A few days ago I had one of the strongest memories of my childhood playing again World of Illusion and its "prequel", which I will talk about today. This game was the first Disney game I played in my life and really at the time it was quite impressive, being a child to see such a mythical and charismatic character like Mickey. And although many times the nostalgia will make us see things better than they really were, with this game is not so, because despite the many years that have passed, it is still a pretty spectacular game visually, graphically and artistically. This game had several versions, including an older one that I will talk about today (Mega Drive), although it was published some time after the Mega Drive version, if my data is correct. I didn't delve too much into the release dates of the games, I was too lazy. But the older version, the Master System, logically presents an older graphic level.
Today's Retro Review is about: Castle of Illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse.
We are facing a game whose plot surprised me, since I did not remember practically nothing about the plot of this game, but when I played it again, I realized that I was facing a story of great plot depth, development of incredible and realistic characters and plot twists that leave you with your mouth open. But anyway, everything I mentioned above is a lie, since the plot of this game is simply that Mickey must go to rescue Minnie who has been kidnapped by a witch. That's all, but is anything else needed to enjoy this game, not at all, the story is irrelevant and just a pretext for Mickey to embark on an adventure.
Graphically and despite all the years that have passed, this game still looks great, with beautiful artistic level and with a striking and very vivid color palette, something typical of the Disney of some years ago. A game that knew how to recreate very well all that magical aspect that emanates from each scenario to which we go with our protagonist, as Castle of Illusion has very imaginative scenarios, unique, with great detail and are thematic, being each of them, besides being very different from each other, are visually spectacular.
The animations that Mickey can perform are not as spectacular as those seen in World of Illusion (logically), however, they are still extremely fluid and varied enough to be considered a visual genius, in addition, as is normal in this type of games, these animations and small expressions that Mickey can perform give him much more personality and are small details that enrich the graphical and artistic aspect of this game. The scenarios have very nice details depending on the theme of the place where we are, as this game has very thematic scenarios in terms of design, from the classic fairy tale forest, the castle, a cake-themed scenario or even a scenario where the objects are giant and the character is very small, there is enough variety and dedication in this game in this aspect.
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Once again we are faced with a game with a magical soundtrack, one of those that bring back infinite memories when listening to the first seconds of the first level song, the nostalgia that brought me back to listen, after many years, the main melody of this game is indescribable. It is quite curious what nostalgia can achieve, eating something specific, smelling, seeing or hearing something, can give us the best memories or give us a very strange feeling in the body that only things that marked you at some point in your life can achieve. Castle of Illusion has one of the most mythical soundtracks of the video game industry, they are melodies that even many people use today in their YouTube videos, so that shows the great quality that games of yesteryear (some), had in their works. With very varied music and with cheerful tones, it manages to create an even more magical atmosphere than its graphic aspect already represents, besides that it fits perfectly with every place we are and with every situation Mickey goes through. If I could define the soundtrack of this game with just one word it would be: "Nice".
Castle of Illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse OST Full (MegaDrive)
Castle of Illusion is nothing more than an extremely conventional platform and adventure game, the only "big" difference with respect to similar games is that we are controlling the mascot of one of the most powerful companies in the world, with a purchasing power greater than many countries and that has a monetary power so terrifying that it can even control other huge companies, simply Disney, but remember that everything is very "Family Friendly". Anyway, leaving the "jokes" aside. There is little to say about this game with respect to its mechanics, as it maintains the vast majority of the classic and widely used themes of platform games, although this does not mean that it is a monotonous game, on the contrary, we are facing an excellent platform game, with controls that respond well and with quite challenging level and final bosses (although not very difficult as it is still a children's game), but still with enough difficulty to make it extremely fun.
In order to rescue Minnie, Mickey will have to go through a series of scenarios with different themes and challenges to overcome, as well as enemies to defeat in order to advance. And after each end of each stage, we must face the typical final boss, with its specific attack pattern and how to eliminate it. The controls of this game are equally easy and Mickey can, logically jump, both to overcome certain obstacles and to eliminate certain enemies, but also, Mickey can throw apples to achieve the same goal, which we must collect these apples as they are scattered throughout the scenarios. But beyond this detail of having a "throwing weapon", Castle of Illusion remains in the line of the most classic platform games.
Castle of Illusion despite being a game that in terms of mechanics does not innovate anything, as it is a simple platform game, it is one of the most entertaining games of this genre and that is due to its excellent stage design, both in art and platforming design, its magical soundtrack and its art in general, which is beautiful. A classic among classics.
