Castle of Illusion (8-bit)

Castle of Illusion

Master System - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Sega Publisher Sega Published 1990-11-21 Platforms Game Gear, Master System Genres Licensed, Platformer Themes Adventure, Cartoon, Horror Series Mickey Mouse Distribution Commercial

Castle of Illusion - Starring Mickey Mouse is a Mickey Mouse-themed platform video game developed and published by Sega for the Master System on 1990-11-21 and then ported to the Game Gear on 1991-03-21 which is essentially the same, but with a smaller viewable area. Although it shares a title with the Genesis game released the same year, it is a significantly different game, though it is still part of the Illusion series.

In the story, Minnie Mouse has been kidnapped by the witch Mizrabel and taken to her castle of illusion. The player controls Mickey who is trying to rescue her. Mickey must proceed through five dangerous levels of the castle, avoiding obstacles, and collecting the seven Gems of the Rainbow in order to reach Mizrabel's final room to save Minnie.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes. Master System - USA.
Finished	2019-09-06.

I played this game to better acquaint myself with the Master System's catalog of games. Since this was ranked fairly high, it was one of the first I played.

Review

6	6	7	5	4

Best Version: Master System

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game has pretty good controls for a platformer.
• The game has great pixel art and good animation.
• Though it doesn't incorporate any music from the Mickey Mouse franchise, the music was fitting and enjoyable.
• There is a nice amount of variety between the game's levels and the various secrets gives the game a little replay value, which is nice considering there isn't much else to it.

Bad

• There are a couple sections of the game that require rather frustratingly accurate jumps, but most of the game is quite enjoyable.
• I didn't like how enemies respawned so quickly when you left their area of the screen.
• Another damsel in distress game. Ho hum.

Ugly

• The game rather shamelessly uses DuckTales as a template. The control scheme is very similar, the items are similar, you even search for chests and collect money for no reason other than points.
• By using the same title and box art, Sega tricked a lot of customers into thinking they were buying the equivalent of the Genesis version of the game.

Media

Box Art

All regions and platforms use this artwork just with variations to the graphic layout. It's expertly painted, unfortunately, it uses the same art as the Genesis port which is a totally different game.

• 

  North America, Master System.

Documentation

• 

  North American Master System manual.

• 

  European Master System manual.

• 

  Brazilian Master System manual.

• 

  North American Game Gear manual.

• 

  Brazilian Game Gear manual.

Font

The fonts from the Game Gear and Master System ports are in the video game font collection.

Videos

Longplay, Master System.

Longplay, Game Gear.

Play Online

Game Gear, Master System (USA), Master System (Europe)

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	Minnie is a damsel in distress and reward, and Mizrabel is a stock villain.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There isn't any dialogue, only narration.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	There are no humans.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Castle of Illusion - Starring Mickey Mouse
Japanese	ミッキーマウスのキャッスルイリュージョン	Mikki Mausu no Kyassuru Iryujon	Cookie Mouse's Castle Illusion

Links