Castle of Illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse is a platformer developed by
Sega in 1990 for the
Sega Genesis and
Sega Master System.
The game takes place within the eponymous Castle Of Illusion. Mickey must take it upon himself to rescue
Minnie Mouse from the clutches of
Mizrabel the witch, who has kidnapped her in order to steal her youth and beauty. The player must battle through six stages and confront each stage's boss. Only with the gem from each defeated boss can he then build a rainbow bridge leading to the castle tower to face the evil witch in a
final battle.
Cue classic side-scrolling and all the glory of 16-bit graphics and sound.
In 1992, it went and had two sequels:
Land Of Illusion and
World Of Illusion. A few years later, an additional sequel was released known as
Legend Of Illusion. 2012 will see a
Nintendo 3DS companion game to
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two going under the name
Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, officially billed as both a fourth, direct sequel and an
Epic Mickey game, in which the Castle of Illusion has been transported to the Wasteland and Mizrabel seeks to escape from it by draining the essence of popular Disney characters.
In the wake of this release, Sega is planning an HD Remake of the original game set for release on
PlayStation 3,
Steam and
Xbox 360 set for release in Summer 2013.
This game provides examples of:
- Abnormal Ammo: The Genesis game gives you apples, marbles, and candles to throw at your foes.
- Asteroids Monster: The letter A's from the Master System version.
- Auto Scrolling Level: The cakes and sweets section in the Master System version.
- Backtracking: In one of the sections in the second level in the Genesis version, the door to exit is at the beginning of the level, but you need to climb all the way to the top to find the key.
- Bottomless Pits: A standard hazard.
- The Cameo: In the sequel, you can summon Scrooge McDuck to attack enemies. He bounces around on his cane.
- Clock Tower: The fifth level of the Master System game.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Bizarrely, in the Genesis version, when Mickey ends up defeating the evil witch and preventing her from stealing Minnie's youth, she actually takes them both back home. On her broom. Whilst they snuggle up on a bench swing.
- Distressed Damsel: Minnie Mouse.
- Easier Than Easy: The easiest difficulty level is essentially a heavily abridged version of the full game. Large sections of each level are omitted, and the game ends after the third level.
- Expy:
- The evil witch's character model is based on Queen Grimhilde of Snow White—both in her "hag" guise when she's old, and in her normal incarnation when she's becoming younger in the final battle.
- Land Of Illusion has the Phantom as the final boss...but he's a recoloured version of The Horned King from Disney's The Black Cauldron!
- Follow the Money: Diamonds in the Genesis version.
- Goomba Springboard
- Goomba Stomp: Unlike most games that feature this, Castle of Illusion requires an additional button press in mid-jump in order to stomp enemies, making it more like a Ground Pound than usual.
- Heart Container: Present in the Master System version.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: Cake in the Master System version.
- Ledge Bats: In the third level of the Genesis game. The bats have a tendency to jump out at you right as you're crossing a gap.
- Level Ate: The third level of the Master System game and part of the fourth level of the Genesis game.
- Load-Bearing Boss: A strange example of this. Once the final boss is defeated, the castle begins to fall apart, likely as a result of the battle, considering she's still alive and in fact has to flee alongside the heroes.
- The Lost Woods: The first level of both games is a grassy woodland. In the Genesis game, it phases from Green Hill Zone through deeper and darker (and, in some places, spider-filled) woods to a haunted forest toward the end.
- Lucky Seven: Seven gems, seven bosses (six in the Genesis version).
- Macro Zone: A giant study or library forms part of the fourth level of the Genesis game and the entirety of the fourth level of the Master System game.
- Never Say "Die": Lives are referred to as "tries".
- Punny Name: Mizrabel*.
- Quicksand Sucks: In the Toy Time stage. Okay, it's more like Quick-Jelly, but it definitely Sucks.
- Spring Jump: The second level has springboards for you to jump on.
- Super Not Drowning Skills: In the stages where you can swim, you never run out of air.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: You can't jump high enough to stomp the second stage boss. Don't worry, he'll start releasing helpful springs for no real other reason than chivalry. You can also cheese him by hiding in a corner.
- Toy Time: The second level of both games.
- Water Level: The third level of the Genesis game, which transitions from a lake with islands to flooded ruins.
- When Trees Attack: The first stage boss in the Genesis version is a living log that jumps out of the tree it's resting in and rolls towards you. What? It Makes Sense in Context... sort of. The Master System version just has a tree as the first boss.
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