Disney Illusion Island Review

GamesRadar

GamesRadar reviews Disney Illusion Island is a kid-friendly Metroidvania that is not as good as its predecessors or the genre's classics, but it is still a great game for younger players.

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00:00Disney Illusion Island is a fun metroidvania for kids that doesn't quite live up to its

00:05retro legacy.

00:17When it comes to gaming, Mickey is probably best known for his Sega's 8-bit and 16-bit

00:21Illusion titles and, while Disney Illusion Island is a revival of sorts that'll delight

00:25kids, it does fall short of rejuvenating the beloved retro series.

00:29The characters have loads of personality, it's fun to jump around and you have lots

00:32of assist options, but the basic environment design, co-op not adding much and it petering

00:37out towards the end means that it's not quite living up to what we expected.

00:42Disney Illusion Island stars Mickey Mouse and girlfriend Minnie Mouse alongside pals

00:45Donald Duck and Goofy, sporting simplified designs, both the animation and comic writing

00:50feel in keeping with the Mickey Mouse TV shows.

00:52In cutscenes, their constantly squashing and stretching facial expressions are wonderfully

00:57and while the script's meta jokes can grate, it's still chuckle worthy and should keep

01:01children entertained.

01:02The excellent animation carries through to the game, with each four of the heroes having

01:05their own distinct run cycle packed with personality, and as you unlock skills to help you traverse

01:10the metroidvania-style island, each one's tools are bespoke.

01:13Mickey, for example, can boost jump with a short-range jetpack that has him briefly snap

01:17on goggles, while Goofy, for some reason, thrusts his hips into a red hot chilli pepper.

01:22Their fun, distinctive flourishes, and with quite a lot to unlock in order to access more

01:26parts of the expanding map, really add up.

01:28It's excellent detail and quite the sight to see all four animating differently, popping

01:32off their own moves in sequence as they jump from one platform to another.

01:36Indeed, the metroidvania structure isn't the only change up to the level-based fare that

01:40came before.

01:41Disney Illusion Island is fully playable with up to four players, enabling some multiplayer-specific

01:45moves such as a leapfrog jump and a Kirby-like embrace that rewards players with an extra

01:50heart of health over their current maximum.

01:52A rope can also be deployed to haul other players to higher levels, which is perfect

01:56if a jumping sequence is too much for a little one.

01:59Illusion Island can be played with any number of players, from solo to the full four, without

02:03the design of the game really changing at all.

02:05That does mean that there's not too much depth to the actual multiplayer in and of

02:08itself.

02:09While the rope move may add a nod to the 1994's World of Illusion game, players are never

02:13required to work together as they were in that opus.

02:16The co-op works best in the odd room where there are multiple collectibles to hoover

02:19up, and boss battles where multiplayer targets spawn and you need to bash to disable them.

02:24Other than that, you're mostly all just hopping one after another down a fairly straightforward

02:28route, occasionally skidding to a halt when you notice a hidden pickup behind a bit of

02:32foreground.

02:33Obviously aimed at younger players, which is fine, the game can often feel frictionless.

02:36Even though you'll only take 5-6 hours to hit credits, what you're doing can get quite

02:40repetitive.

02:41The powers you unlock are expected platforming fare, a wall jump, swimming, a glide, etc,

02:45and the objectives usually just ask you to head to one corner of the map, where you'll

02:49find you need a certain power, which is just around the corner.

02:52Along the way you'll continuously come up against locked doors that always require three

02:55keys from nearby challenge rooms.

02:57There's little here to surprise.

02:59You'll need the map a fair bit, purely because the level design is bland enough for you to

03:03easily get a touch turned around.

03:05While visually each of the three biomes has some fun stuff going on, the platform level

03:09design doesn't move far beyond what you might scribble on the back of a maths book,

03:13and even the odd biome specific hazard doesn't provide much in the way of personality.

03:17It's a shame as the past games in the series were much better at making you feel part of

03:20the space.

03:21It doesn't feel like you're exploring an interactive cartoon, merely navigating cartoon

03:25characters through fairly rigid, boring geometry.

03:28The extremely zoned out perspective doesn't help either, and good luck to you if you're

03:32playing on a small screen because it's just as bad when you're playing solo, but if you

03:36do, you at least zip around quickly and the movement feels great and responsive.

03:40If you die or take a whack, you do always feel like you were to blame.

03:43Combine that with an almost pacifist approach when it comes to avoiding dangerous, often

03:47spiky enemies rather than fighting them, and the shifting gauntlets of jumps can feel a

03:52good way to worm your way through the levels, even if they don't offer much of a challenge.

03:56Still, as the moves add up, you start to feel the lack of, say, Mario's elegant and simple

04:00controls.

04:01The multitude of moves are all mapped to different buttons, which risk becoming over complicated

04:05for younger players.

04:06Mostly an offensive, the loop of jumping towards an objective and occasionally nabbing a slightly

04:10off the beaten path collectible, many of which reference classic Disney cartoons, is

04:15enjoyable enough.

04:16It's a shame then that the final main portion of the game dumps you unceremoniously into

04:20a lengthy underwater sequence without that pleasing cadence, and then into a final challenge

04:24gauntlet that's so stop-start with story scenes that it's hard to appreciate the dialed up

04:30platform challenge.

04:31Disney Illusion Island is a lightweight metroidvania, which is perfect for kids.

04:36Okay, it's not as good as its more level-based illusion predecessors, nor is it as good as

04:40the true titans of the genre like Castlevania Symphony of the Night, but I also wouldn't

04:45expect 8 year olds to get on with those classics as much as this.

04:48While I personally would have loved Illusion Island to feel a bit more like a cartoon world,

04:53and less like a sketch on a napkin, it's Mickey's best platformer in a long time.

04:57We give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

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