In Disney Illusion Island, Mickey and company set out to restore balance not only to an island of adorable critters but to co-op games as a whole.
There was a time when Disney games held their own with the likes of Mario and Sonic, challenging young players with platforming titles based on the animated film du jour. Over the last fifteen years or so, however, the House of Mouse has been more content resting on its laurels with interesting but somewhat formulaic takes on current fads from life sims to live-service racers (and lest we forget, a promising toys-to-life franchise that didn’t stay afloat).
As such, Disney Illusion Island came as all the more pleasant a surprise. A new, original, self-sustained platformer starring Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy, taking inspiration from the recent award-winning animated shorts? And it’s also a multiplayer title for the whole family? And also, it’s essentially a Metroidvania?
It almost sounded too good to be true until I saw it with my own eyes a few months back. Now that I’ve finally had the chance to put Disney Illusion Island through the paces with my own offspring, I’m happy to report that Kirby’s crown of family-friendly multiplayer fun has a promising new contender in nonagenarian Mickey Mouse.
Disney Illusion Island is a platforming adventure for 1-4 players, who assume the roles of Disney’s “fab four.” As the game’s charming intro cartoon explains, they’ve been lured to a mysterious island called Monoth to help its inhabitants, the adorable but defenceless Hokuns, reclaim their precious Tomes of Knowledge. To this end, they must travel to the island’s three varied biomes, using a variety of classic platforming techniques.
The game has a unique approach that many parents should find refreshing. There’s no combat to speak of, and instead players are rewarded for learning the various exploratory skills like wall jumps, perfecting them, and then using them to overcome the bosses scattered across Monoth. Beating the first boss, for example, looks like something lifted from classic cartoons—the heroes use their jumping skills to hit switches around the arena and turn the boss’ machinations against them.
Until now, the Nintendo Switch has flourished with local multiplayer experiences, with first-party titles like New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe and Kirby & the Forgotten Land leading the fray. Happily, Disney Illusion Island leans toward the truly cooperative philosophies of Kirby instead of the chaotic, almost competitive co-op of Mario’s latest adventures.
“The game has a unique approach that many parents should find refreshing.”
Dlala has provided a nigh-perfect set of tools to facilitate family play. Players can adjust their life bars from the outset, allowing older players to make the experience more challenging for themselves or turning off the danger for younger players so they can focus on the platforming and the fun. There are also options like the ability to cling to a wall indefinitely to make wall-jumping easier or a double-jump assist, should players need even more help.
Using these tools is intuitive and doesn’t punish the group in any way; everyone is free to make the experience as fun and fancy-free (or hard) as they’d like. There are even a few in-game special moves you can do with a buddy, like hugging to impart temporary additional help, leapfrogging, or dropping a rope to help a player reach a difficult ledge.
To this end, Disney Illusion Island strikes that sweet spot for cross-generational play that I found so refreshing in Kirby & the Forgotten Land. My daughter had a great time following along, while I still had all the exciting stimulation of a well-polished adventure—yet none of the frustration that multiplayer Super Mario 3D World brings, with players accidentally hitting each other with shells or running out the clock.
“Disney Illusion Island came as all the more pleasant a surprise.”
The game also does a great job easing players into its engine, with introductory stages that acclimatize you to its physics and the timing of more advanced techniques like wall-jumps. Without any real previous experience with things like double jumps, my daughter was quickly following along in my more practiced footsteps. As the developers said at my preview, “playground parkour” is an incredibly apt summary—players get to relish the joy of movement, hopping along from objective to objective with all the cartoon grace of their chosen avatar.
I also marvelled at Disney Illusion Island‘s Metroidvania-like level design. If you had told me a year ago that my kid could pick up a game with complicated multi-step platforming moves and the same approach to exploration as my beloved 2D Metroid, I wouldn’t have believed it. Yet, Dlala has made it happen.
Yes, that does inherently mean that there’s some backtracking and some teasing of future gameplay abilities—I almost began to resent all the ground pound or swinging markers I passed before unlocking their respective skills. However, it almost means the slow drip of dopamine that comes with exploring new areas and finally opening a new area in a familiar zone.
All the more admirably, Disney Illusion Island achieves that Metroid feeling without segmenting the world into screen-sized segments. The camera zooms in or out and pans along with the player, with checkpoints naturally folded into the environment.
The gameplay is well-polished and easy to get into, but what escalates the experience is the sense of whimsy that permeates everything. Disney Illusion Island truly feels like playing in the world of Mickey’s recent (non-Disney Junior) cartoons in all the best ways. The score feels like the atmosphere to a great day at Disneyland or a classic animated feature, while the cutscenes—both the rare, fully animated cartoon kind, and the more common text-based ones—genuinely drip with character and humour.
The team’s extra effort in drawing unique sprite-style animations for each character drives it all home. These characters are icons, after all, and their full personality shines through in their hand-keyed mannerisms. Donald glowers resentfully when offering another player a hug, while Minnie’s tail curls into a heart shape, and the unique tools each character uses to pull off the advanced techniques—like Mickey’s yo-yo for swinging—add that much more personality and distinction.
It’s rare for a family-friendly game to be so fulfilling for so many different types of people, but Disney Illusion Island has something to offer just about any combination on a family game night. I can see it becoming a mainstay both on my personal list of recommendations for other parents, and in my family’s repertoire of software as my kids grow up. What I can’t see, is someone giving this game an honest shot and not smiling ear-to-ear at some point.
