Gameloft is known for taking inspiration from other, well-known games to make their own. However, Castle of Magic is a bit different in that it doesn't have a single source of inspiration, but rather "borrows" from a wide range of classic platformers.
References to Super Mario Bros.
- The way Wizzy can glide with his hat after running is rather reminiscent of the way Mario can glide with the cape power-up in Super Mario World.
- Basic power-ups appear from floating boxes that have to be hit from below in order to release their contents.
- Power-ups function as an extra hit—if Wizzy gets hit with a power-up, he loses it instead of a life.
- The Temporary Platforms in the game are extremely reminescent of the Donut Lifts in the Mario series—both have a rough, horseshoe-like shape, and Castle of Magic's platforms even have a swirl in the middle where the Donut Lifts have a hole.
- Some levels in Pirate Ship contain platforms extremely similar to the Paddle Wheels from Yoshi's Island—four platforms placed in a windmill pattern, which spin when the player jumps on them.
- The seagull enemies from the Pirate Ship level bear a strong resemblance to the Goonie enemies from the Yoshi subseries.
- The bullet enemies fired from cannons are similar to Bullet Bills, especially in the way that they can be used to reach higher places.
- "Yummy" Wizzy behaves very similarly to Fat Wario from the Wario Land games. Both are caused by eating cake, both make the user extremely slow with little jumping ability, both give them the ability to defeat enemies through Collision Damage and easily break certain blocks, and both wear off after walking for a while. The main difference is that Wario relies on apples to maintain his weight, while Wizzy uses strawberries.
References to Sonic the Hedgehog
- Wizzy speeds up when running and eventually starts moving quite fast.
- Wizzy turns into a spinning ball when he does a double jump.
- Gems act like health for Wizzy—when he gets hit, he drops his gems. Getting hit with no gems is a lost life.
References to Donkey Kong Country
- The swordfish transformation from Pirate Ship is extremely similar to Enguarde the Swordfish from the DKC series—right down to his charge attack.
- The spinning starfish enemies also found in those levels look very similar to Shuri, as they're both orange, spinning starfish with angry faces.
- Cake Land contains sticky walls and floors that behave almost identically to the honey walls and floors from Donkey Kong Land 2: Wizzy can barely walk across sticky floors (although he can walk more than the Kongs could, which is to say, not at all), and he can cling to sticky walls and use them to climb to higher areas. The game refers to them as "icing" floors, but they're even yellow like honey.
References to other platform games
- Wizzy's basic attack is making blocks, just like in Solomon's Key.
- The basic small monsters bear a close resemblance to the Moos from Klonoa. They have a similar body design (Waddling Head with a framed face and two long ears), both have a tendency to pop out of swirling portals, and both are often necessary to turn into platforms.
- The hidden collectibles in each stage get replaced by giant gems after they've been collected, much like how Plot Coupons in Kirby games get replaced by large Stars.
- Certain areas feature floating circles that cause a large number of gems to appear, much like the floating "!"s in Kirby's Epic Yarn that cause large numbers of Beads to appear.
- Wizzy's Hunter transformation has, of all things, a reference to an Inspector Gadget game for the SNES. Wizzy can shoot arrows which make Temporary Platforms on the walls, just as Gadget can shoot arrows that make platforms.
- Some areas require Wizzy to jump on several cloud-platforms in succession, in order to make new cloud platforms appear so he can move on. The original Rayman is full of cloud platforms that have to be jumped on in sequence in order to make the next one appear, and several puzzles revolve around this mechanic.
- Space Land is full of cursed beams that turn you into small flying enemies, letting you reach places you couldn't before. Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy also contains cursed beams that turn you into small flying enemies that let you explore new places, in a very similar way.
- The Inuit transformation behaves very similarly to the Monkey transformation from Shantae: Both can be used to climb any vertical surface, both have similar climbing and sliding-down-the-wall mechanics, and both have a short-range swipe attack.
Shout outs to things that AREN'T platform games
- At the beginning of the Ice World, Wizzy wonders if he'll see any saber-toothed squirrels.
