am gonna review the sh*% out of this
So who likes Mickey mouse? (*smiles*) anyone? (cue cricket sounds)
ok who liked mickey mouse when they were younger or even just for the nostalgia on odd/rare occasion.... yeah Thats what i thought :)
Today I am reviewing Castle of illusion staring mickey mouse.
Before i start i just want to say these are true facts but also i state my own opinion which isn’t fact but you can chose to either agree or disagree up to you but yeah lets go.
I want to talk about some of the history behind this game first before i get started so please ready your eyes and ears. …..or you know just skip ahead…... F*%k it!! Now i know it was based from the megadrives castle of illusion, which was initially developed by Sega AM7 and produced by Sega for the Sega Genesis in 1990. I also know composition was done by Shigenori Kamiya and my god was it brilliant. immediately the start screen music transported you to a place in your mind like yes I’m excited to play and hear the rest of the music, yes!!! Each stage had its own music so there wasn’t too much repetitiveness which was difficult to do really with a cartridge as you could not fit very much on them compared to the disks we have these days.or playstation 1 era works too. So the composer for the game Shigenori Kamiya composed not only this game but also the legend of illusion in 1994. The graphics for the world of illusion for the time were extremely good for the time. At the time Mega made a top one hundred megadrive games of all time list and placed it at number 22 in 1992. But all that aside i would like to talk a bit about the Plot. The plot of this game is you are Mickey and you have to go on a quest to save Minnie from the evil witch Mizrabel. Mizrabel has stolen minnie because she wants to take minnie’s youth. To stop mizrabel. Haha they’re calling her miserable. But if you think about it my names chantelle and one of my nicknames i got when i was little were telly, then tell, and then belle :o maybe I’m mizrabel :o nahh theres no way i would wear those socks :’) To stop mizrabel you have to defeat mizrabels henchmen/masters of illusion (the boss’s) to get the rainbow gems and make the rainbow bridge to take you to where mizrabel is holding holding minnie captive so you can defeat mizrabel and save minnie.
so the opening - the very beginning of the game mickey and minnie decide to go out for a picnic then all the shit gets dark and a evil witch appears…with socks…, anyhow after it goes from nice day to darkness that might make a kid kind of go arr no they took minnie and thats a quote from my 3 year old brother so doesnt exactly evoke any fear just that shes not a good person because she took minnie for a ride in a bubble - which looks really fun actually i want to get a ride in a bubble....take me with you!!! Anyhow mickey sprints like a mad little bugga after them gets to the castle and on your way there you bump into this old mouse wizard who just happens to be there and tells you to go save your prize. PRIZE *starts mumbling* objectifying little b..*Censored* So pretty solid storyline i would say in the sense of theres the reason as to why mizrabel felt the need to steal minnie and why mickey ends up where he does going on this adventure so i felt definitely very happy playing this game. So the opening on the original megadrive, master system, Game Gear and saturn graphically looked extremely different compared to the 2013 version for ps3, xbox 360, windows phone and computer, mac OS android and IOS & rightfully so it had been years between the 2 games and technology advances so quickly over the years. So the feedback for the megadrive version back then was brilliant and even today the graphics hold up to me if i want to quickly put it in my megadrive and play this bad boy and be a mini mickey mouse with all those almost illuminating pretty colours and jump on all the spiders i can.
Now that we've got some of the history out the way onto the actual game I’m reviewing which is the 2013 remake. so is this version better than its predecessor? lets find out, Now there are games that should not have reboots or just personally have let down their predecessors such as.... this is my own opinion don’t kill me guys......devil may cry, the originals were brilliant, masterpieces and there was no need to completely change dante’s persona or just his personality there was a much deeper story before…But I’m going off topic a bit here so lets get back to this game. This game is not one of those games it is a brilliant reboot or remakes and i mean don’t get me wrong even with games that have been remade or remake they’re not all bad you can see improvements with each it just depends on preference for some but for some opinions it can be pretty universal on what people think, either way with this game they stick with the original storyline there is no change to it aside from there is more detail such as mizrabel recites incantations or whatever while shes battling you at the end & on the way up the castle theres a part where you have to jump to parts of the sort of window ledges while they fall away and jump and swing your way to the inside of the castle before you battle mizrabel. Now thats an extra detail and it is an excellent one.
Hey heres a random fact xD did you know there have been around 44 mickey mouse games did you know that before now because i didn’t, damn thats a lot.
so you start off in the castle where if you go through a door you can progress to that Act or level whatever you want to call it and start your adventure from the beginning or if you have loaded your game it would be going back to the door from which you last left off. So as mickey you must progress through the castle of illusion facing varied enemies who are just brilliantly designed and the graphic designers & artists should feel extremely proud for all of the many different stages as well. In these stages you collect gems as you go, find chilli peppers, playing cards and most importantly of all the rainbow gems at the end of every third act. The colours of the backgrounds and themed acts or areas are very vibrant and the 3D in this one makes mickey stand out a lot more and feels refreshing and fun. This game features a remastered soundtrack arranged by Grant Kirkhope and it does very well.
If i was going to say it is similar to any game i would have to say i found it very similar to the original rayman for the playstion one as you start off in a forest with a lot of creatures who are bad guys such as tree people and such then proceed to go to a toy zone, a candy zone and so much more just like in rayman you get the music zone and stationary zone also the fact they’re both platformer’s and everything is just so eye catching but hey they do have their obvious differences and obviously i know as well as you know that they are 2 very different games. There are parts in this game where it requires some form of strategy and patience where you really have to pay attention because some castle guards have timed actions where they throw down their weapons in order to try and hit you cause damage or try to kill you and you even end up in the dark with no light other than the light caused from the sparks caused when they drop their weapons so you really have to think and pay attention to the patterns.There are also big boss fights and chase scenes where you have to run away from apples, bolders, or just run down ledges to get to the exit or have to figure out the bosses patterns as every boss is different.
Now compared to the original for the sega megadrive enemy’s actually speak to you rather than having to read all of the dialog which to me feels better but its not to say the original was inferior for it just that it feels more relaxing than having to squint at the screen to try and read the writing and it just feels more engaging that way.
As well as jumping on enemys to take them out just like the original you can throw apples and now other things too which they game designers didn’t have to do but the fact they took the time to just goes to show the game designers really committed themselves to making this game as interesting and enjoyed what they did which makes you appreciate them an enjoy and also appreciate the game in itself. It doesnt really explain controls very well on the 2013 version of the castle of illusion since it took me multiple deaths and a very frustrated hour or so before i realised if you hold the jump button you can do higher, bigger, longer jumps if you don’t figure that out you won’t be able to progress very far through the game though plus you need to have the timing right but once you do figure that out you realise your able to reach even more higher hidden places than you could before and if you jump on an enemy to get this super high jump they launch you up to insane new heights. Its ingenious and incredible just wish they had of explained as to how to do it so drunk me was like doyy :’)
There are no power ups or upgrades but you can unlock costumes for mickey its sort of refreshing not having to download anything or remember to use more than pretty much 2 buttons and the d-pad throughout the game and in that sense it stays true to the original which makes things a lot easier, if you were to leave it a while and go back to it for controlling your character its pretty simple to remember those control's 2 buttons, circle an x, circle to throw & x to jump easy...if your on the ps3 anyways. Now aside from the fact of the costumes weren’t in the original game, only in this 2013 one are you able to unlock these costumes and have that extra bit fun running around in them.
Now although this game is great fun and everything I’m sorry to announce that this game is unfortunately no longer available for download in the Playstation store. Because…..On August 30, 2016, Sega confirmed that the software would be delisted on the 2nd of September. The announcement came on the same week that the Xbox 360 version of the game was made backward compatible on Xbox One. If you want to play it you would need an xbox one. so if you don’t have one I’m sorry guys :/ but for those who do happy gamin yeah :D}} ^ fix that part with video text
Problems i had with the game, sometimes if i used the joystick rather than the D-pad i found the controls were a bit too sensitive and it was more difficult to control mickey and make him just move forwards.
Lag - Lag could really messes with you especially if your in the middle of a boss fight then your like where am i jumping when do i need to jump because the framerate kept randomly dropping. Its a bit frustrating to say the least.
Glitches - There were some glitches in the game and although fun could have ended up very problematic if i got stuck still though at least it wasn’t as bad as the one me and my friend jason found on the ps1's Going quackers (quack attack) where we got stuck in a machine and it completely halted the game seconds into it.
Game length - I felt like the game was very short lived it literally took me maybes 4 hours at the absolute most to complete and honestly would have loved if they had a bit more to it levels wise and possibly incorporated another illusion game into this one just to extend it so it wasn’t so short.
IGN gave this game a a rating of 6.7 which is okay, and made some of the same points as i did the fact it looks and sounds great, they reimagined it well, but it had slippery controls it was too short and easy and the boss at the end well... it was a bit tricky personally for me but once you get the timing right and the patterns remembered it becomes an ok play but obviously thats where me and IGN differ on opinion because i didn’t find the final boss awful - just a bit tedious is all. so they gave a lower score than me, but the overall community on IGN gave a higher gamer review score of 7.7, but it is a rating system out of 10.
So overall if we compare the 2 games both the original and the 2013 reboot when they are quite modern games at the time, so back in 1992 and 2013-16 we see that overall out of all these ratings the original was better for its time. But the reboot did not actually do as well despite everyone enjoying it as a whole and loving what they did with it i don’t think that the creators could have done a better job there was bound to be a few things that would bug people because now people expect more from games because they’re made very differently than back then. But hey its one of those things isn't it i enjoyed it but it doesnt mean to say every gamer will or a majority will agree with me because at the end of it all it comes down to preference but i can say hand on heart it was not a terrible or broken game and so at least people can know if you like games and mickey mouse or even nostalgia its worth a try.
Overall game rating:
Right so this is how i rank games and it goes:
1- would i burn it?
2- would i put it in the box of disappointment? (yes i have this and it exists)
3- meh not bad but not amazin either just meh?
4- would i display it on my shelf with pride?
5- would i play it over and over again?
*Cue Drum roll*
And this game gets........3.5 I would like to display it on my shelf with pride.
This was a brilliant, well done graphically designed, musically incorporated game in general there was so many vibrant colours in it, I mean there is so much i could say about this game, but i'm trying to keep this short and as much to facts as i can, but yeah i would say honestly i wouldn't play it over and over again just for the sheer fact of it was so short lived & for me the nostalgia was amazing. But you could probably clock it in less than round 2 hours i think if you power through maybe's even an hour, it just doesnt seem worth it playing through it again because of the disappointment you feel about how short it was to play.
Eitherway guys remember to check out my youtube channel, subscribe, Stay Awesome & Game On!!!
- Written by Chantelle Of Gamer Girl Collects