I’m going to be upfront with you, this will be one of those reviews where I’ll struggle somewhat to separate what Disney Illusion Island could have been versus what it actually is, so you know, bear with me a bit. Disney Illusion Island Starring Mickey & Friends, to give the game its full title, puts between one and four players in control of Mickey Mouse, Mini Mouse, Donald and Goofy as the cartoony quartet leap, bounce and burrow their way through a mysterious island brimming with peculiarity.
In the first thirty minutes or so, Disney Illusion Island makes a rather good account of itself. Seeming as if the ghost of Ubisoft’s excellent though forgotten platforming series Rayman had risen once more, the platforming shenanigans of Disney Illusion Island feels somewhat akin to the Montpelier studio’s limb-detached hero, as Mickey and all of his mates leap, wall jump, swim and swing around in a fashion that pleasingly resembles the Rayman games.
Disney Illusion Island Starring Mickey & Friends PS5 Review
A Great Introduction For Younger Gamers, But Far Less Essential For Older, More Skilled Players
Much like the Rayman games too, Disney Illusion Island is a real treat for the eyes with charmingly drawn and beautifully animated characters that really look like they’ve leapt out of a 1940s Disney cartoon, with every frame of animation appearing as if all of the love in the world has been poured into it.
There’s also an element of Metroidvania goodness threaded into the weave of Disney Illusion Island’s design as well, since you will invariably come across items and areas that are just out of reach early on and which can only be accessed once you’ve unlocked the requisite ability to do so and then subsequently ventured back. It’s not especially complex stuff that operates anywhere near the level of something like Hollow Knight, but it works and if anything acts as a compelling introduction to Metroidvania design for those who happen to be uninitiated in it.
As it turns out, there’s also very, very little combat in Disney Illusion Island too. I mean, I’m not even talking Crash Bandicoot or Jak and Dexter levels of combat here where you can playfully jump on the noggins of enemies or windmill punch them out of view, and so Disney Illusion Island feels much more laid back and dare I say it, more suitable for the younger folk that these Disney characters are clearly aimed towards. Who knew, eh?
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And well, that’s sorta Disney Illusion Island all over in that by dovetailing with such recognisable child-friendly heroes (with ‘Mickey & Friends’ in the title we were never likely to get some hardcore, genre testing effort), what we actually get is a simplistic, though beautiful looking platformer that very much tailors itself to a younger demographic in both its difficulty and simplicity. And that is completely fine – I just wish that we had gotten something more because the foundations of Disney Illusion Island hint at being able to support something much more challenging and ambitious that would be in line with Ubisoft’s mostly stellar Rayman titles.
So for older folks, Disney Illusion Island will likely disappoint somewhat. Though there are various collectibles scattered around the various areas of the titular isle which often pay some playful homage to classic Disney cartoons and movies, they’re all very straightforward to get and once fully collected, essentially rob Disney Illusion Island of its replay value – something of a problem considering that the game only has a single story mode that lasts for around six hours.
Another issue that afflicts Disney Illusion Island, but which likely won’t be a problem for younger gamers, is that there just isn’t much variety in either the gameplay or the environmental design. With just three unique biomes to explore and jumping, wall jumping and double jumping system that doesn’t really evolve too far beyond that, Disney Illusion Island simply won’t tick the bingo boxes of those older folks looking for a challenging platforming effort.
Oh and speaking of challenge, the notion of difficulty isn’t handled especially well here either, with the three levels of difficulty largely scaling in line with how much your maximum health is. Play on the easiest level of difficulty and you get a full three hearts. Play on the hardest difficulty level meanwhile and our cartoon heroes end up with just a single heart. It’s a clumsy way to artificially manufacture a higher level of challenge, but given how streamlined the game design is in general (not to mention the lack of combat), I can see why perhaps developer Dlala Studios took this somewhat odd approach.
And then there is the co-op side of things. Though you can take control of four very different looking Disney icons (albeit without the sort of drop-in and drop-out functionality one might expect), it transpires that their differences are only skin-deep as each of the protagonist quartet all play identically.
Considering how revered the Castle of Illusion and World of Illusion games were from the 16-bit era for their mastery and level design, there is still absolutely oodles of potential for a contemporary genre effort to hit those highs, while still retaining the roundly attractive visual presentation that we see here. That game however, isn’t Disney Illusion Island. Then again, if your age has yet to hit double digits and the idea of watching live-action Disney remakes and suchlike make you giddy rather than making your eyeballs roll into the back of your skull, or you’re just in the mood for a super relaxing, breezy and zero stress platformer, then by all means feel free to add another point or so to the score seen below.
Disney Illusion Island Starring Mickey & Friends is out now on PS5.
Review code kindly provided by PR.