World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck

"The only illusion is that this game is any good."

It's hard being Mickey Mouse. You have giant ears, you have the highest pitched voice this side of Heliumsville, and you have to star in dreary licensed games like this. This time, Mickey is joined by Donald Duck- that short tempered lout that everyone thinks they can do an impression of, but can't. So, what kind of tomfoolery are Mickey and Donald getting up to in World of Illusion? Some first-person shooting perhaps? Maybe a spot of Grand Theft Auto style car stealing and prostitution? Of course not. It's another platform game.

It seems times are hard for Mickey and Donald's cartoon industry- in World of Illusion, they have become magicians! Hooray for Mickey and Donald! Unfortunately, Donald is a bit of an idiot and likes investigating mysterious doorways with evil looking faces on them. ''Thanks a lot Donald,'' remarks Mickey, ''You've got us trapped in a mediocre platform game!'' With our two heroes trapped in the World of Illusion, they have to use their platforming skills to escape. The plot is about as relevant to the proceedings as the fact that I spent half an hour wiring a plug this morning, so I'll quickly move on.

Unfortunately, their platforming skills are non-existent. Whenever I fired up World of Illusion in my rickety old Mega Drive, and quickly flicked through the cheesy plot to get to the 'action', I knew instantly that this game was never going to get a 7/10 or above. Any platformer where you have to hold a run button just to get through the levels at a slow pace is fatally flawed. The first time you play World of Illusion, you'll think the same thing as me- if Mickey moves any slower, cobwebs are going to start growing on him. This lack of pace is completely ridiculous. To combat this, Sega have added a Run button- but even this doesn't increase the speed of the game to a slow plod. Jumping is similarly erratic- are Mickey and Donald playing this game underwater?

The slow-paced nature and generally unresponsive controls of World of Illusion wouldn't be a problem if the rest of the game stayed at this speed, but it doesn't. Enemies charge at you relentlessly, without being bound to the same underwater rules of Mickey and Donald. To attack them, you use a magic cape- but this is one of the worst platform game weapons I've ever seen. Honestly. You see, at close range the cape will kill any enemies. However, it also fires magic dust. This won't kill the enemies, only freezing them. They seem to unfreeze just in time to drain you of precious life.

Despite the dodgy controls, the difficulty in World of Illusion never rises above that of 'cakewalk.' Bosses in particular are moronic, with the AI of a cyber-goldfish. Clearly, this game is aimed at the younger gamer- but they would be more interested in chewing the joypad than playing with this, or content to watch the pretty pictures of the demos watch by.

These pictures are certainly pretty indeed. Mickey and Donald themselves are well drawn and animated, as well as the cavalcade of enemies they face. This is clearly where the majority of the game development time has gone in. Besides, when a game plays as badly as this, it needs to have something good about it, otherwise I would spend this whole time comparing it to undesirable things in a poor attempt to be funny.

This is where the sound comes in. I could have lived with the music- sure, it's repetitive, tedious dross, but then again this is the Mega Drive and I wasn't really expecting the London Symphony Orchestra. But the sampled speech is awful, crackling like a box of fireworks thrown onto a roaring bonfire. Mickey's magic word, ''AlakaSHHHAM!'' is a reoccurring annoyance. Worst still is the ''OuCSSHHH!'' noise upon getting hit, which as you can imagine, you'll be hearing quite regularly. If anyone is beginning to doubt the Mega Drive's ability as an aurally-capable console, I suggest you try out the Lion King and put those fears to rest.

World of Illusion is not a long game. There are five stages, each relatively short, each relatively simple to complete, each relatively boring. With a few mildly interesting deviations from the formula (collapsing tunnels, underwater levels, scrolling stages) this is all bog-standard platforming. If this World of Illusion that Mickey and Donald are in is so amazing and rife with magic, how come the stages are the same as every other generic platform game? The designers could have shown a shred of ingenuity. What's worse, some stages such as the Storm and Teacup World are rehashes of old Castle of Illusion stages. What a disgrace!

With so many faults up against it, I am determined not to let World of Illusion escape this review with a decent mark. The older Castle of Illusion is better. The not-as-old-as-Castle-of-Illusion-but-almost Quackshot is better still, and both are very much deserving of your attention. A sloppily coded cash-in like World of Illusion is not. I guess it could be worse. You could be playing Fantasia.

Overall

Graphics- 8/10
Sound- 5/10
Gameplay- 6/10
Lastability- 5/10

World of Illusion is yet another simplistic platform game that is nothing more than distinctly average. There are far better alternatives available. Most children would be insulted if you got them this game. Play Castle of Illusion or Quackshot instead- they run this into the ground, stomp on its head, and then laugh maniacally at their overwhelming superiority.

64%

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/03, Updated 06/13/03