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Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse Sega Mega Drive Review

Hey Star Struck Gaming fans here we are again with our latest cartridge review, Its November 22nd 1990; Predator 2, Rocky V and Home Alone are on at the cinema and in the UK. Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers was number 1 in the charts and more importantly A mouse was about to make his debut on the Mega drive. we’re talking about Castle of Illusion.

A Castle of Illusion – its what it says on the tin (cardboard game case)

Mickey Mouse and the Castle of Illusion was an instant success scoring highly In magazine reviews (that’s right reviews came in magazines as the Internet was but a mere baby then) with its colourful Graphics, amazing animation, brilliant levels and end of level bosses the game was a joy to play.

Princess Peach eat your heart out

Minnie has been Kidnapped by the evil Mizrabel (you have no idea how bad auto correct wants to change this to Micheal oo er) to steal her youth and only Mickey can save her. This was done by bouncing on enemies throwing marbles and apples to collect various gems to build a rainbow bridge to get to Mirabel’s castle.

The Gameplay was fluid, the music catchy and nothing really touched it graphically for a while on consoles. The bosses ranged from a jack in the box in Toy Land, to a dragon in an amazing land created entirely of sweets and what can only be described as what looked like a large leprechaun with a purple face which all lead to Mizrabel’s castle. You’d find Minnie in a bubble and ghosts flying around her, and a witch would hinder you as much as possible.

 

Setting an illusional bar soaring

This was the first in the Illusion series and set the bar for the rest, for some reason Land of Illusion never appeared for the Megadrive, instead it arrived for the Game Gear and Master System but thankfully World of Illusion made it. Again this was brilliant and another leap forwards in graphics and animation for the 16-bit console but we will cover these at a later date.

Fast forward… two decades

We now leap forward 23 years to September 2013 when a re-imagined version of Castle of Illusion is released, there were mixed reviews however graphically it was very good but nothing like the original released all those years ago. Some criticised the length of the game but remembering this is technically a children’s game and secondly the game was based heavily around the original which only had 5 levels, but had the lack of saves that we do in this day and age hence making the game longer and harder.

Star Struck Gaming Rating

In my opinion old classics are best left alone to be relished in their original form. These games don’t need changing to be great, release them on Xbox Live, PSN, Steam etc. at a reduced price and you will find a whole new breed of players and will bring a dose of nostalgia back to the older generation of gamers too.

So that’s it for this week’s vintage review  if you ever come across the chance to play this classic grab it with both hands( the controller that is) and experience a old school gaming at its finest.

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