Together Retro February ‘21 - Mickey & Donald in 8- & 16-Bit

[Note]

Made a few attempts to finish Castle of Illusion on the Genesis last night and this afternoon. It took me a bit of time to get used to the slower gameplay in comparison to other platformers but I'm enjoying the game.

For my attempt last night I got to the boss of the third stage, but had a game over there. On my attempt earlier this afternoon, I made it to the fourth level and went to the hidden section through the milk bottle but ended up getting a game over in that area. I'm gonna continue trying to finish the game.

The only thing that's bothered me so far about the game is the hit detection when throwing an item at an enemy. I've encountered multiple instances where I throw an apple or blue ball and it looks to be on target but then manages to go through the enemy instead of knocking them out.

[alienjesus]

I played through The Great Circus Mystery starring Mickey & Minnie this weekend.

It was a decent game, but it didn't feel very Disney to me somehow - more like Capcom made a game and just happened to put Disney characters in it. The graphics were nice but looked less on brand for the characters than I feel the likes of the Illusion games were.

Mechanically it all controls nicely enough, but I found the difficulty curve very uneven, especially the boss fights which werent hard per se, but took a silly number of hits (10, maybe?) meaning there was lots of room to mess up. With the big hit boxes and floaty jumps messing up was also very easy to do.

My overall perception of the Capcom Magical Quest series so far is that they feel a bit by the numbers and phoned in. There's certainly a level of quality to them, but they don't stand out in the same way Sega's offerings do for me.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I agree, AJ. I’ve played the first, and while it’s pretty, it’s definitely a Capcom game with Disney thrown in. It lacks the Illusion series personality.

Speaking of which, I beat the Game Gear version of Castle of Illusion tonight. It was excellent. It’s a lot of fun; well-designed; not too tough; and very different from the (in my opinion, inferior) Genesis version. It plays a bit like DuckTales, maybe, and looks great, with bright, vivid graphics. I think this may be the best platformer I’ve played for the system, and I’m really looking forward to the sequels.

Are the two Game Gear Donald Duck games as strong as the Illusion games?

[alienjesus]

In my opinion they aren’t, although I think Quackshot on MD is up there in quality. However, that’s not to say they’re bad - they’re definitely still worth a play.

Lucky Dime Caper is a bit basic, and perhaps suffers from a similar thing to the capcom games of not feeling very distinctly Disney. Deep Duck Trouble would be a much superior game on every front and up there with some of the illusion series, but suffers from technical issues and slowdown which can cause lots of unnecessary deaths. I’ve only played the Game Gear version on the latter so no idea if it’s different on Master System.

[Gunstar Green]

I couldn't get into the 8-bit Donald Duck games. They're alright, just not as good as the 8-bit Mickey games and I say that while liking Donald a lot more as a character.

[TheEagleXIII]

Just completed Land of Illusion on Master System. I opted to skip over the 8-bit version of Castle for now as I have vague memories of playing Land a couple times at my cousins as a kid.

As much as I’ve previously enjoyed playing Castle and World on Mega Drive, I’m gonna back up the consensus that 8-bit Mickey Mouse is the best. This was such a fun game, plus it looks great! It is easy to complete, but it isn’t without its challenges. I had to replay many sections a few times, and it still remained fun without ever getting frustrating — as I found Quackshot had a tendency to become. Definitely worthy of a full purchase back in '92.

I don’t have much experience of platformers on the console, but this feels like it should rank as one of the better examples. I enjoyed it way more than any of the Sonic titles on Master System – I'd even argue it's objectively superior. Also, the butt-bump attack is still way more fun than it should be! I'm also a big fan of Mickey sporting his retro 1950s design thanks to the design limitations being in 8-bits.

Lots of neat and interesting ideas here and variety to the gameplay. You gain special abilities as you progress and some of the later levels require you to use these without ever explicitly telling you or hand-holding.

I’ve seen some footage from the Game Gear version and, whilst it’s mostly true to the Master System, it isn’t a straight port. Some of the level design is slightly different - mostly seems to be confined to just shortening parts of the levels without removing entire sections. So might be same for the other titles that are on both systems. If you've got the choice to play Land on both, the Master System version seems slightly better of the two.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I'm also a big fan of Mickey sporting his retro 1950s design thanks to the design limitations being in 8-bits.

This. I started the game tonight, and this is great. He even says, “Swell!” :lol

Also, 1950s Mickey is way, way better than the “cool” early-1990s Mickey in one of the NES games I played earlier this month. That one dressed like a 9-year-old and dribbled a basketball to celebrate finding a number. LLLLAAAAMMMMEEEE.

[Gunstar Green]

I know I've gushed about it before but Land of Illusion on Master System is probably in my top 5 of "hop 'n bop" style platformers. It's just a great looking and playing 8-bit game. As far as Master System platformers go I really like Sonic 1 but Land of Illusion is in another league.

[TheEagleXIII]

The final level shows some obvious Castlevania influences. So much so that my muscle memory must have kicked in and I kept trying to butt-bump the candles on the background to get powerups

[prfsnl_gmr]

The final level shows some obvious Castlevania influences. So much so that my muscle memory must have kicked in and I kept trying to butt-bump the candles on the background to get powerups

I beat Land of Illusion tonight, and you’re right. It is a spectacular 8-bit platformer. Really a top-tier game, and easily one of the Game Gear’s very best. It is just really well-designed and a lot of fun to play. And, as you mentioned, it stars the golden-age Mickey Mouse, giving it a lot of charm.

I followed it up with the somewhat disappointing Legend of Illusion. Like World of Illusion, it looks great, but the gameplay mechanics are less interesting. Moreover, the level design, while varied, isn’t particularly interesting. It’s also ridiculously easy, and I was able to beat it very quickly.

So, now that I’ve run the series, here’s my ranking if Sega’s Illusion games:

Land of Illusion (Game Gear / Sega Master System)
Castle of Illusion (360/PS3)
Castle of Illusion (Game Gear / Sega Master System)
Castle of Illusion (Genesis)
Legend of Illusion (Game Gear / Sega Master System)
World of Illusion (Genesis)