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Mickey Mouse plus Metroidvania? It’s better than you’d think - Disney Ilusion Island Quick Review

2K View2023-08-01

Disney Illusion Island

ActionAdventureMultiplayerPlatformer

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PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?

Play it. Disney Illusion Island is a charming, cartoony platformer starring iconic characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. This enchanting Metroidvania only falls slightly short due to its lack of difficulty and lightly repetitive gameplay. Regardless of those issues, it’s one of my favorite games to play with friends right now and one of the best platformer titles I’ve encountered this year.

TIME PLAYED

I played Disney Illusion Island for four hours, beating the first boss and retrieving one of the three books I was tasked with hunting down. I’m currently making my way to the second boss.

WHAT’S AWESOME

• A lighthearted Metroidvania experience. Disney Illusion Island provides a series of endless surprises and enjoyable bouncing and dashing that kept me and my friends entertained for days. Even though there’s no monster slaying, Disney Illusion Island still manages to grasp that Metroidvania feel through its extensive map filled with locked and hidden areas and quests that lead to new discoveries and abilities. It’s a lighthearted and unique approach to the genre that I’ve enjoyed navigating with others.

• Playing with your friends. Disney Illusion Island’s greatest selling point is the fact you can play with your friends. Watching my friends repeatedly fall onto spikes or die to lasers in boss fights was great chaotic fun.

• Embarking on a mystical journey. I’ve always known Mickey Mouse and his friends to be obnoxiously optimistic and positive. It was refreshing to see this crew in a more relatable and grounded light in this story. The narrative explores the gang helping people recover stolen books on the island of Monoth, and although they’re still heroes in this tale, they’re a lot more funny, witty, and down-to-earth.

• Exploring a seemingly endless labyrinth. Disney Illusion Island is a game explorer’s biggest dream come true. Simply traversing across multiple biomes and finding every piece of treasure and resource has given me so much joy. The map is incredibly large and filled with hidden rooms.

• A charming and whimsical atmosphere. Not only is Disney Illusion Island absolutely charming and filled with so many lovable, cartoony characters, but the background music that supports this adventure is equally enchanting.

• Hugging other people is good for you. I found it really cool that hugging other teammates would give me one free hit point in Disney Illusion Island. Although it always capped at one life, I could continuously refill that meter with a hug, which made progression more breezy.

WHAT SUCKS

• It’s not that challenging. Getting through Disney Illusion Island is a walk in the park, even on the hardest difficulty. There was never a moment in the game where I felt challenged or frustrated over a puzzle. And although I enjoyed calmly traversing scenic environments, I still found myself wishing for more of a struggle.

• A bit repetitive. After playing for around two hours, Disney Illusion Island becomes a little repetitive. Despite the environments and character interactions freshening things up, most of the quest objectives are pretty much the same: travel to an area, find a bunch of keys to unlock a door or look for something, learn something new, and repeat.

💬 Are you going to play Disney Illusion Island or will you pass on it? Let me know down in the comments!