Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (PC)

Developer:

Sega Studios Australia

|

Release Date:

2013

|

Systems:

Win, PS3, Xbox 360, iOS, Windows Phone, Android, OS X

---

This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing Castle of Illusion! Again!

I didn't mean to, not originally. I just wanted to grab a couple of screenshots for my article about the Mega Drive game, to show what the remake looked like by comparison. But it turns out that they've remade a lot more than just the graphics, so I decided to give it its own article instead.

I've had this one lying around my in my Steam library unplayed for three years now, ever since they cunningly manipulated me into buying it by announcing it was going to be taken off the store. Sure it was almost certainly going to be put back on eventually, but what if it wasn't? I could've missed my chance to ever play the game! (It came back seven months later).

This Castle of Illusion first came out in 2013, 23 years after the original (and 6 years before now) and it was the last game to be made by Sega Studios Australia. They'd been around for about 10 years by that point and had been known as Creative Assembly Australia for most of it, developing games like Medieval II: Total War and London 2012 - the officially licensed game of the 2012 Olympic Games. Not a whole lot of platformers though, unless you count a port of the 2D Sonic games to the DS, so that's not massively encouraging. But hey the other Creative Assembly came out with Alien: Isolation out of nowhere and everyone loves that except me, so maybe this is actually really good!

---

Wow, everyone came out to watch this game, including Scrooge McDuck and an actual dog.

The original Mega Drive version doesn't have the classic "Say-gah!" jingle at the start, but this one... doesn't either. A voice calmly informs us that the logo says "Sega" so that we can move on to the intro.

Wow, this is exactly like the intro the Mega Drive game so far, except they've retconned a picnic basket in. Plus the animation is limited to a fake 3D parallax effect, with different layers of the image scrolling across as if time has been frozen.

Also the narrator says "Once upon a time," now instead of "Once upon a mouse," and they're not longer claiming that the evil witch Mizrabel is the only person there who doesn't live in peace. This time he says that joy is not found in all hearts, and uses hers is an example. Because it's filled with darkness and envy instead.

And her bubble is filled with Minnie!

Mizrabel takes to the sky flies along the forest path at exactly Mickey's running speed, giving him a chance to follow her all the way to...

... the Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse!

Sorry Master System version, you might have had a better castle reveal than the Mega Drive game but this has both games beat. Though they've taken the difficulty select and the sound test out of the menu! Now I'm going to have to test all the sounds the hard way, by playing through the game.

Hey the convenient old mouse from the original game is here as well.

Luckily for Mickey, the guy likes to hang out in front of Mizrabel's castle and knows everything to do with her sinister plan and how to stop her. His dialogue is a little different this time around and his exposition now comes with pictures, but he's basically saying the same thing: go defeat the Masters of Illusion and get their Rainbow Gems, and hurry up before the witch steals Minnie's beauty. Though not her exact appearance, he's more clear about that in this version.

It might look like he's saying "Press B to skip" here but that's just the game putting a very welcome bit of information somewhere kind of distracting.

Hey the game starts off with a little real world platforming before I even enter the Castle of Illusion this time around. Plus there's narration! It's bothering me a little though, because I can't tell if it's supposed to be the old mouse narrating Mickey's story or if it's just the same actor.

One thing that isn't bothering me though, is that I can jump onto enemies now! In the original games I had to either press 'jump' twice or press 'down' in the air to get him to lift his legs up, or else he'd be the one taking damage after landing on someone's head. Now I can just crush my enemies underfoot like a Mario bro.

It wasn't long before I reached the notorious eponymous castle, and a drawbridge in the background dropped down to allow me to walk up into the keep. So that's a bit different.

It's gone all Super Mario 64 all of a sudden, with full 3D movement and a level select castle! Though I feel like I've just wandered onto Chewbacca's holographic game table. I'm getting worried that a stop-motion monster's going to pick me up and slam me into the floor.

In the original game Mickey walked to the next door on his own, but here I get to choose for myself... as long as I pick the one that leads to the first world. Well even that one's locked right now actually, but it's got the number 15 written on it and I've already collected 8 diamonds so I think those 7 diamonds floating over there will do the job. Nice of Mizrabel's guards to just stand there and leave them all for me. And don't think I don't appreciate them opening up the drawbridge for me as well.

Behind the formerly-chained door I found a room with 3 more doors, 2 of them locked. No numbers this time so I think I just have to complete them in order.

ENCHANTED FOREST - ACT 1

The game's gone back to pure 2D again now and man it's nice to be able to just jump onto enemies without having to remember to hit another button first.

It's also nice to be able to bounce across enemies to reach tricky diamonds and hidden extra lives. Sure it's a bit awkward if I mess it up, because I just killed half my platforms, but they eventually respawn to give me another try. And if I do screw up a jump it's always entirely my fault because the movement is so good now.

I'm not sure I'm all that keen about this adding a collect 'em up aspect that wasn't in the original game, but right now I don't hate it.

The level's got an entirely different layout to both the Mega Drive and Master System games, but the rope swings are back. Also that looks like the tree boss from the Master System game hanging out in the background with my red gem!

Those bloody plans that spit harmful goop across the level are back again too, except now they're in the background where I can't throw apples at them. Though I get the feeling I'll be over where they are sooner or later.

First though I'm grabbing this hit point star.

Well this is new. Seems that the game's decided to waste my time for a minute by giving me a bunch of exits that all take me right back to this screen. Every time I go down the wrong path a sign vanishes from the sign post so I guess I just have to wear the thing out before I can move on.

Ah, getting to the last sign opened up a secret door in the tree to the right.

Now I'm on the leaf level with all the spider webs in the background! Though this game's doing something more interesting with the moving leaves than the Mega Drive game did, as I have to get around these branches blocking the way by either ducking or jumping over them. Thankfully they've made it obvious which is the appropriate move at each branch by marking the path with apples and diamonds.

You probably shouldn't trust apples from a witch's castle in a Disney game, but we're going to throw them, not eat them, so it's fine.

Now I've reached a bit where the leaves are all falling and I need to keep jumping from leaf to leaf to avoid dropping off the bottom of the screen. Right now the penalty for messing that up is being kicked back to the crossroads with all my lives and hit points intact, but I have a feeling that's because this is a bonus level with special rules.

Oh by the way there's a treasure chest over there on the left like in the Master System game, but I have to smash it open with the apples that were in the Mega Drive game. It seems they've just picked whatever elements they liked from either game and then made entirely new levels with them.

It took me a few tries, but I kept replaying the bonus door level until I reached the end and won... a Magic Playing Card. No idea what that's for. I'm more into diamonds and apples right now to be honest.

A LITTLE WHILE LATER

APPLE! It's the giant apple that fell on my head (twice) in the Mega Drive game, only this time it's chasing me into the screen Pepsiman-style! Man, why does my brain always jump to Pepsiman in these kinds of stages?

The original game had a little notch in the ground at end of the apple chase but I jumped over it like an idiot instead of ducking down to let the apple sail harmlessly overhead. This time though I was ready for it... and the game threw a surprise chasm at me instead.

Turns out that dropping down into that was the wrong move, but that's fine as I only lost a single hit point and I got a second chance to grab the diamonds I'd missed along the way. I want to bring this game back in time to the late 80s and show platformer developers how much less frustrating it is when you're not overly penalised for falling down a hole.

ENCHANTED FOREST - ACT 2

The second act features a lot of jumping on ghosts, just like in the original game. Only this time they've thrown in these red ghosts that like to move out of the way and let me fall to my doom! And by 'doom' I mean 'the next part of the level'. The game hasn't been plagued with all the blind jumps of the Mega Drive game so far, but it's not above screwing with me for a laugh.

It's fine though; I didn't get hurt and I've learned a valuable lesson about red ghosts (they're jerks).

Well here's something straight out of my nightmares: thorny plants that instantly shoot up out of the ground. This is basically an invisible maze, with the walls only appearing when they're needed to block my path, but it's short enough to add a bit of variety instead of being frustrating.

There was nothing like this in the original game by the way, not in the first three worlds anyway (I didn't get any further than that). I mean obviously a Mega Drive game wasn't going to have a smooth seamless transition from 2D to 3D gameplay like this, but they could've given it a top down section if they wanted to. I remember the original Zelda had side view sections on the NES in fact. Blaster Master did a perspective switch as well.

ENCHANTED FOREST - ACT 3

That's clever, they've used the tiny tree boss from the Master System game, but he comes out of a slot in tree trunk and rolls across the floor just like the boss in the Mega Drive game! Thankfully he's not shooting any leaves out for me to dodge, because I doubt I've gotten any better at it since getting that game over on the Master System.

I just jumped when he rolled across the screen, got out the way when the acorns fell down, and hit him when he paused for a moment in between. Though I could actually jump on him this time, unlike in the Mega Drive game, and he mixed up his routine with some butt-slamming of his own. Another change I appreciate is that I can see his health up on the top right and he only takes five hits to kill instead of ten this time.

Once he was done I found myself back in the castle, so I decided to go wandering.

The narrator mentions that this is where the Rainbow Bridge will be once we've got all the gems, though he might be thinking of Thor. Either way there's no point in me being here now.

This narration's pretty decent and makes the game feel a lot more like a kids story instead of just a collection of levels, but his voice and the way he's always commenting on things reminds me so much of The Stanley Parable that I keep expecting a punch line.

I went back and check the three World 1 doors again out of curiosity, and they've got stats next to them now, telling me how many of the diamonds I collected, whether I found the Magic Playing Card etc. Plus there's an extra time trial mode I go through a second time, for additional replay value!

But even if I went back and scoured these stages for all the diamonds I missed, I still wouldn't be able to use them to unlock World 3 without first getting the gem from the World 2 boss. So I guess I'm going to Toyland.

TOYLAND - ACT 1

Oh damn, the forest wasn't all that similar to the original game but this stage is worryingly familiar. If this has the locked door down here on the bottom right, then it could have the tin soldiers walking slowly down the steps too. It could have the jack-in-the-box ambush!

Here they are, those jack-in-the-box gits, with their evil grins and their evil tongues hanging out. Though they're not arranged in a way to trap me this time, as I can safely land on top of the first box.

Also this is weird, it's letting me jump on them like I can with any other enemy. I couldn't do that in the original game... or could I? Did I even think to check? Man I'm not even sure. Now my brain's automatically trying to calculate how long it'd take me to play up to this level in the Mega Drive game to test it and it should stop because there's no way that's happening.

Nope, stupid brain, stop even considering it. No.

This bit's cool; I'm jumping from card to card as they appear in front of me, while avoiding the jokers. Well it's okay I guess. I don't hate it.

Plus I got a Castle Statue Piece at the end! Which is weird, because you'd think that if any bonus level was going to have a Magic Playing Card on it, it'd be this one.

Well the clowns that launch a unicycle at you when they die are still in the game, and yeah the tin soldiers still like to lurk on stairs, but I love the look of this new reimagined level. Especially when the camera rotates around it like this and shows off the bit I'm about to go up. It actually makes the stage look more 3D instead of making it obvious that I'm locked to a 2D plane, with is a nice trick.

If you're wondering what the 'Disillusioned' achievement I've unlocked is, it just means I've killed... uh, "broken the illusion" of 75 enemies. Which means I'm averaging 25 per level!

Once I got the key at the top the whole level turned into ramps so I could slide down to the locked door at the bottom, just like in the original game!

TOYLAND - ACT 2

Whoa, they kept the screen flipping switches in the game! Only this time it doesn't flip the whole screen, it flips the gravity so that I'm walking on the ceiling instead. Or falling through the ceiling in this case.

It's a much more interesting way of handling it as it means I can drop into secret areas hidden overhead, or navigate a series of platforms where the gravity switches each time I land. It's not just a button that makes all the enemies explode and the screen look weird for a bit like it used to be, though it does that as well. And those clowns are asking for it.

They've upgraded the block shooting as well. In the original game there were a few blocks in my way, so I threw marbles at them and they disappeared. In this I'm trying to carve out a path through the destructible presents that'll allow me to collect the most diamonds along the way. I want to avoid shooting boxes I'll need to jump onto later, so there's some thinking required.

(I screwed it up and missed some diamonds because I'm bad at thinking).

Man, it took me so long to notice the mirror on this bit.

TOYLAND - ACT 3

It's my arch-nemesis, the clown-in-a-box boss! I had so much trouble with him in the original game because his fist was instant and merciless and stuck without warning. Here there's a some actual warning, so I actually know when I'm supposed to duck!

Plus he ends up smacking himself in the face with the boxing glove afterwards, which is hilarious. Because I hate him and it's funny when he suffers.

Huh, this wasn't in the Mega Drive version. I had him figured out this time so he went and changed the game on me!

I prefer it this way to be honest. I'd rather have a gauntlet of different obstacles to react to than a repetitive routine I need to master. I've never been very good at gitting gud, especially when I'm kicked back to the start of the level ever time I lose my lives; I don't have the patience for it.

THE STORM - ACT 1

Well it's certainly nice to be stuck again on the same level I got stuck on in the Mega Drive version. Though this version did at least make it more obvious I was supposed to be exploring underwater, by dropping me in it the instant I touched a log bridge.

Now I just need to swim around, dodge all the undead fish and find the one exit that doesn't spit me out onto the land. It's the 'dodging the fish' part that finally got me in the Mega Drive game because I started getting careless. I don't think there's any need to rush here though. When it comes to holding his breath, Mickey seems like more of a Mario than a Sonic the Hedgehog.

LATER

This is the first time I've really lost any lives in this game, as I've been messing up the timing on these jumps over and over and getting flushed by the waterfalls coming down in the gaps in between. Funny thing is, even this isn't that difficult, I've just been playing for a while now and I'm getting careless and impatient.  

Here's the trick: wait for the waterfall to go by. You now have ages to make the jump to the next ledge. Though it doesn't work on this exact bit in this screenshot, because that ledge I just jumped off is cracked so you can't hang around on it long enough. You have to get this Magic Playing Card by coming from the other direction.

By the way, that's a nice Donald Duck face in the background back there on the right. It reminds Mickey of Donald's advice about adventures... or at least that's what the narrator tells me. 99% of the time Mickey himself keeps his mouth shut.

Oh, Donald's advice was "Don't have them." This is why I've always like Daffy more, he's up for anything.

THE STORM - ACT 2

So long fish, I'm going to evade you by cunningly swimming through this bit of sinking debris plummeting into into the endless void below.

The fact that it's spinning should probably discourage me, but right now my brain's busy wondering why the diamonds rotate with it. And why does the next bit of identical falling debris contain only the diamonds I missed the first time? Ancient ruins are weird and mysterious!

THE STORM - ACT 3

The final boss of this water stage is actually a whole pool full of bosses, plus my old friend 'falling debris' is back to make things more interesting.

To defeat these guys I just swam out of their way until the plug got pulled, jumped on one of their heads, then got back to dodging them when the pool was refilled. I only lost one hit point here, which either means this was a piss easy fight, or these years of practice I got playing video games every week have finally started to have an effect.

Oh so that's what the Magic Playing Cards are for! If I get five of them I can be a magician. I can also get a suit of armour for completing the game, in a kind of reverse Metroid scenario.

I tried jumping on one of those sparkling pedestals either side in case they turned out to be a teleporter or another bonus feature but nothing happened. So that was a bit disappointing.

Well, I could carry on into World 4 and see what's going on over there, but this seems like a good time to turn the game off and quit while I'm ahead.


CONCLUSION

---

To be honest I think that I'm done with the platformer genre... sometimes. I've even wondered if I only put up with the games in the past because I had nothing better to play. But then I'll come across a Rayman Origins, or an Indivisible, or a Castle of Illusion, and I realise that actually do like platformers! When they're good. Like this one is.

Though there's still one thing I don't get: how did Mizrabel end up owning an entire castle all for herself and her illusions? Sure Cottage of Illusion would be a much shorter game but it'd be a lot more realistic. Not that this is all that long as it is, as I estimate there's about 15 levels and 8 boss fights. The website How Long to Beat says you can have it all done in just three hours, or a couple hours longer if you're putting the time in to get all the extras.

It's definitely not a straight remake of the Mega Drive title, instead they've done the same thing as the folks who developed the Master System version and made a new game with the same story, level themes, enemies and a few other ideas. It's still got the slow pace and relative simplicity of a pre-Sonic the Hedgehog Mega Drive platformer for young children, but I found the gameplay in this to be more interesting and less irritating. Mickey's airborne manoeuvrability has been improved to the point where I rarely ever missed the platform or enemy I was aiming for and when I did I could be confident it was my own dumb fault. He feels quicker and less floaty. It got a bit more tricky to get him where I wanted at the times when the camera tilted down and it switched to 3D, but that's 3D platformers for you. Plus I only had to press the jump button once to land on enemies! The game's turned crushing mushrooms back into a joy instead of a frustration!

It's less frustrating in general as it's got a more modern attitude to difficulty. It doesn't punish you for making mistakes so much, but it does throw in hard to reach diamonds and tricky bonus levels for you to attempt along the way. That's why I'm not so bothered that they've turned it into a collect 'em up, as any diamonds that aren't directly on your path are collected in optional challenges along a narrow linear path. You don't have to waste time searching every corner of a huge sprawling level collecting 30 lost car keys so that Ronald McDonald will let you leave. Or whatever. On the downside it's only got the one difficulty level now and I've been flying through the game with 12 spare lives saved up to go along with my infinite continues, so it's not going to impress people looking for a challenge. Though I've heard the last boss is a real difficulty spike, so you've at least got that to look forward to.

The other big upgrade is the presentation, as it turns out that a game released in 2013 can look and sound a lot better than one made in 1990. I love pixel art, but the original Castle of Illusion wasn't the prettiest game on the Mega Drive, and I also love watching Mickey freak out when he realises he's about to be crushed by sinister fruit, and platformer stages that wind around in 3D to show off the level. I should hate the obnoxious whimsical cartoon soundtrack, but I somehow ended up liking that too. The music feels like it wouldn't be out of place in a Rare game... possibly because it's by Banjo-Kazooie composer Grant Kirkhope! Plus it's very dynamic and tends to adapt to suit what you're up to, which adds to the cartoon feel. The narration helps with that as well, provided you don't screw up and make him repeat himself. Plus it's optional, so you can get rid of it. You can turn the original music back on as well, if you want it to sound like a Mega Drive.

Though one option the game doesn't have is multiple save slots. It's a small complaint, especially as people will have their own Steam and console accounts and you can go back and replay most levels, but when I realised I needed to retake some screenshots of the first stage outside the castle I had to delete my save game to get there! I don't wanna have to do that!

Anyway, out of the three Castle of Illusion games I've played, I'd definitely say this is the one to go for. Unless you're feeling nostalgic for the Mega Drive game, in which case you should probably play that instead, because this ain't it.

---

No Mickey Mouse game next week, I promise. I can't spoil what it will be though as that'd make my next game clue image kind of redundant. Anyway thanks for reading, and extra thanks if you decide to leave me a comment.