There are remakes and then there are remakes. Sega of Australia’s first (and sadly, only) game is a re-imagining of a Sega classic from the early 90’s. Castle of Illusion was released for the Mega Drive back in 1990 and is still considered as one of the better platformers on the system. If that’s true or not can be discussed for hours. Me, I do not love the original, I very much prefer the port for Sega’s 8-bit machine the Sega Master System, a different game in its entirety, but not relevant right now.
One game I however like quite a lot is the remake of the Mega Drive game, which confusing enought has the exact same name, Castle of Illusion. In my circuit we usually refer to it as HD to differentiate it from the Mega Drive (and Game Gear) and SMS versions with the same name.
Castle of Illusion (2013) is a complete re-imagining of the same, mixing 2.5D and 3D. The overarching story and world themes are the same, but everything else i completely new. As for the story, Mickey and Minne are on a romantic picnic. This is unacceptable for the witch Mizrabel, so she kidnaps Minnie. Mickey is of course not happy, so he goes after them.
When it comes for differences from the original there are so much to talk about. For starters the game now has a hub where there are doors to be unlocked. To unlock these doors you have to collect diamonds and beat the different world bosses. You may reenter the worlds if you don’t manage to collect enough diamond. In addition to diamonds, there are other items to collect, that doesn’t do anything for progression but to unlock costumes and achievements.
As the games has been transformed a bit into a collect-a-thon it very appropriate to have Grant Kirkhope of Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie and Donkey Kong 64 fame rearranging the score. The music feels natural and it is mainly just the original tunes that are reworked to fit in with the new aesthetic. There are however a few parts that are new and very Kirkhope-esque.
Mickey controls very well and mechanic-wise it’s very solid except a couple of minor bugs that sadly won’t be fixed since the studio was closed down short after the game was released. Luckily they did have time to release v1.1 which added 60 FPS-support which is a must-have.
This is for me an example of a remake done right, and I’m glad I’m opted for this one and not the Duck Tales Remaster that was released around the same time.
The game is pretty short just like its original so it’s faithful in that regard. There are however plenty of stuff to collect even after finishing the game.
Grukk.com 