Castle of Illusion (8-bit)
Castle of Illusion | ||||||||||||||||
Master System - USA - 1st edition. |
||||||||||||||||
|
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.
Contents
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.
Documentation
Font
The fonts from the Game Gear and Master System ports are in the video game font collection.
Videos
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
- Video Games
- 1990 Video Games
- Video games developed by Sega
- Video games published by Sega
- Game Gear Games
- Master System Games
- Video Game Genre - Licensed
- Video Game Genre - Platformer
- Media Theme - Adventure
- Media Theme - Cartoon
- Media Theme - Horror
- Software Distribution Model - Commercial
- Video Games I Don't Own
- Video Games I've Beaten
- Video Game Rating - 6
- Video Game Graphics Rating - 7
- Video Game Sound Rating - 5
- Video games which can be played online
- Video games without a strong female character
- Video games that fail the Bechdel test
- Video games without a strong person of color character
- Video games without a queer character
- Video Game Prime Order - Action, Adventure, Strategy
- Trope - Damsel In Distress
- Trope - Women As Reward