Castle of Illusion: First Impressions

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

Please use this thread for your initial impressions on playing the game.

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

This was the first Mega Drive release I ever picked up with my Asian Mega Drive and the amazing music has instantly hit me again. There's something so joyful about the game's set-up (I love the little dance Mickey does with Minnie) and the music is so, so cheerful. I'm just sat here humming along to it and haven't even started playing yet.

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

Lol. I just got crushed by that gigantic apple on the first level. Totally forgot about that.

[thevulture]

Darren?you are a star! This was one of THE 1st games i had on my MD after i up graded from an atari 520ST

Wonderous parallax scrolling,great sprites and man,did i love level 4?was it?sweet themed level,swimming in a cup of tea.Just a beautifull piece of work.Thank you-great 1st choice.

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

Darren?you are a star! This was one of THE 1st games i had on my MD after i up graded from an atari 520ST

Wonderous parallax scrolling,great sprites and man,did i love level 4?was it?sweet themed level,swimming in a cup of tea.Just a beautifull piece of work.Thank you-great 1st choice.

No worries, but it's only going to work as a two-four page feature if we can get loads of readers contributing to it.

[Havantgottaclue]

I bought Castle of Illusion a couple of years ago, most likely in an attempt to get all of RG's Perfect Ten for the MD. I only played it once though. Despite having excellent visuals, I found the leisurely pace not to be to my liking. Getting only just as far as the leaves section at the end of the first level, I fell to my death, thought 'so what' and soon gave up on it in favour of a game of Zool instead.

Having just spent another half hour or so on it, I can see that it has an awful lot more to offer than I first gave it credit for. The second level, in a toy shop of some description, is full of clever touches. Such as in the first sub-level, when you get to the top and find the key for the exit, no sooner do you think, 'now I have to traipse all the way back down to the bottom where the exit is' than all the platforms turn into slopes and you get to slide all the way down, easy as you like, collecting diamonds along the way. And in the second sub-level, you come across icons with vertical arrows on them - touch them and they flip the screen upside-down! What at first appears to be an impediment is actually quite helpful, as when the display flips, any enemies on the screen will plummet to their deaths.

So, are all these excellent ideas enough to distract my attention from the more high octane run and gun thrills I'm more at home with? Well, for a while perhaps, although I still find the somewhat stodgy inertia in Castle of Illusion a bit off-putting. Still, it's a game which rewards a considered approach, and on the basis of the second level, I'm intrigued to see what other tricks the game has up its sleeve in later levels.

Mention should be made of the music too - I may have been spoiled by some of the excellent SNES games I've been playing lately, but the music in Castle of Illusion is well written and atmospheric.

[Spooky]

I remember being extremely sad when the witch captured Minnie... and because I didn't have a MD so I couldn't rescue her!
But years later, I finally did it. And I was really impressed with the graphics, it was quite faithful to the Disney universe.

[Havantgottaclue]

I've just noticed that it wasn't in the RG Perfect Ten for the MD, so I must have bought it after reading a Retrorevival or something.

[felgekarp]

The first time I saw this was when my mate lent me his Megadrive, he brought this round with it and we spent most of the night on it, managed to finish it that night as well. I do remember being very impressed with it but I've not played it since then, I'll have to give it another whirl and see if it still holds up, which I suspect it does.

[Zombi]

Thats a hell of a grin Mickey has on his face given the severity of Minnies situation.I'm all for looking on the bright side but that mouse is clearly in denial.

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

Forgot how many little secrets are in this. It's no Mario in that respect, but it definately pays to search through the levels with a fine tooth comb.

[MediaCult]

Thats a hell of a grin Mickey has on his face given the severity of Minnies situation.I'm all for looking on the bright side but that mouse is clearly in denial.

I also like that after he's been through quite a lot of sick, evil worlds with monsters trying to kill him, he never fails to be curious when he with a smile says: "I wonder what's behind this door!"

[sirclive1]

I sent off for Castle of Illusion through a magazine swap service (sega power i think ?) , when it arrived i was blown away , the music , the graphics , it felt just as though you were actually playing through a disney cartoon , i completed it within a week , mainly due to hammering it everyday. A gorgeous game !!

[thl]

I played the MD version at one of my friend's place in the early 90s and I was so amazed by the presentation of the game. Very colourful graphics, exhilarating gameplay, atmospheric BMGs and the difficulty level was well balanced. It was interesting to have Disney characters to break into the video game scenes and this proves to be an instant classic.

[SexyWayne]

bloody big apple, i forgot about that one too , i've just played up until level 2-3 loving it and so are the kids, a little easy but still enjoyable, and even tho it's starting to show it's age the gfx and animation are still very good

and like havant said about the flipscreen switches i remembered what they did and told the kids to watch what happened, they sat there amazed at their dad's upside down jumping prowess and shouting for me to run faster when the blocks turned to slopes