![]() Certain enemies can snatch away up to three hearts per attack, while a brush with spikes will set you back a heart and a half. Again, it's not too noticeable an issue until later stages, as the level design is at least fair earlier on. It's not helped by a punishing health system. Water streams push you towards spiked walls at a rate only marginally slower than Mickey's strides, ceilings are set so low that you end up bumping them even with the shortest of jumps you're needlessly shoved into danger at every turn in these sections. Here the level design punishes movements that were perfectly acceptable in earlier areas. Unfortunately it's ruined by a horrendous difficulty jump in the frustrating final third of the game. It takes some getting used to, but controls decently once you've mastered it. Much like Castle of Illusion, the walking speed is on the slow side, while jumping is floaty the 16-bit game's movement is emulated well. This is never necessary, though we did like that we could summon Tinkerbell and her pixie dust to give us better jumping – er, “flying” – abilities at any time. You can call on friends or special items by tapping an icon and carefully splodging some paint in the right places, too. The difference between adding or removing something from the environment is a little obtuse too: to draw an object, you only trace the outline to erase, you have to rub over the whole thing. The drawing input is accurate, but there's no need for it to crop up quite so often, and there's only a small number of objects to actually scrawl - saving the mechanic and using it more sporadically would have made it feel more special. Given the relative lack of stereoscopic 3D, it might have made more sense to put the platforming on the touch screen so that players could draw into the levels directly without stopping and starting. The platforming comes to a complete standstill whenever you do this the main play takes place on the upper screen, and when you enter painting mode the top display freezes while the bottom screen's usual map is replaced by a gigantic outline of the object you need to draw. The flow is also broken fairly regularly by the drawing mechanic, which pauses the action whenever you're doodling to uncover hidden characters or to build a series of platforms to navigate around a hazard. It's a pretty basic platformer with balance problems, hugely easy in some areas, infuriatingly unfair in others. Unfortunately, Power of Illusion doesn't play as nicely as it looks. Small voice clips played whenever Mickey engages in a text conversation are of good quality but don't always fit fully there seems to be a limited bucket of samples that has been dipped into for every situation. Recognisable takes on famous music stream out as you play, though they're punctuated by Mickey's high-pitched yelps a little too much. Unfortunately the 3D effect is basically non-existent, however, the backgrounds simply further back without any clever layering. ![]() Cute, detailed sprites populate the world Mickey and enemies alike are animated well, while the backgrounds clearly represent the appropriate Disney films. Castle of Illusion is one of the most harmless games I have played in a long time, and for a change that works in its favor.It looks great. ![]() A must-have for fans of the original, for fans of platforming games, and for parents who need a safe game for kids with no violence or sexuality. The game is very short, so I feel that future DLC would be a great idea. The atmosphere and cheer generated by Castle of Illusion make it the perfect Xmas game, I think Sega could have made it a bigger hit releasing it closer to December, or at least offering an Xmas-themed DLC. Grant Kirkhope's fairy tale score is full of cheerful melodies and compliments the visuals perfectly. The level of detail in the levels is astounding, though, strangely, it feels more like a remake of World of Illusion (which I prefer) in many parts. The levels are 2.5D recreations of the Mega Drive counterparts all with a warm narration which makes it feel like a bedtime storybook as well as a cartoon. Mickey follows Mizrabel into the Castle of Illusion where he must work his way through the many floors collecting diamonds to create a rainbow bridge to Minnie's prison cell. Mickey and Minnie are enjoying a picnic when evil witch Mizrabel kidnaps Minnie and plans to use her to regenerate her youth. The magical world created for this remake is so magical and enchanting it feels like a Disney cartoon that you control. Castle of Illusion is one of the classics from the Mega Drive era and was ripe for re-imagining in high definition.
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