Gear cartridge, taking advantage of the system's backwards compatibility to save themselves some headaches.

Not an actual screencap

The downside of this is that the image gets scaled down to fit the Game Gear screen, so each of its pixels is being displayed across two of the LCD's subpixels instead of all three. It's a clever feature, but it's not ideal as it messes up the colour.

Another fake mockup that isn't real

Then again, the alternative would be cutting off a third of the screen, leaving Mickey with his nose up against the edge, barely able to see where he's going or the enemies in his way. I'm not sure which is the less bad option.

Man, I've really gotten off track here. I'm supposed to be writing about how the Mega Drive version plays but I've ended up analysing the technology used in porting the wrong game onto a completely different system! Am I just easily distracted or could the Genesis game actually be kind of... dull?

A creepy tree face boss? What is this, Kirby's Adventure? Though this time I'm not fighting the whole tree, just a cylinder of it that's been cut out. That was nothing to do with me by the way, this tree came pre-sliced.

I immediately leapt into action and butt-slammed him from above, and was punished for it by having one of my hit points confiscated. Seems that the only way I can fight a tree is with a tree, or with its apples anyway. Lucky I've been stockpiling them really.

He's got a routine where he rolls across the floor and back again, the knocks some acorns down for me to dodge. Then it's my turn to strike, lobbing an apple into his face. Though he took so many hits to kill I thought I must have doing it wrong. We had to go through the whole process 10 times before he went down, giving me the red gem!

I got the red gem!

There are only six more left to collect, so this isn't the longest of platformers. Seems like you can finish the whole thing in half an hour if you know what you're doing, which is less than a Sonic game and way shorter than a Mario game from around the same time.

Of course the playtime increases dramatically if you keep losing...

MEANWHILE, ON THE MASTER SYSTEM

Master System

The Master System version has me fighting a tiny intact tree as the forest level boss and he's kicking my ass!

He likes to spin across the screen in a mini whirlwind like the Tasmanian Devil, which isn't all that different to the Mega Drive tree's rolling. But when this guy stops he fires three leaves at me from different angles, and if there's trick to getting through them without taking damage I haven't found it. Can't just hang back and throw apples in this one either as I need to get in there quick and butt-stomp him before he goes back to whirlwind mode.

Sadly this didn't work out for me and I lost a continue. Fortunately this game gives you nine continues! Unfortunately you can't continue from the boss, so I decided this would be a good time to turn the Master System game off.

Well that ain’t right. Mega Drive Mickey's moved on to a very traditional toy world, but it seems that the exit door on this level is locked. Hopefully it's not expecting me to collect 25 Disney logos or something to get it open.

Also those triangles in the background keep throwing me off. They look like spikes, but they're actually harmless (because they're in the background).

Agh, jack-in-the-box ambush! I waited for the first two to pop back down for a bit before I jumped up here, but then I got a third springing out in my face from the side. And the other two shot back up again. It's not good!

Now I have to get back up here again... carefully, seeing as I only have two hit points now. Fortunately there's no timer in this version so I'm not going to be punished for being cautious.

Aww, I've been waiting here for ages for this guy to come down to me so I could be certain I had the height to rump-stomp on him safely, and I still managed to screw it up. That just cost me my last hit point, and there's no mid-level checkpoints so I've got to do this all over again now.

Having to butt-slam every enemy is still throwing me off, especially as it doesn't change Mickey's falling speed so I can't feel that I've switched to ass-drop mode. I can usually get used to things like this if I play a game for long enough, I was pulling off all kinds of mad weapon-assisted parkour to get across screens in Indivisible, but my brain stubbornly refuses to make this manually activated bum-plummeting second nature to me because it believes that the game's messing me around for no good reason.

Anyway, I reached the top and grabbed the key, causing all the stairs to turn into ramps. I took the hint, raced back down to the exit door and escaped into... another toy land level.

This stage has me using my limited ammo to break through yellow flower blocks to proceed, but I was also able to waste some of my precious shots by opening this secret hidden behind a fake wall!

Now I'm wondering how many other secrets I've missed along the way. I must have walked right past so many extra lives.

Damn that clown was dangerous. I wasn't expecting his unicycle to fly out at me when I shot him! I can't believe I reacted quick enough to dodge it the first time, and again on the rebound. Sadly it finally got me on the surprise second rebound. In the end, the clowns always win.

Whoa, I flipped the screen! Something interesting actually happened in this game!

It didn't change anything, as gravity flipped as well, so I can't fall and get those two pick ups down near the ceiling. Though it did instantly wipe out every enemy on the screen... which means I can't jump on them to get the extra height to grab the pick ups either.

Whatever, I didn't need to restock my incredible important ball ammo that's absolutely critical for making progress in the level anyway (no really, it's pretty much maxed out right now).

I've reached boss #2, and I already hate him!

His routine wasn't hard to figure out: 1. He jumps around a few times, 2. He launches his fist across the screen, 3. He throws out four harmless springs to assist me with slamming my ass down onto his hat. Trouble is the amount of jumping he does seems to be random, and his fist comes flying at me the very instant he decides he's done with it.

I'll be running back and forth across the level trying to be somewhere that won't be underneath him, when suddenly:

CLOWN PUNCH!

I don't know if he's going to jump or punch so I need to be ready for either, but I can't run and duck at the same time! I've got a 50/50 chance of choosing the wrong move and getting hit, like I did here. That was my last life as well. Fortunately it turns out that that in the Mega Drive you can continue from the start of a boss fight!

He took so many of my previous lives and all my continues but I finally got him on the seventh try! Turns out that I had time to duck for a moment before running, so I could be ready for either of his tricks after all. And I got the second Chaos Emerald as my reward! Rainbow gem, whatever.

What the hell? How do I get past this wall on the next level?

I managed to jump off that partially obscured colour-cycling mushroom to get the height needed to grab the hit points, but that's the top of the level up there so I can't get over that way. Do I have to jump down where the bridge just collapsed? That's rarely a good idea.

Turns out that it's safe to land in any of these separate pits of water, but all the ones I've explored have one exit, which sends me through a pipe to be spat out of that water jet over there. It's getting a bit old now to be honest!

I'm sure that one of these pools must have the exit, but I lost my patience and didn't swim around the fish as carefully as I could've, and it cost me my final life. So that's it then.

I could always replay the forest zone and toy land to get back here, it'd only take twenty minutes or so if I didn't have too much trouble with the bosses... but I'm not doing that.

Though if I'd been playing on 'Practice' difficulty, then finishing that level would've brought me to the end of the game, as it lets you bribe Mizrabel to go away with just three of the gems.

You can be done with Practice mode in like five minutes actually, as it only features the easy part of three areas and has no boss fights. So this is less of a "Now play the game on 'Normal' difficulty to see the true ending," situation, more like "Now play the game on 'Normal difficulty to actually get to play the game."

And 'Hard' mode apparently takes away your continues, reduces your health, and tweaks some enemies to make them tougher. I haven't tried it myself, but I believe this mode also features an alternate ending where I throw my controller through the screen.


CONCLUSION

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I was a bit disappointed with Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse to be honest, because it's one of the most famous platformers on the Mega Drive, but it was just alright. I wanted to have a reaction to it stronger than 'eh'. It's competently made and reasonably challenging without being all that creative or impressive and I'm not dying to see what the later levels are like.

Am I expecting a bit much out of Mega Drive game that predates Sonic the Hedgehog? It came out the exact same day that Super Mario World was released in Japan so I don't think I am. Aside from the big sprites and the parallax backgrounds Castle of Illusion isn't a whole lot more sophisticated than a Master System game and seems about as generic as they come. In fact, I think I like the completely different Master System version more so far, as it's been more interesting. More of a bastard as well, mind you.

Though one of the problems that both games have is that you can't just land on enemies with your feet, you have to activate Mickey's ass first each time, and I never got used to this extra step. Plus Mickey's jump is very floaty and you can't really pull him back the other way in the air, so he doesn't always land precisely where you need or expect him to be. And blind leaps of faith ain't much fun, especially when there's no way to drag the camera down to recon the area below. Sometimes if you're lucky there'll be a row of apples to mark the safe path, sometimes if you're unlucky your faith will be rewarded with a drop into a bottomless pit. Sometimes the bottomless pit is actually a pit of water that you need to leap into to escape the level!

On the plus side, it's not a tedious collect 'em up and navigating the levels has been pretty straightforward so far. And it looks alright, even if it's in no danger of making it onto a "Top 20 Prettiest Games on the Mega Drive" list. The art style matches the simple gameplay and childish story. That music though... it's so twee that it's on the borderline of irritating. Thankfully the tunes weren't particularly catchy so none of them have gotten lodged into my brain.

And it's way way better than Fantasia.

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Sorry I couldn't be more enthusiastic about Castle of Illusion, but maybe I'll be more interested in the next game, whatever that's going to be. You could take a guess if you want, but I haven't given you much to work with. A pair of feet, a hat, a nose... could be anything.

Leave me a comment anyway, they're always appreciated.