The 90s were a great time for games. In between the ferocious (and, looking back, hilarious) console war between Sega and Nintendo, and the rapid advancements in gaming technology and design, came a little game called Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse.
Coming during what could be considered as the best era for Disney games, not including Kingdom Hearts or the smattering of fantastic titles on the original Playstation, Castle of Illusion stands out even arguably amongst The Lion King or Aladdin for quality.
In this game, the player takes control of Mickey Mouse (shocking, I know) as he is forced to enter the aforementioned Castle of Illusion in order to rescue Minnie Mouse from an evil witch named Mizrabel, who wants to steal Minnie’s youth for herself.
He meets and has a quick chat with the castle’s true owner and king, discovering that in order to defeat Mizrabel he must find the Seven Gems of the Rainbow within the various rooms of the Castle, that disguise themselves as various mysterious locations.
This is where the game kicks off, with the first door revealing a forest locale that slowly transforms from a bright and colourful forest of sentient mushrooms to a creepy haunted wood complete with ghosts for Mickey to jump around and explore.
During the journey, Mickey also plunges into a life-sized toy box, a castle, and a land made entirely of cakes and other kinds of sweets. There’s some minor level repetition, but the introduction of new enemies and other threats keeps the challenge up.
Our personal favourites include the tea sections, where you’re swimming through giant cups of tea with a sickening amount of sugar cubes floating in it as the obstacles. It was just such a different section of gameplay and really added to the mystery of the castle.
Speaking of enemies though,
