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The Castle of Illusion worship thread

I

Instigator

Banned
Here's an old school gaming thread to separate the boys from the men. :)

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I remember seeing Castle of Illusion in my video rental store in the early days of the Genesis, the Disney license was an immediate turn-off so I skipped it as long as I could, renting more manly stuff such as Air Diver and Fighting Masters. After a while, I had seen everything I wanted and it was time to take some risks with those lesser games on the store shelves. To my amazement, Castle of Illusion was a great game, among the very best on Genesis.

I don't know if it was by design, but this is one of the games Sega used to counter the Super Famicom (SNES) launch in late 1990. Sega of America didn't really push it because it was waiting for Sonic to counter the US launch of the Super NES. IMHO, I think COI is just as good, Sonic was just more novel as a game and probably a better weapon in a mascot war.

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COI, while a fairly typical platformer at first glance, is a game filled with imagination. The production values are also high with a soundtrack that seriously rivals anything in Sonic. If you compare it to other games at the time like James Pond, it's like they're from two different generations.

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And perhaps what makes COI even more unique is that the semi sequels SOJ came up with, Quackshot and World of illusion, with just weren't as good (I think the horrible Fantasia was done by SOA). I'm not sure what happened, but it is entirely possible those games were seen as system sellers anymore.
 
Castle of Illusion's one of the very best platformers, ever. The game oozes charm, and I'd say it's as much an art game as something like Ico is. There are so many satisfying little flourishes to be found in the game... the way the leaves flutter, the way the dew collects on the spider webs, the satisfying knock it makes when Mickey's head hits the ceiling... and that's just the first stage.

I replayed it late last year, and it's lost next to nothing... The graphics, the music, the gameplay all hold up. It's a timeless classic.

BTW, I think you're doing Quackshot a disservice lumping it in with World of Illusion, however. It's filled with charm and it has cool play mechanics.
 
I got this game with a japanese mega drive along with Dick Tracy and Monaco GP i think. Fantastic game, the levels and music were very well designed, the music of the ghost level was etched into my head for years.
 
Man, I absolutely loved that game. I can still hear the boss music.

Quackshot was a decent game I thought, and I liked that World of Illusion had the two-player co-op mode. Fantasia...yeah, that was a train wreck.
 
Wow. I haven't even thought of this game for many years. This was one of the first games I remember being inspired to buy based on a glowing review (most likely from EGM). A beautiful, enthralling game. I really do need to dust off the Genesis and play this again.

Thanks.
 
Anyone remembers that COI partly inspired the first Bubsy? You could feel it in the very first levels, the way Bubsy crush enemies and the way levels would go topsy-turvy.

Bubsy still sucked though, except for some of the music. :)
 
CO_Andy said:
Hav you been reading PLAY magazine?
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I was thinking the exact same thing, but this game is a timeless classic. This was one of the early titles that cemented my love with the Sega Genesis. I must've beaten this game 50 times. Still own the cart and pop it in from time to time. God that game brings back good memories.......
 
I remember being blown away by Fantasia's graphics years ago. The animation was so lifelike and such a great step up from any other games out at the time. I remember playing Castle of Illusion just briefly, but looking at those shots makes me want to play again, those graphics look really good. So I'm not the only one who remembers how much ass Disney games used to kick back in the day?
 
Castle of Illusion was released in my sophomore year of high school...late '90 or so. Bubsy was released in, like, '93 or something..and it sucked, yes...it did. Don't see the resemblance, though. -edit- read that wrong :lol -- Oh, and fantastic game...one of the very best pure platformers ever created. I remember the NEC/Sega/Nintendo arguments well back then :lol.
 
I have beaten Castle of Illusion more times than any other game I have ever played. I have always loved Disney, and this could possibly be the greatest Disney game ever made for the consoles, along with Ducktales (not counting Kingdom Hearts, though if I did it would rank up there also).

edit - also IMHO COI still has some of the best 2D graphics ever. pretty impressive for a game that is 15 years old and released on a system with marginal colors (64 simultaneous).
 
This was one of the few games that kept my Game Gear from being completely useless. This was one of two Mickey games my mom got for our Game Gear, and they surprised me. Don't remember the other one, but they were both pretty enjoyable. I assume the Genesis version was a lot better to get a worship thread like this. The Game Gear version was good, but I'd say the Magical Quest games on SNES and GBA are better. Of course I had to deal with the terrible ghosting and battery life of the Game Gear, so that could have tainted it.
 
I think the Game Gear/Master version is a rough approximation of the Genesis version, with some levels changed. It's the same thing with the first Sonic.
 
COI can be a pretty challenging platformer on the hard difficulty setting. Not frustrating though.

One complaint that I would dare level at the game is the controls are a tad too loose.
 
Instigator said:
One complaint that I would dare level at the game is the controls are a tad too loose.
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I don't think the controls are loose so much as some of the enemies have tiny hit zones.

Trivia: EGM rated this game 9, 9, 9, 9. :D
 
I loved Castle of Illusion and Quackshot, though I only owned the latter. Another awsome Disney game was the Mickey and Minnie game for the NES where you jumped into paintings and attacked by shooting stars.
 
This thread reminds me that I still need to scoop this off Ebay:
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It's a shame I gave away my Genny collection when I was too young to know better. :-(
 
ratcliffja said:
I loved Castle of Illusion and Quackshot, though I only owned the latter. Another awsome Disney game was the Mickey and Minnie game for the NES where you jumped into paintings and attacked by shooting stars.
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Mickey Mousecapades? I think that might have been Capcom's first Disney game. I didn't really love it... I thought the GB Mickey game Mickey's Dangerous Chase was far superior. It had Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers-style box throwing mechanics.
 
Unison said:
I don't think the controls are loose so much as some of the enemies have tiny hit zones.

Trivia: EGM rated this game 9, 9, 9, 9. :D
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I know there's a policy against mag scans at GA, but what about mag scans from 15 years ago? Can you buy those anywhere? Does EGM lose a sale by posting such a scan?



Mods, feel free to edit if this is against the rules.
 
..... This was the first game I played on the Megadrive and I loved it. "Sonic the Hedgehog" was the second game followed by "Streets of Rage". ...
 
Never really got into Castle of Illusion, but played plenty of World of Illusion at a friends house. going back to it now, you just never realised how SLOW the game is compared to something like Sonic :)

I LOVED Quackshot. Such a deep game for the time period. you had huge amounts of levels, weaponry [Yellow, Red, Blue? Plungers, Bubbles..], and back peddling [Like going to Mexico to get Red Plungers, and going back to Duckberg and going up the wall to meet Gizmo and get the Bubbles].

We need a god damn DS compilation of Castle / World / Quackshot. Chuck in Dime Caper / Land / Legend from the MS for the hell of it.
 
Man, COI was one of the greatest! The first time I saw that Candy Land-like stage, I almost passed out. This was the first time I've ever seen 4 (or 5) layers of scrolling background. Heck, I can't even remember any arcade games (at that time) that had that amount of background scroll.
 
Castle of Illusion, Quackshot and World of Illusion were all developed by Sega of Japan. Fanatsia was developed by Infogrames, Sega just published it in America and Japan.
 
Until about half way reading this thread, I was thinking this game is World of Illusion, which I used to play a lot as a kid.

I've played Mickey Mania and World of Illusion, both of which I enjoyed, and this game sounds excellent. I've gotta track it down.
 
Instigator said:
I know there's a policy against mag scans at GA, but what about mag scans from 15 years ago? Can you buy those anywhere? Does EGM lose a sale by posting such a scan?



Mods, feel free to edit if this is against the rules.
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That scan not only brings back memories of the game but also of when EGM was the best mag in the biz. Sigh.
 
I definitely played a shitload of some early Genesis Disney platformer. I forget which, but I'm willing to bet it's Castle of Illusion.

I'm really wanting to play this right about now.
 
Madrin said:
Until about half way reading this thread, I was thinking this game is World of Illusion, which I used to play a lot as a kid.

I've played Mickey Mania and World of Illusion, both of which I enjoyed, and this game sounds excellent. I've gotta track it down.
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World of Illusion is best played with two players.

There are some similarities between WoI and CoI, but greater care has clearer been put in CoI.
 
Mickey Mania is prettier, has smoother animation and features fancier effects, but the game itself is an average platformer.

Mickey Mania, like Toy Story, is more of a technical showpiece, IMHO.
 
COI rocked. Incredible music, art, and atmosphere. When the entire level became inverted in stage 2, it had me hooked. :D Fairly easy even on the highest difficulty level, but a great game nonetheless. The animation was peerless back in the day.
 
Castle of Illusion, World of Illusion, and Quackshot are all fantastic. Fantasia, however, is quite possibly the worst 2D platformer I've ever played.
 
Many people are confusing this with World of Illusion which is pretty much inferior in every way, imo.

If you've only played World, DEFINITELY check out Castle. It's a more straightforward platformer w/ none of that co-op 2 player crud.

And Check out Quackshot too while you're at it.
 
Yes its bloody brilliant game. As many above posted it just oozes the exact thing missing from alot games today. That perfect charm, atmosphere, a true piece of artwork. Wish we had more these and landstalkers on genesis.
 
Slightly off topic, but I was always surprised that Disney didn't get more into games themselves given their history of animation. They have always been in it, but back around the NES/Genesis time frame I think they had a window to really be a dominant player, but never seemed to take it all that seriously. They have made more of a push the last several years, but to me it sometimes still looks like Disney corporate is not fully committed.
 
sonicfan said:
Slightly off topic, but I was always surprised that Disney didn't get more into games themselves given their history of animation. They have always been in it, but back around the NES/Genesis time frame I think they had a window to really be a dominant player, but never seemed to take it all that seriously. They have made more of a push the last several years, but to me it sometimes still looks like Disney corporate is not fully committed.
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I guess they have conservative executives who don't know how to exploit new technologies, despite a series of developers lining up to use their properties and profit from them.
 
Yeah, COI was definitely an awesome game. In fact at the time, the game was so good, it actually took away some of the "oomph" of the release of Sonic the Hedgehog. COI was released towards the end of 1990, and Sonic was released later that summer.

BTW, here's an interesting link that provides some background info on Mickey's many Genesis adventures: http://www.sega-16.com/Feature- Mikey Mouse.htm
 
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