World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck

"Alakazam! ...Poof!"

World of Illusion is a semi-sequel to the Mega Drive's previous Castle of Illusion game, this being release in 1992 and has the option to control either Mickey, Donald or the two in a two-player game, where teamwork is essential. Certain levels are different when different modes are used, and while in the opening paragraph I traditionally explain the history of the game and related things, I'm not sure if Mickey Mouse needs explaining.

Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck were practising for their next magic show attempt, but were striving to find some original flash to the show. The first attempt from firing smoke from a magic failed to convince Donald Duck, not since it fired him behind a fake tree! Donald then found a spectacular box in the scenery, but a glow from the box sent Mickey quite suspicious. Donald stepped in only to be gone, so Mickey stepped into save him. As they fell through darkness, a powerful voice told them they have to find and beat him. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck have found themselves in the World of Illusion, where the unexpected occurs and dreams become real, can you guide them out and beat the boss?

The world in World of Illusion shares similarities with the Alice in Wonderland world, with five worlds starting from an enchanted forest, to going to a world above the clouds, down again to an underwater adventure, to waking up to in a goldfish bowl in a giant library then eventually going down into a magic box where in a bizarre world where the game eventually concludes. For the three types of play, the basic structure of the worlds are the same, but some levels differ depending on the mode chosen. One method of doing this was by designing levels with entrances that Donald's butt would be too big to fit through, in which case he would resort to an island hopping level up top of the sea. The 2-player games utilises levels that often depend on team play, and where they would help each other, be it with a rope or pulling Donald through a narrow opening to complete the level.

World of Illusion is definitely the typical platform game, but fortunately that's not to say it hasn't been done well. Both characters can attack by whipping out something that looks like a cape, which can stun or turn enemies to bugs. The enemies in each world vary radically, with many that always get in your way or fire things at you, fast depleting your health if you are not careful! Power-ups do exist, be it sweets and cakes lying around that can restore health, invincibility cards or collectable cards where 52 lead to an extra life, but the best one is the firework of all destruction, where a spectacular display stuns everything on the screen and wipes all baddies out. Nice.

While World of Illusion does present itself with a few puzzles and suttle tricks, but World of Illusion is more action and platform jumping, turning walking cards and marching smurf-esque creatures into small harmless flying birds. There is no shortage of enemies, and intelligently try to attack you, lives can quite easily be lost because you get hit so many times from them. The game does make a decent attempt to create a bit of variation, with the second world involving control of a magic carpet (and riding on a leaf-boat on a river with Donald) whilst the third world is centred by being in an underwater bubble, although does turn out to be relatively annoying when there's no way to kill the annoying fish that bite. None of the action is clean and original, and you'll have probably played most of it before, and it's the co-operative 2-player mode that shines most for originality.

The graphics on World of Illusion are nothing short of fantastic, with detailed characters and Mickey and Donald being drawn accurately, typical animations of Mickey and Donald while the backgrounds themselves are equally as good, with many references from Alice in Wonderland. The music is excellent also, tunes well fitted to the type of level, and fast tempo or hard to earth boss theme's depending on the level, plus the inclusion of voice samples for Mickey and Donald, to express pain, etc. is also qute impressive.

The only real criticism of World of Illusion can be the ease of the game and the time it takes to complete. Granted, I'm a 16 year old who whizzed through the game playing as Mickey and lost one life in the process, playing a game designed for seven year olds, it wasn't amazingly hard at that age either. Aside from that, World of Illusion is surprisingly short, when I played this game for the purposes of reviewing it took me 45 minutes from start to end, and while I essentially did skim parts of the game with Mickey for reviewing, it certainly wouldn't take a great deal longer to complete the game casually. Thankfully, there's also the option to play with the ‘other' character, to get more from your games as well.

Graphics Very well animated characters and great backgrounds 9/10
Sound Great background music setting a soothing atmosphere, good voice samples. 9/10
Gameplay Well varied and doesn't feel repetitive, plenty of action 8/10
Length A little quick to play through, but satisfying 7/10

World of Illusion, while not a Mega Drive killer classic, is certainly a commendable game in it's own right and if you see this title labelled at a bargain of GBP2 at Gamestation's it's certainly worth considering, as long as you don't get seen by a bunch of chav's outside the shop. A little short and on the easy side, but with smooth detailed graphics, upbeat music and much varied gameplay, it's traditional platforming action done well. 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/07