GAME CLEAR No. 83 -- Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse

Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (2013, Multiplatform)

Remake Of: Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (1990, Genesis)
Original Developer: SEGA AM7
Original Publisher: SEGA
Remake Developer: SEGA Studios Australia
Remake Publisher: SEGA
Clear Version: Xbox Live Arcade
Clear Platform: Xbox Series X
Clear Date: 2/28/22

For a game that reviewed just so-so at the time of its release, I think Castle of Illusion (2013) rules? If I had to guess (without looking), I’d wager the complaints were largely around the price-to-length ratio. It goes for $15 to this day and is only about 2 or 3 hours long (unless you want to 100% it). I guess I get that that’s not a ton of value for some people, but this game is absolutely overflowing with charm IMO.

The game follows Mickey as he travels to the eponymous Castle of Illusion to rescue Minnie from the wicked witch Mizrabel. The witch plans to steal Minnie’s beauty and make it her own. Mickey must find and defeat the Masters of Illusion (Mizrabel’s boss minions) to collect the Rainbow Gems so he can reach the witch and throw down. He travels through platforming worlds of woods, a toy land, a candy land, and other fantasy zones to accomplish this goal. Mickey controls well enough, and he dispatches enemies (“frees them of their illusion”) by goomba stomping them or throwing projectiles found throughout each stage. Each level is beautifully rendered and accompanied by music arranged by the one and only Grant Kirkhope of Banjo-Kazooie fame. Top it off with some decent voice acting for the main characters and a storybook background narrator, and all this amounts to what I mostly considered an absolute joy of an experience. There was maybe a frustrating jump or enemy here or there, but mostly I was smiling the whole way through.

I really don’t know how this reviewed so poorly when it came out, man. I loved it. If you don’t want to spend $15 on it, I’m sure it goes on regular sale on Steam like everything else does. It’s a delightful way to spend a couple hours.

I guess if I had one complaint it would be that the game won’t let me upload screenshots on Xbox for some reason? I assume that’s some weird Disney bullshit, because I’ve never had that issue on any other Xbox game, 360 or otherwise. Was gonna include some pretty shots I captured in the game, but whatever!