Like it or not, but recently for the modern gaming industry, the expression “everything new is well forgotten old” has become more and more relevant. Following the re-release of one of the favorite games of our childhood called Ducktail’s Remastered, the re-release of another classic game of the nineties of the last century.
which tells about the adventures of an equally famous cartoon character – Mickey Mouse, who is still popular not only in the American earth, but throughout the world is still a symbol of carefree childhood, joy and fun. Thanks to the efforts of the developers at Sega Studios Australia, we have a great opportunity to relive the same adventures of the famous mouse, recreated in a new quality – Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse.<!–break–>
When starting the project, you need to understand that Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is a reissue of the classic game that was released back in 1990 on the Sega Genesis, known in Europe as the Sega Mega Drive. That is, the developers took the original game and redrawn all the levels, while retaining the basic concept of the game and the features of the gameplay. At the first comparison of the re-release with the original.
it is simply impossible not to notice a cardinal difference in the quality of the picture, because twenty-three years have passed since the release of the game. Of course, few people can be surprised by high-definition video now, but a lot depends on the talent of the developers, as well as on how responsibly they approached their work. In this regard.
there are absolutely no complaints about the guys from Sega Studios Australia, since even with the naked eye you can see that they made the game with soul, because visually it looks just amazing. The levels are so beautiful, detailed and simply well-designed that only a blind person can fail to notice this.
The presentation of the storyline, however, like the plot itself, has undergone absolutely no changes. Through comics and the expressive voice of the announcer behind the scenes, we are told a sad story that once happened to Mickey and his girlfriend Minnie. The wicked witch Mirabel kidnaps Minnie and takes her to a terrible castle of illusions in order to take away her beauty and youth with the help of magic.
Naturally, Mickey goes to save his beloved on a journey full of danger and insidious enemies. But in order to get to Mirabel’s lair, he needs to collect a rainbow of magical crystals, which, in turn, are guarded by numerous minions of the witch and the master of illusions. It is with them that Mickey Mouse has to fight throughout the game, but what can you do to save the lady of the heart, right?
So the adventure begins. As mentioned above, the developers have completely retained the concept and features of the original game. Our main task is to advance through not very difficult levels, collect silver crystals along the way and send enemies to the next world. The levels are still hidden behind the mysterious doors of the castle of illusions and access to them is opened not only after passing the previous level.
but also for collecting a certain number of crystals. But this is not such a difficult task, since it is possible to collect the required number of the latter without much difficulty. Moreover, you can replay any level at any time and collect the missing crystals. Those of them that have already been collected turn yellow, which allows you not to get confused: which crystals have already been collected and which have not yet.
Since modern gaming devices allow developers to technically implement almost all their ideas, the developers of this reissue did not fail to take advantage of this. From time to time, levels from two-dimensional to three-dimensional smoothly flow, which, of course, was hardly possible to realize in the nineties. For example.
the classic scene when Mickey runs away from a huge rolling apple by jumping over tree trunks lying on the ground. Such moments pleasantly dilute the already interesting gameplay. If the original version of the game was completed in about forty minutes, now a complete passage can take about 4-5 hours, and if you set yourself the goal of collecting all the crystals and items, then it will take much longer.
Somewhat far-fetched seems to be the leaderboard, which is already stuffed into almost every game. Points are awarded for successfully completing levels, so just log in and compare your progress with other players. But I don’t want to do this at all, since this competition does not add absolutely any interest to the gameplay.
The same can be said about passing levels against the clock. Once having passed the stage, you can go into it again and run through the already familiar location for a while, and then go online again, look at the leaderboard and … In general, nothing interesting. But let’s not forget that this is a re-release, not a new game, so the developers, in order to please the postulates of the modern gaming industry, simply screwed up the opportunity to compete with other players. No more.
Boss battles haven’t gone away either, but again, it’s amazing how cool they look now. If this had been shown twenty-three years ago, it would have been like a fairy tale. For example, comparing it with the recent re-release of Ducktails, we can safely say that in this sense, Mickey Mouse sent Uncle Scrooge into a deep knockout, because the game about the old curmudgeon could have looked much more attractive. Of course, these two characters have never been and are unlikely to be rivals, but they have a fleeting chance to do so right now.
