Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
Mouse Tales, awoo-ooGenre: action - platform
Publisher: Sega
Year: 1990
System: Genesis
Gameplay Score: 4
Gameplay Notes:
Took me a while to figure out that you can only bop an enemy after pressing the jump button midair, Duck Tales style. I thought that only some enemies could be bopped and was so confused. Mickey doesn't pogo indefinitely like Scrooge but the same principle applies, making Duck Tales a good comparison. Slow movement. Only 35-40% draw distance but it's manageable due to the slow game speed. Tall jump. Simple platforming. Despite the slow pace it feels nice and responsive. Some performance issues at times like stilted scrolling. Enemies have predictable patterns and respawn endlessly once they go off screen. Feels like an 8 bit title, which isn't a bad thing.
Level Design Score: 4
Level Design Notes:
I was ready to praise the simple linear platforming and level design until I got to level two, which is a tall shaft requiring a long series of precision jumps. It was far more annoying than fun and I was very glad once the climb was done. Cheap enemy placement and blind jumps were everywhere. In fact, cheap enemy placement is the main problem with this game. However, there's lots of variety and the annoying second level is an anomaly. Most of the levels are well thought out and have interesting features. It's not the same two encounters repeated over and over like most licensed games.
Theme Score: 5
Theme Notes:
So cute. So very very cute.
Art Style Score: 4
Art Style Notes:
Looks like an SMS game. A beautifully drawn, dynamically colored, meticulously crafted SMS game. What it lacks in technical prowess it makes up for in charm
Audio Score: 3
Audio Notes:
Has a few nice songs in it but they sound very last gen. And not even to the quality of NES titles. The comparison to DuckTales really hurts this one as the compositions are nothing special when compared to DT's sublime soundtrack.
Overall Score: 79
Review ID: 815
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