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TEMBO THE BADASS ELEPHANT
Game
Game2013
Castle of Illusion
Developer SEGA Studios Australia
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is a 2013 2.5D platform game developed by Sega Studios Australia and published by Sega. The game is a remake of the original 1990 Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive video game of the same name, which was the first title in the Illusion series of Mickey Mouse video games. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
295 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy) · newest Nov 2, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
85
LovedLoved
154 positive · 28 negative
95% range 79–89%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 154 | 28 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 42 | 2 | 58 |
| Mastodon * | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 4 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
1,774 of 1,990 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
85% recommend · 152 yes, 26 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 178 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (4,081 of 4,508 positive).
Players praise the game for its nostalgic value and faithful remake of the original. [1][2][3] Many reviewers note the game is short but beautifully crafted and fun. [4][5][6] Some players report technical issues, especially crashes on modern hardware. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [7]
Castle of Illusion is rly fun little game ... then why you see I do not recomend it? Couse it doesn't work on most up to date computers. You can either say I'm unlucky or just lack the skill nessesary to make this one work on Windows 11... but I checked all solutions I could find. None worked. So this is my warning: Don't buy this unless you have old PC or Laptop. The only reason I could beat this game is my old …
- [1]
Nostalgia hits me whenever I play old games that have been remastered. Back in the day, my father used to get us all the newly released games on summer breaks. Castle of Illusion was one of my favorites back then, playing it constantly with my siblings on Sega Genesis. This reimagining of the game did so well, covering all the stages and even the soundtracks beautifully. I enjoyed every moment of playing it. The …
- [3]
Castle of Illusion is a carefully crafted remake that balances nostalgia with modern presentation, reintroducing one of SEGA’s most beloved platformers to a new generation while honoring the charm of its 16-bit origins. Developed by SEGA Studios Australia and published by SEGA, the game revisits Mickey Mouse’s classic quest to rescue Minnie from the sorceress Mizrabel, transforming what was once a sprite-based …
- [5]
It's a very short game if you don't complete the collectables. You can finish it in less than 3 hours. Beautifully crafted (but too short!) levels. Pretty lighting. Kids can play it. Platforming is not snappy sometimes.
- [2]
Another nostalgic game in the books. I remember not being able to get past certain levels and just sticking to the first few levels when I was younger. Now as I'm older, I 100% the game and little me couldn't be more happy to finally see the ending of a classic childhood favorite.
Summarised from 34 of the 272 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 10, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Players who liked Castle of Illusion talk about nostalgic and faithful to the original game; those who didn't talk about game is very short, around 2-3 hours. Which matters more to you?
Critics, per Wikipedia
The iOS version received "favorable" reviews, while the PC and console versions received "average" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. IGN praised the Xbox 360 version's presentation while critiquing its slippery controls and a short length. Joystiq called the PlayStation 3 version "both a great remake and a showcase for the key elements that make a great platformer". GameSpot praised the Xbox 360 version's fun platforming while lamenting unskippable cutscenes. Official Xbox Magazine called the same console version "a fun update to yesteryear's classic, but also a solid platformer in its own right".
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 295 · most liked first📖 Bytes of Game Ads 📺 For both 8 and 16-bit SEGA in 1990 and 91 - Castle of Illusion *starring* Mickey Mouse. Still one of my favourite Disney platformers and my favourite 8/16 bit Mouse game.
positive · AI labelView post →I believe Christian Whitehead has confirmed Sega approached him to team up with Sega Studios Australia to develop Episode 3, but plans fell through pretty early. Sega Studios Aus created Castle of Illusion HD, so it wouldn't have been a Dimps game. Would've predated Sonic Mania by 3-5 years.
neutral · AI labelView post →35 years ago, SNES Final Fight was on Mean Machines' cover. Other top reviews: Mega Drive Castle of Illusion (95%), ESWAT (87%), and Crack Down (84%), and NES Gremlins 2 (87%) and Dr Mario (88%). A wee bit of a post-Xmas game lull, but Castle of Illusion was an absolute cracker!
neutral · AI labelView post →A scene of menacing cuteness for your feeds this morning with my favourite 16-bit Mickey Mouse game: Castle of Illusion. G'morning, y'all. 👋💜
positive · AI labelView post →Well .. Got my next game in the illusion series today ! MICKEY MOUSE CASTLE OF ILLUSION Sega Master System #Sega #RetroGaming
neutral · AI labelView post →I think a really good "context game" for Sonic 1 is the previous premier mascot platformer on the Genesis, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse genuinely a fun and charming platformer, and also a solid touchstone for why Sonic blew people's fucking minds in comparison
positive · AI labelView post →35 years ago, I was heading into Xmas playing this absolutely terrific Mega Drive game. Castle of Illusion sounded fabulous, played brilliantly, and looked like a million dollars. A real landmark platformer that was the perfect Mega Drive demo game to wow your friends with!
positive · AI labelView post →Nostalgia hits me whenever I play old games that have been remastered. Back in the day, my father used to get us all the newly released games on summer breaks. Castle of Illusion was one of my favorites back then, playing it constantly with my siblings on Sega Genesis. This reimagining of the game did so well, covering all the stages and even the soundtracks beautifully. I enjoyed every moment of playing it. The story about Mickey and Minnie, who were enjoying a beautiful afternoon in a forest,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm determined to beat Castle of Illusion on Game Gear this weekend. I'm on level 4 so making good progress! The clown boss from level 2 gave me war flashbacks from childhood.
neutral · AI labelView post →In the 1998 movie La Cena (The Dinner) by Ettore Scola, a Japanese (?) kid plays a Game Boy (with a Super Mario Land 2 cart?), but then we are shown the Master System version of Castle of Illusion. I'd guess they did that because GB games would look bad on a screen, but you had the Game Gear!
neutral · AI labelView post →While doing this chart show i found this proper brilliantly cool game on the PS3 which once they turn off the shop will be lost ….so if your a fan of the master system Castle of Illusion then check out the 2013 version its amazingly good youtube.com/watch?v=5RFT...
positive · AI labelView post →I never worked at a video store, but I had a friend who did. We worked out a scam where we would come into the store, make fake memberships, rent video game systems and games, then walk out with them, never to be seen again. That's how we got our Sega Genesis and Castle of Illusion.
neutral · AI labelView post →/MISC/ contains art from a variety of other projects. There is some sort of Akira title, a piece of art from what looks like it could be related to the Castle of Illusion Mickey Mouse games, and art of Leonardo in the style of the 1990 TMNT movie. Was there going to be a TMNT movie game??
neutral · AI labelView post →I managed to get my cheap, knock off Everdrive working with my Sega Megadrive and now I have every game ever released for it :) just been playing Castle of Illusion on my CRT telly. It’s like I’m 11 again. Bliss
positive · AI labelView post →Happy 35th birthday to the Super Famicom of course - but let's not forget about another birthday: 35 years ago today, Sega's Castle of Illusion was released in Japan. This game kicked off Segas amazing run of Disney-games and showed that Sega really can do amazing console-style platformers!
neutral · AI labelView post →Rando Saturday Review: Castle of Illusion This Mega Drive game absolutely blew us away when it arrived in late 1990. The graphics were sumptuous, the parallax scrolling fab, it sounded fantastic, and it played brilliantly. An absolute stone-cold classic; a Mega Drive must-have.
positive · AI labelView post →its the game i watched billion times when i was a child and now im adult buying games^^
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →just like they had in ©Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse™ (1990) on the Sega ©Game Gear but i will also insist it is not retro and cake levels need to make a comeback actually
neutral · AI labelView post →Biggest gaming disappointment? Fantasia on Sega Mega Drive. I loved Castle of Illusion so much, it’s one of the best games ever…. So when a new Disney game was released…. It was unplayable.
positive · AI labelView post →We need more games like this one. Not everything has to be a triple A or a competitive game with microtransactions.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wanted to share this when I finished the game, but as we crawl closer to moving things have been a bit hectic. Regardless, just a fun little bit about Castle of Illusion. cozy-corner.blog/2025/11/12/e...
neutral · AI labelView post →Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is a platform game developed and published by Sega. Castle of Illusion is the first game in Sega’s Illusion series and is considered by many to be one of the best Mickey Mouse games out there. Have you played it?
neutral · AI labelView post →Mega Drive Monday & as today happens to be Mickey Mouse's birthday, here's one of my favourite games on the system, Castle of Illusion #SEGA #retrogaming
positive · AI labelView post →EXTREMELY CONTROVERSIAL OPINION: I think QuackShot is a better game than Castle of Illusion
positive · AI labelView post →Whoch reminds me, I say this game deserves a visual remake like with Castle of Illusion, only that the Mickey Mousecapade one should be in a lovely 2D-animated style kinda like a metroidvania.
neutral · AI labelView post →Caught me off guard. Short, sweet, and fun as hell. Wish Disney made more games like this! I’d legitimately play every one of them.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Castle of Illusion is rly fun little game ... then why you see I do not recomend it? Couse it doesn't work on most up to date computers. You can either say I'm unlucky or just lack the skill nessesary to make this one work on Windows 11... but I checked all solutions I could find. None worked. So this is my warning: Don't buy this unless you have old PC or Laptop. The only reason I could beat this game is my old quite beaten up Laptop that was with me for 8 years. I am gratefull for his…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →that's a wrap on Castle of Illusion (2013). lovely late 7th gen Sega game overshadowed by the launch of the PS4. a lot of twists on the 1990 original, and some shared DNA with the Sonic series. dirt cheap on Steam sales (<$5)
positive · AI labelView post →Game 181: Mickey's Castle of Illusion Not much to say about this one, it's just a nice, joyful little platformer starting Mickey Mouse. It controls well, looks lovely and has a super catchy soundtrack. Neat stuff!
positive · AI labelView post →My friend Joe recommended I check out Castle of Illusion, and I'm surprised I never got around to it sooner! Very charming game. I highly recommend it to anybody looking for a great Genesis platformer.
positive · AI labelView post →Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is probably the one pre-Sonic Genesis game I still go back to. It holds up incredibly well.
positive · AI labelView post →For about 30 seconds I was hoping that Epic Mickey on the 3DS was a secretly awesome game as a stealth sequel to Castle of Illusion. But the levels are awful and it uses the touchscreen like a 2006 Nintendo DS game. All the fun is just sucked out of it like it was an Epic Mickey game.
negative · AI labelView post →Another stream that went very well as I have completed two games that I've replayed in one stream: Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse and Rugrats: Search for Reptar (I've planned to do Star Rail, but decided on the first Rugrats PS1 game instead since I wanted to relive childhood memories)!
neutral · AI labelView post →Another nostalgic game in the books. I remember not being able to get past certain levels and just sticking to the first few levels when I was younger. Now as I'm older, I 100% the game and little me couldn't be more happy to finally see the ending of a classic childhood favorite.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Day 1: Your First Video Game Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse - hopefully this counts because this is the first game I physically played. I was 2 years old and it was on my mum’s Sega Mega Drive. It mesmerised me at such a young age and I would say led me to being the gamer I am today!
positive · AI labelView post →Mickey uses the chaos emeralds to stop a witch from becoming a baddie.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game was my childhood, genuinely. Every day I got home from when I was 7-12 I would play this game, and I was GOOD at it. I was so good, I didn't even need guides for the secrets, I LEARNED, how the game devs thought, and I reacted accordingly, keep in mind, I was doing this on my dads old ♥♥♥♥♥♥ KEYBOARD, so I couldn't walk, or throw objects, I just had to pray to god it was good enough, In the end, it was surprisingly enough. In fact, this game kind of defined my taste for a few years, I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Post the first game you actually completed! Pretty sure it's Castle of Illusion on the SMS, which felt crazy as a kid seeing how much we struggled, even though it's not too hard of a game I remember being scared of playing anything else than the practice mode which gave shorter 3 first stages
neutral · AI labelView post →SEGA, where's my Castle of Illusion 2? It's been years already, c'mon!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →01. A 3P action adventure. Wind Waker but with Mickey Mouse. 02. A rhythm game full of public domain music. 03. A boat racing game. 04. A platformer, Castle of Illusion style. 05. Metroidvania about finding color in a b&w world. There’s five ideas better than a shock-value cash grab with a kids IP.
neutral · AI labelView post →The Epic Mickey bit feels a bit slapped on though, it’s definitely more of a a Castle of Illusion (MD) sequel. The touch screen stuff is a bit of an issue for the game flow, nothing overly annoying though - I’ve seen way worse in the DS era.
neutral · AI labelView post →It's a very short game if you don't complete the collectables. You can finish it in less than 3 hours. Beautifully crafted (but too short!) levels. Pretty lighting. Kids can play it. Platforming is not snappy sometimes.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Castle of Illusion is a carefully crafted remake that balances nostalgia with modern presentation, reintroducing one of SEGA’s most beloved platformers to a new generation while honoring the charm of its 16-bit origins. Developed by SEGA Studios Australia and published by SEGA, the game revisits Mickey Mouse’s classic quest to rescue Minnie from the sorceress Mizrabel, transforming what was once a sprite-based side-scroller into a fully realized 2.5D adventure. Rather than attempting to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It was popular in Australia too. Going to the video store and looking through the racks full of the checkerboard master system boxes for a game to hire. Ghouls n Ghosts, Altered Beast, Penguin Land, Ghost House, Golvellius, Aztec Adventure, Fantasy Zone 2 come to mind. Watching mum and dad play My Hero for hours, trying to get just a little bit further. Getting hit by a car whilst taking a game back to the video store. (Not the most magical memory but I can’t think of master system without…
neutral · AI labelView post →The "Castle of Illusion" remake was actually my first exposure to that game. I didn't even know about the Genesis version until several years later. And shortly after THAT, I found the 8-bit version on Master System & Game Gear.
neutral · AI labelView post →My biggest gaming disappointment was, and remains, Fantasia on the Sega Megadrive. Castle of Illusion was tremendous, and the addition of Disney’s Fantasia to the mix should have created the best game on the system…
positive · AI labelView post →I had one as a kid. That thing went through batteries so fast, I messed mine up because of it. I had a battery pack for an RC car, and it looked like a bunch of AA batteries in series, so I took it apart. It worked in my game gear for a little bit until I smelled burning plastic. It melted a part of the battery compartment and my game gear wouldn't take batteries after that, only running off AC power. My first RPG was on game gear, Dragon Crystal. That was the one where you have a dragon…
neutral · AI labelView post →was reminded that Cuphead is getting a Master System game i know they're aiming to sell it specifically on Master System but just saying MDHR if you released a cart for Game Gear i'd happily pick it up. Doesn't need to be modified for Game Gear you could do it like Castle of Illusion
neutral · AI labelView post →I played this on steamdeck and it didn't crash. The game was playable. Super easy to get through and reminded me of games of old. Is it worth the price for about 2 hours of game play....eh. I'd wait for it to go on sale. Otherwise, it was a cute little game to play to pass the time.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Master of Darkness, Ninja Gaiden Shadow, Trip World and an unplanned 4th game Castle of Illusion for Game Gear Done. Of the 4, I think Trip World ended up being deceptively tough with that final boss rush. Thanks all who came to watch! #twitch #youtube #retrogaming #gamegear #gameboy
neutral · AI labelView post →Live with a 3 pack of Genesis Disney games, Castle of Illusion, World of Illusion and Aladdin, followed by SNESMania Game 509: Ultima VII: The Black Gate! twitch.tv/spikevegeta
neutral · AI labelView post →Castlevania Bloodlines Contra Hard Corps TMNT Hyperstone Heist Sonic 3D Blast Crusader of Centy (probably a flash cart for this game) Ristar Quackshot Castle of Illusion Comix Zone Monster World IV (Flash cart again) Decap Attack Shinobi III Gunstar Heroes If I think of more I'll make a third post!
neutral · AI labelView post →this sh*t needs a sequel
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was initially confused by this commercial because it looks like the Master System version - but in fact, Castle of Illusion on the Game Gear IS the Master System version, playing in Master Gear mode. The sequel - Land Of Illusion - would be made with the GG resolution in mind.
neutral · AI labelView post →Broke: boring Mickey Mouse Horror Game Woke: spiritual successor to the Castle Of Illusion/Magical Quest games and Mickey Mania with Mickey Mouse and other PD Characters in it.
neutral · AI labelView post →a quick and beautifully crafted game. the kind of game where you get lost looking at all the little details. it has the kind of care and attention to detail that i feel is missing from games nowadays <3
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The latest episode of Pedz Game Shack #podcast is here. Join me and guests @bencgtravels.bsky.social and @jazzem.bsky.social as we discuss Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. pedzsgameshack.com/podcast/cast...
neutral · AI labelView post →Giving a negative review until game is updated. Keeps crashing on modern hardware. Tried lots of suggestions. At BEST, I can run it at a low resolution. (looks like 1080p) This is a GREAT TITLE. But depending on your hardware, it's unplayable. Crashes the instant you try to access video options. Very unfortunate :( Please fix
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →make castle of illushion 2 ive been waiting 10 years now
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yeah we cant entirely hate MR.Nutz. Game is honestly charming as hell if you're playing one of the versions that improved the controls a lil. Fun lil Castle of Illusion riff
positive · AI labelView post →
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