World of Illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck is the 1992 sequel to Castle of Illusion developed once again by Sega. It featured the titular duo being trapped in a magical world and their attempt to escape.
The story begins with Mickey and Donald practicing for their upcoming magic show. Donald accidentally stumbles into a mysterious box and proceeds to investigate further despite Mickey's reservations. The two step into the box and find themselves sucked into a strange land. An evil wizard informs them they have fallen into his trap and must learn a few new tricks if they are to stand a chance of finding and defeating him. And so the duo battle their way through Disney inspired lanscapes to try and find a way home.
Gameplay was similar to the Castle of Illusion but without throwing projectiles and featuring co-operative play, more levels, better sound and graphics. Able to play as either Mickey or Donald solo, the game was actually slighty different depending on what character the player chose to control (Donald's solo levels are a bit harder than Mickey's solo levels). It even had unique co-op sections (2-player mode only).
World of Illusion is also the first video game in which Mickey and Donald are both voiced, by Disney regulars Wayne Allwine and Tony Anselmo no less, even though the only things they say are, "Alakazam!", "Ouch!" and "Wow!"
World of Illusion, along with Castle of Illusion, was included as one of the games in the Sega Genesis Mini, which was released in 2019.
This Game Provides Examples Of:
- Alice Allusion:
- Stage 5 is clearly based on Alice in Wonderland, at least the first area: a green garden where the cards from a red and a black suit wander; black and white pawn pieces with a dork-looking face on them; a line of pressable dice, with a written placard saying "PRESS ME".
- In Mickey's solo playthrough, the next two areas are Queen of Hearts's Castle's dining rooms, and end with Mickey walking through a giant looking glass.
- In Donald's solo playthrough, the player traverses the Queen of Hearts's hedge maze.
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: In two player mode, after clearing the first segment of Level 5, Mickey and Donald have to replay segments from the previous levels, including the flying carpet and minecart from Level 2, the ocean from Level 3, and the Christmas tree from Level 4.
- American Kirby Is Hardcore: Inverted weirdly in the Japanese cover
◊. Donald is really happy and reaching for something while Mickey looks really annoyed about it. - An Asskicking Christmas: One portion of the fourth level is set around a Christmas tree and decorations, with Mickey and Donald fighting evil Jack-In-The-Boxes.
- Another Side, Another Story: Not only do both Mickey and Donald have exclusive level acts, but there's a third set of levels for the 2-player mode.
- Auto-Scrolling Level: Mickey's version of Stage 5 has a segment where he enters a mirror, which leads into an area where the screen automatically moves to the right, and he must avoid various obstacles while trying to keep up.
- Big "NO!": When you fall down a Bottomless Pit.
- Bleak Level:
- In Mickey's version of level 2, he has to traverse a thunderous peak, a bald one but not The Bald Mountain, where he has to dodge lightning bolts and falling rocks.
- The final part of level 3 takes place in a sunken ship on the ocean floor, with dreary hallways, falling tridents, sharks jutting out of the floor, and a water trap (despite the level taking place underwater).
- Bubble Shield: Donald and Mickey cast a magic bubble over themselves to be able to traverse the underwater depths of stage 3.
- Butt-Monkey: Donald, as usual. In co-op play he gets stuck in some openings and needs the Mickey player to pull him through, and the unique areas in his solo campaign tend to be harder than the ones in Mickey's.
- Christmas Episode: A section in Stage 4 during co-op mode has Mickey and Donald enter a Christmas gift box. Inside, there is a whole Christmas-inspired section, with Christmas trees and Christmas decorations.
- Co-Op Multiplayer: A lot of novel ideas in this area for the time. When playing together, co-operation was required to squeeze through trees, lower ropes after giving the other player a helping hand up, and timing jumps to move a see-saw cart through a mining cavern.
- Cosmic Motifs:
- In the last two sections of Stage 5 before the final boss, the background is decorated with dark blue curtains bedecked with what appears to be constellations: a bird-like shape, a balance, a lyre or harp, and a centaur wielding a bow.
- The background of the last boss's arena clearly shows nebulae, a star map and the repeated image of a planet.
- Creator Thumbprint: Takashi Yuda's signature can be seen in the background of the final battle.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: When Donald enters the world inside a book in Level 4, he finds enemies made out of their name's letters.
- Forced Transformation: Mickey and Donald attack their enemies with magic that they fire out of their capes, which transforms the enemies into more harmless forms.
- Friend or Foe?: Players can attack each other in Co-Op, causing Mickey and Donald to get hilariously stunned.
- Giant Spider:
- In the last section of Stage 1 (which is the same for 1P-mode, as well as co-op), a spider lair, the player finds middle-sized spiders as Mooks throughout the area. Enemy spiders are coloured with a red head and brown and yellow stripes, while friendly spiders have black head and are red and yellow-striped which help the player jump across a lethal gap by weaving a thread of web as pathway.
- Stage 1 Boss is a very comical Funny Animal Giant Spider, with a red head and a black and purple-striped "back".
- Golden Ending: If two players beat the game in Co-Op, both Mickey and Donald play their magic acts from their individual endings one after another.
- Help, I'm Stuck!: There are a few parts in the game where Donald can get stuck, and Mickey has to pull him through. One part in Level 3 requires him to literally leave an area just because he couldn't fit through a gap that Mickey could get through.
- Human Ladder: In two-player mode, Mickey and Donald can jump on top of each other to use them as a platform to jump to higher areas they couldn't reach alone.
- Law of 52: Collecting enough playing cards is worth an extra "try."
- Level Ate: The giant cookie box in Level 4 leads into a land made of candies and desserts, with the majority of the platforms being made of giant cakes. Enemies include planes made of gummy candy, chocolate bars that attack by throwing peppermint spears, and peanut butter cookies.
- Level in the Clouds: The final segment of Level 2 has Mickey and Donald having to jump across clouds high up in the sky. The cloud platforms are surrounded by bottomless pits on all sides.
- Macro Zone: Level 4 begins inside a giant library, with Mickey and Donald platforming around giant books and bottles. They even enter a giant box of cookies to access the dessert world.
- Magical Land: Donald and Mickey enter a creepy-looking magic box and are transported to a strange world.
- Magic Carpet: Stage 2 begins with a segment where Mickey and Donald ride a flying carpet through the sky while avoiding obstacles like tornadoes.
- Magical Mystery Doors: Donald has to go through a maze in his version of the final level.
- Magicians Are Wizards: In-game, Mickey and Donald appear to be simple stage magicians, when they find the secret magic closet and enter a strange world. In this new world, Mickey and Donald can turn the endless Mooks into harmless creatures by swinging their capes over them, and after each boss learn a spell that is useful for the next level.
- Minecart Madness: The co-op version of Level 1 contains a segment where Mickey and Donald must rhythmically jump up and down on opposite sides of a pump-cart in order to move it along a track.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: Mickey and Donald don't kill their enemies. They simply turn them into more harmless forms with a wave of their magical cloaks.
- Noob Bridge: The first level has a vertical section with ramps. In single-player mode, these ramps have weights which allow the player to reach the top with ease. In two-player mode, these weights are gone, forcing the players to cooperate for the first time: one player is used as the weight, then the other drops a rope to help the "weight" reach the next tier.
- Oxygenated Underwater Bubbles: Mickey and Donald travel underwater inside one during Level 3. Justified because they're bubbles formed by magic.
- Palmtree Panic: Donald's version of Level 3 has him hopping across islands, floating barrels, and inflated rafts across a tropical sea. Falling in the water costs Donald a try; so much for being a duck.
- Player Elimination: The co-op mode uses a shared pool of Video-Game Lives, however, when the second-to-last life is lost, the surviving player gets the option to continue in the 1-player mode (eliminating the co-op partner) if they don't want to share the final life. Also, when a character dies with lives remaining, the partner has to touch him to revive him.
- Portal Book: In Donald's solo playthrough, the player can enter a Donald-only section: a storybook, where things are made of the letters of their names (e.g., a wolf's body is made of the letters 'w', 'o', 'l', 'f').
- Secret Test of Character: The duo are apparently being tested by the wizard who summoned them. Over the course of their journey, they learn new magic, and he seems quite happy to have been defeated.
- Shout-Out: Filled with a variety of Disney locations, characters and music.
- The opening has the dark music from Sleeping Beauty when they discover the magic box.
- The Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland can be seen in the foreground on the first level.
- The "Heigh-Ho" theme music from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs whilst going through spider filled cavern. Also with all the glittering gems in the background it's probally based on the mine the dwarves work in.
- The second boss is Elliot, although smaller and purple.
- You fight a shark in a sunken ship wreck in Level 3 much like The Little Mermaid (1989).
- Once you jump out of the fishbowl, you can see a fimilar fish inside it: Cleo. Cleo also appears a few times through Level 3.
- Madam Mim is the boss of Level 4, fought in the Cookie Box segment.
- The beginning of Level 5 is pretty much dominated by Alice in Wonderland references, from the level design and music to the playing card guards and the strange Mad Hatter chess pieces chasing you.
- Stage Magicians: What our heroes were practicing for before being trapped in another land. They return to reality just in time for a performance.
- Stealth Mentor: It seems the wizard who brought them to his world wanted them to become better magicians than even himself.
- Super Drowning Skills: You die (sorry, lose a try) if you fall into water during most areas that contain it.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: The characters learn a spell to create an air bubble around them so avoid this during the Underwater level. However, when they are out of the water, falling into water still kills them.
- Threatening Shark: A shark that looks like the one from The Little Mermaid (1989) appears as a boss in Level 3. It moves around the room very quickly, trying to take a bite out of Mickey and Donald.
- Trapped in Another World: What happens to the main duo, forcing them to fight through a variety of different worlds just to return to the real world.
- Under the Sea: Level 3 includes the bottom of the ocean, an underwater cave (in Mickey's solo play), underwater ruins (in co-op mode) and a sunken ship. When the player and the character enter Stage 4, turns out the level took place in a gigantic fish bowl.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The Final Boss, Pete in his Mickey's Christmas Carol incarnation, is significantly darker than the rest of the game. However, subverted that he only looks seriously menacing, but means well. See Secret Test of Character.
