Mickey Mouse - Castle of Illusion review - Sega Megadrive

When your sweetheart is abducted you'll go to the end of the Earth to rescue her - even if she's a mouse.

This is the sorry situation that Mickey finds himself in at the beginning of this game; Minnie has been captured by the Evil Witch and taken to her Castle of Illusion. The only way for Mickey to release his loved one is to go on a quest for the seven magical jewels, and so build a rainbow bridge across the chasm to the Castle.

Mickey Mouse battles his way through five surreal levels of platform action, gathering the coloured gems as he goes. Starting in a forest world, Mickey is attacked by mutant mushrooms, terrifying trees and ferocious flowers. Then it's on to Toytown, where bizarre childhood objects block the spunky rodent's path. Later stages are set in Aztec ruins, a cupboard and eventually the Castle of Illusion itself.

To help him on his way, our favourite big-eared character performs a number of offensive and defensive moves. The cuteness level's set to max, Mickey's bottom is ready to destroy the baddies, and it's time to don those ears and gather the jewels!

What the Mean Machines staff thought

I must admit that I've been utterly glued to the Megadrive since this came into the office. It's a stunning game, and has an addiction that has you eating your meals while you play, and giving up hours of sleep on consecutive nights. And it's easy to see why. The graphics are incredible, with beautifully drawn and animated sprites that ooze character, and sumptuous parallax-scrolling backdrops that are easily some of the best ever seen in a console game (the cake level is unbelievable). The sound is also brilliant - the humorous tunes and great sound effects enhance the atmosphere perfectly. But it's the superb gameplay that makes this such a winner. There are some devilish traps to overcome, and there are plenty of suprises along the way to baffle and amuse the player. If you've got any sense, get hold of a copy of Mickey Mouse now!

Disney produce quality - and magic - with whatever they do. This game is of a quality rarely seen: the programmers obviously took a great deal of care with this game. The backgrounds are phenomenal, with the best parallax scrolling yet seen on the Megadrive. The sprites are gorgeous too; Mickey himself is the best, with a range of facial expressions and and poses that put other "cute" characters to shame. When Mickey's close to the edge of a platform, he sways and panics. but doesn't quite fall - just scaring seven hells out of the player! Of course what really makes this game special is the playability which is absolutely outstanding. We recommend games all the time, but Mickey is truly an excellent product, well worth £35.

Retrospective comments

This was a truly magical game and had me hooked to the megadrive. It was quite a easy game in general and slow paced but that didn't really spoil things. The quality of the artwork and music was so good this game is nice to watch even now. The MM staff gave this quite a high rating at the time and I have to say I think it was totally justified. This game alongside it's master system counterpart (a very different game I may add) stand the test of time as true classics.

Have your say about this review

Richy Girth - 22 Oct 2008, 13:11 GMT

I absolutely loved this game.
I actually got it free with my Megadrive at Dixons.
And to think I nearly got Altered Beast free with it...! Whew..!

Yes...the reviews here do definitely do this game justice.
Its a truely marvellous game that is still fun to play today.
Hypnotic, infectious tunes that fit the game as a three fingered glove would this mouse work the Megadrive soundchip like John Williams works an orchestra and graphics that immerse, involve and the playability of the puzzle/platform groove it has is unquestionable.
For all it's more obvious qualities, it has more subtle yet equally as captivating ones that I find difficult to articulate... Kind of an indefinable X-factor thing where the thing is the sum of its many parts, maybe.
Definitely a game that captures you in the way where you have to play on through just to see what the next level is like, such is the lavish design of this classic and smoothness of play.. This was the best post-Mario-platformer out 'til Sonic appeared later. And I still went back even when that happened. It has soulllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.

Tris Wicks - 05 Nov 2008, 03:26 GMT

It's my belief Nintendo had the programmers for COI assassinated so their monopoly on platforming perfection would remain unchallenged.

Dan - 19 Feb 2009, 15:55 GMT

Slow but fun, weird and wonderful, the perfect game for playing after a few joints. Reading all these old reviews it's really become apparent to me just how much level design and inventiveness has to do with making a great game, and this is a prime example of that.

mike - 15 Apr 2009, 15:38 GMT

I could never afford a megadrive when they were new but picked up one about 10years ago for £15. It kind of went away for about 8years then it came back out and i started working my way through the megadrive games in the order they were realeased.
This game made me totally fall in love with the megadrive when i played it for the first time in 2008! It is definatly aging very well i have never experienced anything like the feeling i got when i beat mizrebella at the end of the game, especially not from any playstation or xbox games!

Steve - 07 Sep 2009, 07:47 GMT

This has to be the best Disney licensed game ever! I commend the makers of this game, which was obviously a labor of love, for not cashing in and just churning out a load of shite like most game companies do... a la Nintendo with the NES.

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