Pixel Perfect
They might look cute but they can still hurt you!
got to be more direct in confronting enemies. As each object is solid, stages also take on minor puzzle elements – removing blocks in the correct order can often be key, lest the player be trapped in their current location.
At the time of Castle Of Illusion’s development, the Master System was being repositioned as a budget alternative to the Mega Drive, with a particular focus on catching younger children. With that being the case, you’d expect the 8-bit version to be the easier of the two to beat – but the exact opposite is true. The major criticism of the Mega Drive game was that it was beautiful but a little bit too easy, but on the Master System Castle Of Illusion is a tricky little game to take down. While each enemy will fall to just a single hit, their attack patterns make them more dangerous than the average platform baddie – clowns in Toy Town can call down a rain of juggling balls, bugs curl up and hurtle downhill at Mickey, and some enemies spawn further threats for you to deal with.
The bosses are all original, too, and some can take a little bit of figuring out. All too often platform bosses are just tough enemies that require a few extra hits, but Castle Of Illusion’s biggest enemies provide carefully considered encounters in which defined strategies rule the day over just attacking mindlessly. We’d go as far as to say that some of them best their 16-bit counterparts – after all, Mickey doesn’t go clock-slaying on the Mega Drive.
Of course, the first half of the Mega Drive’s ‘beautiful but easy’ criticism isn’t a criticism at all. Castle Of Illusion set new graphical standards on the Master System, with highly detailed backdrops and an enormous variety of enemies, all of which are well animated. These provide alternative interpretations of the themes found in the Mega Drive game – where you might find towers of cakes representing sweetness in the 16-bit game, the Master System game provides chocolate, biscuit and peanuts. The Library in the Mega
Drive game is a musty, old-looking place, but on the Master System it’s a modern workspace filled with all kinds of study equipment. But the real star of the show is Mickey Mouse himself, and his Master System iteration is a masterclass in 8-bit sprite design. He’s instantly recognisable and animates just like you’d expect from his cartoons – he doesn’t have to blink as he runs nor wobble on the edges of platforms, but the fact that he does just draws you in.
Castle Of Illusion was a great case of the right people putting together the right game for the right time. It’s easy to look back with cynicism at a platformer starring a very popular character, given the direction videogames would take over the course of the early Nineties – however, it was high quality games like Castle Of Illusion that drove the demand for such games. Plus, when compared to the many imitators that followed, Castle Of Illusion holds up extremely well – few of them offer the excellent progression structure found in Mickey’s 8-bit adventure, let alone the design.
However, some Master System games do offer similar qualities to Castle Of Illusion. That’s no surprise, as Sega recognised the quality of the game and kept the team behind the game largely intact for further platform projects on the 8-bit console. The Mickey Mouse sequel Legend Of Illusion is one of these and is a similarly excellent game, and the team also be worked on other excellent games such as Asterix – even the Sonic The Hedgehog games mention the Castle Of Illusion staff in their special thanks sections. With that kind of influence, it’s pretty clear to see that Castle Of Illusion wasn’t just a great individual success, it was a turning point which raised the bar for Master System games for years to come.