Of all the cartoon characters of the world, from Totoro to Asterix and Obelix to Tintin, none are more universally recognized than the Disney ones. Micky Mouse is almost more icon than character, Goofy is probably due for a revival any minute now, and Donald Duck practically owns Christmas in Sweden. The cartoons, comics and especially the theme parks keep the characters alive internationally year after year, not to mention the occasional video game. Usually the various characters get their own title to star in, but with Disney Illusion Island Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy all take equally-starring roles in a platfomer-Metroidvania across the weird island of Monoth.
Initially arriving for a picnic, the four are surprised to find that none of them invited the others and in fact is was all a setup by the islanders to request their help. The three magical tomes of the island have been stolen from the library and they need someone strong and daring to retrieve them. Being helpful sorts, Mickey and friends decide they’ve got this, although Donald needs a little persuading. The story is set up in a nicely-animated and professionally-voiced cutscene that has several good laughs in it, and then the story politely gets out of the way of the adventure.
Most Metroidvanias are known for being a combination of combat and platforming but, being an all-ages adventure, Illusion Island ditches the combat for pure platforming action. Aside from four bosses enemies can’t be defeated, and even the bosses are taken down by platforming challenges. Run, jump and avoid is the practically the entire game, but the mechanics to do this keep growing throughout the course of the adventure.
Each one of the crew plays identically to the others, same running speed and jump height, and this extends to the mobility-enhancing gadgets which are visually tailored for the character you choose but with no difference in effect. While it’s possible to complain about the lack of variety, the result is you can play whoever you’d like without being at a disadvantage if their moves don’t fit your play-style. This is part of Illusion Island’s major focus on accessibility, with the game being clearly designed to make both platforming veterans and first-time children happy. Movement assists, easy access to adjusting the amount of health all the way up to invincibility, hints for secrets, and even how long timed elements stay active are all in the options menu, waiting to be activated by a parent who just wants their kid to enjoy the game without screaming too much or using words they’d like to pretend their children don’t know.
On loading up a save you can choose one of the four characters (Donald every time!) and the number of hearts, and for a balanced challenge I found two was just right. The earliest area is the library, at the heart of the island, and it’s got several inaccessible paths that are obviously going to open up as you earn new abilities in the classic Metroidvania progression. At the start all you’ve got is a generous jump, but the friendly pink crocodile inventor Mazzy shows up now and then to provide new devices to enable classic platforming abilities like the double- and wall-jumps, swinging from hooks, ground-pound, and other mobility staples. One of the major tools, however, is available from the beginning, and that’s the world map. Or at least as much of it that’s uncovered so far. Monoth is packed with collectibles of all shapes and sizes, and the map keeps track of it all.
Every collectible in Illusion Island comes with a reward of some type, not in terms of abilities, but rather information and artwork. The most common item are Glimts (not a typo), found in clusters of three, and getting a number of them opens up a new panel of the key art for the area plus a couple paragraphs of lore. Tokuns (again, not a typo) and Mickey Memorabilia generally take more effort to find, but grant monster and character art for the former and collections of movie and cartoon props for the latter. The final item to chase after is less collectible than background detail, the hidden Mickey, which is the classic mouse silhouette embedded in the level art. These can be tricky enough that the hints are enabled by default, with a clear sound effect when you get in range, and while some stretch the definition of “hidden” by being all but blatantly obvious, many are sneakily tucked away and justify the alert. Other than the hidden Mickeys, anything you find is marked on the map to make coming back to pick it up later much easier, and a counter of all the collectibles for each section lets you know how close to 100% you are. Secrets are everywhere, though, and while the walls you’re able to walk through are given away by a telltale notch, some are notably less obvious than others.
The difficulty balance throughout the whole game, in fact, ranges from easy to properly challenging, although death is more an inconvenience than a problem. Initially it would practically take a focused effort to die, turning your characters into an envelope that flies back to the last of the generously-supplied mailbox checkpoints. Anything you pick up is kept, so the only real penalty is a thirty-second walk back to where you’d been. For such a family-friendly game, Illusion Island does eventually ramp up the enemies and obstacles to an impressive degree in its latter half, with spikes everywhere and projectiles firing off from the agitated critters roaming the less-pointy surfaces. The first three bosses all award an extra heart on defeat, though, so by the time you get there even if you’ve downgraded to a single base heart you’ll still have a few extra to help survive the increased intensity.
Closing Comments:
Disney Illusion Island is a great all-ages platform-adventure that works hard to appeal to players of any skill level. Even those finding it too easy should be able to enjoy kicking back with the Disney cast, all of which are well animated with their personality shining through in every movement. The large number of areas can feel a bit samey after a while, and a few more enemy types would have been appreciated, but the escalating difficulty and variety of rooms and secrets makes it hard to get bored. The map tracking of collectibles makes it hard to resist going back to explore and clean up an area, and even after beating the game there can easily be a few sections left half-done. It’s a huge amount of fun to get Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy together in a single large platforming adventure, and Illusion Island doesn’t waste the opportunity to play with its cast of beloved characters.
Disney Illusion Island
Disney Illusion Island is a Switch exclusive that follows Mickey, Goofy, Donald, and Minnie as they investigate the island of Monoth. The 2D platformer has multiple playable characters, 4-player co-op, and hand-drawn animation.
