The last time I played this game I was just a kid, in fact, I don't remember completing it, but I do remember playing it quite a bit as well as its "prequel" Castle of illusion, these two games are a visual wonder, that takes us to magical worlds with the most emblematic Disney characters. I had forgotten these games for years and I was a little confused about the names of these, that's why after several years I played the "sequel" first and then Castle of illusion, so the review of Castle of illusion will be in a few days more, since today's review will be about the game starring Mickey and Donald.
Today's Retro Review is about: World of illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
The plot of this game is the simplest thing you can imagine and just a pretext to place our protagonists in some of the craziest situations of their lives, although being Mickey and Donald the protagonists of these games, it is not unusual to see them in situations like these. It turns out that the two of them (Mickey and Donald) were performing magic tricks, they were rehearsing to see which one was the best of the two, however, "something goes wrong" and they are sent to a world of fantasy and magic. Therefore, their whole adventure in this place is to escape from there. So simple but effective, since during this magical adventure the situations that our protagonists will go through are some of the most entertaining you can imagine.
Graphically this game is beautiful and over the years has been maintained in a spectacular way. It is a game with a pretty good level of detail and with an outstanding level of art. As expected from a Disney game of that time, it is a very colorful game, with very detailed sprites and character designs, with elements that make them stand out very well from each other. Simply a beautiful game, one of those few that nowadays make you appreciate retro and make you remember good memories of your childhood.
The scenarios are "magical" and I think there is no other word to describe them and it fits very well with its argument, because in essence that's what it is: Magic. There is a wide variety of scenarios that change as we advance in the adventure, all these scenarios with their respective elements and details that make them stand out on screen.
World of illusion is a game that knows how to represent very well the charisma and personality of Mickey and Donald, adding animations and expressions that, despite being "minimal" details, is something that is to be appreciated since it adds more depth to the technical aspect and in itself, it is a visual gift for the players. World of illusion is a highly imaginative, colorful and magical game in its graphic aspect, one of the best of its time.
Do I need to say something which is quite obvious about this section? Not really, but I'll say it anyway because it's my review. So, how obvious it is, of course the sound section of this game is another genius, spectacular music that is worth of redundancy, knows how to convey all the magical aspect that transmits this game visually, through its sound section. It is simply spectacular, both the sound effects and the music, creating together with the spectacular visuals provided by this game, a visual and sound combination to admire. Perhaps my words are a bit exaggerated, but I really played World of illusion again after so many years and listening to the first bars of its soundtrack, brought back so many memories and memories that I had completely forgotten. Similarly, the digital voices are an addition that brings more personality to Mickey and Donald, although these are characters that have personality and charisma to spare, it is to appreciate how dedicated the programmers of this game were at the time of its creation.
Unfortunately I will only mention my experience with this game from the single player perspective, since this game has a two player gameplay, which changes a lot the gameplay and mechanics, because unlike other games, in World of illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, using Mickey and Donald we must "help" each other to overcome the obstacles and puzzles during the adventure, being the two player mode extremely entertaining to have to cooperate between two players to advance in the story. I would have really liked to see that aspect of this game since I was able to see some gameplays of the cooperative mode and you can see that it is much more fun to play it that way.
World of illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck is just one of the many games of the platform genre in the video game industry, despite being one of the most abundant genres of video games and that many of them are simply a copy of others, this game in particular, stands out above many others for all the above mentioned throughout this review, that despite being a game that mechanically did not innovate too much, it is due to that simplicity in mechanics and gameplay, but that in turn, these elements are so well made and implemented in the controls, is what makes this title one of the best of its time and its genre of video games.
Our characters will have a basic attack which consists of using a cape as a kind of "magic baculum", with which we will throw magical trails of deadly energy, thus eliminating from the face of the earth creatures with designs, for the most part, quite childish. A game I say Disney. Lie, these enemies will be converted into objects or animals completely harmless to the player, so it is equally as creepy as the previous thing I said. Imagine for a moment that Mickey invades your world and when you defend it, he turns you into a flower for the rest of your life. Now I see this video game with another perspective and it's weird. But anyway, as for the gameplay aspect, it maintains many of the main features of platform games, such as advancing through scenarios full of enemies, solving puzzles and defeating final bosses, the classic.
Overall, World of illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck is a gem of a video game without a doubt and I'm looking forward to playing Castle of illusion, to see if World of illusion was an improvement over its prequel. Although both are still games that at least in visuals, graphics and art, are beautiful.
