Review: Disney Illusion Island – Mediocre Mickey Metroidvania

Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy have been summoned to the mysterious island of Monoth. There, they are tasked with a quest to recover mystical tomes of knowledge to save the world.

Disney Illusion Island is a tame Metroidvania title accessible to all audiences. Even if you’re not a fan of the Walt Disney Company and its mascot, the title is entirely serviceable if you’re willing to give up a few tropes typically found in these types of games.

But first, we’ll look at what the game does right: collectibles (kind of). You’ll find Mickey Memorabilia, Tokuns, and Glimts throughout each biome. Each unlocks something different, but only one directly affects your gameplay experience.

Glimts are used to unlock additional health upgrades, allowing you to take more than the default three hits. They also open concept art, some of which is way more interesting than what was used in the final game.

Mickey Memorabilia unlocks various stylized props and costumes from Mickey Mouse’s past, going back to the 1930s. Sadly, the unlockables cannot be applied to your in-game character. Nope. There’s no costume-swapping here.

The Tokuns are collectible cards that give you more information on the residents and creatures of Monoth. Oddly, some cards you collect are for characters you won’t encounter until much later in the game, somewhat spoiling what’s to come.

So, there’s plenty of reason to explore once you’ve acquired the necessary traversal skills. However, a useful tool needed to make jumping around the map easy isn’t unlocked until you’re almost done with the game. We’ll get into that later.

Now for the gameplay elements missing from a game of this type.

The most prominent missing staple of this genre is combat. There is none in Disney Illusion Island. Aside from hitting some objects to make others fall on a boss’s head, you have zero offensive capabilities. No apples to throw, no magic, no nothing.

While this makes the game family-friendly, it also means the gameplay loop is restricted to jumping, swinging, swimming, and gliding. It certainly requires a modicum of skill in the later levels, but it doesn’t feel very interesting early on.

Maybe that’s made up for by the game’s story? Not really. It’s rather generic, with the only thing making the cutscenes worth watching is the voice acting of Bill Farmer, Bret Iwan, Kaitlyn Robrock, and Tony Anselmo. You’re getting top-tier voice talent here, and it shows. While the cutscenes aren’t as quick-witted or clever as the recent Mickey Mouse shorts, the cast does their best with the limited script.

Corey Burton also does a great impression of Han Conried as the narrator. It’s just too bad there isn’t enough of that in this game.

The “Ilusion” of the Island is that of the heroic quest you’ve been undertaking. Three-quarters of the way through the game, you’re hit with a not-too-well-hidden twist. If Disney Illusion Island were more of a Castlevania clone, we would have to do the entire map over again with various changes and loads of new enemies. Sadly, that’s not the case.

It’s at this point that we finally get a fast travel system. Each and every mailbox you’ve passed is now a fast travel marker. Yes, we’re almost to the end of the game and are now allowed to traverse multiple biomes quickly. Ugh.

Although this is helpful for picking up the last few Glimts you may need to get the final health upgrade; it comes too little too late because the other collectibles do not add to your odds of surviving the final boss.

Disney Illusion Island has a simple premise and relatively fun, if not shallow, gameplay loop. It’s perfectly fine. However, something about this doesn’t feel like it was made from the ground up with Mickey and company in mind. If the famous animated characters were removed and replaced with, say, Rayman or a new cast of heroes, would you be able to tell this is a Disney property?

Where Castle of Illusion and other retro Disney titles felt like they were part of the animation company’s world, Illusion Island feels like it’s a generic Metroidvania game wearing a Mickey Mouse skinsuit. That’s the biggest letdown; Disney Illusion Island doesn’t take advantage of the vast array of the company’s 100 years of characters, settings, and iconography.

The in-game animations of the core characters and enemies are great, if not sometimes hard to make out, because the game likes to zoom out. This is to make room if you have four people playing at once. This doesn’t do much for the gameplay until you face a boss. Then it makes the multi-stage battles a breeze.

As mentioned before, almost no Disney history is built into the stages. It’s all new and sparse. The game was made for four people playing at once, and the developers did not change how crowded the biomes were if only one person was playing. You’ll occasionally see something in the background that’s animated, but you get used to seeing a lot of plain backgrounds.

When games like Ray-Man Legends and a plethora of other titles in this genre are readily available, there’s little reason aside from being a fan of Disney to pick up this game. Its replayability is lacking; the biggest challenge is going through the entire game with only one heart. However, since the checkpoints are generous and lives are infinite, is that much of a challenge?

The game had been part of a sale before it was even released. If you’re going to get it, I would wait for it to be discounted.