This game happened to arrive the weekend I was sick with the flu, and honestly I can't think of a better way to experience the game. It's really low stakes, sometimes in ways I wish it wasn't. The story is lackluster and there's little things like fast-travel and map design that lack polish. But if you're looking for a really laid-back Metroid-like with nice art, robust platforming, great music and a lot of Disney-themed collectibles to find, this will be for you. Just keep those expectations in check cause it probably won't blow you away. Great for kids or people just looking for something chill.

Gawrsh, there's plenty to love about this little adventure. Even though Disney Illusion Island is probably best described as "baby's first Metroidvania" -- a phrase I use as a compliment, not an insult -- there is so much fun to be had exploring Monoth. The animation is exactly what you'd expect from Disney -- I found myself wanting more cutscenes, actually, given how beautiful and endearing they were -- and the writing is top-notch. I found myself LOLing at a few different jokes, a rarity for most games. I enjoyed the traversal, the exploration, the collectibles (especially the Memorabilia and Hidden Mickeys), and the characters (#TeamDonald), all of which culminated in a fun adventure brimming with personality. And despite there being no actual combat, I truly didn't miss it. I found dodging enemies using all of the different abilities the game throws at you to be an absolute blast.

Sure, the story was a little basic at times and the inevitable twist wasn't one that'd knock your socks off, but given that Disney Illusion Island is billed as a family-friendly jumping off point for the Metroidvania genre, it absolutely hits the mark.

Un Mickeyvania pour les enfants et pour une première, c'est plutôt réussi.

Autant le dire de suite, le jeu est assez beau et superbement animé. On retrouve la patte de l'animé Mickey Mouse de Paul Rudish, les corps et visages sont très expressifs et souvent drôle. J'aurais peut-être aimé que les décors et les ennemis soient plus variés et un peu plus travaillé visuellement mais ça fait quand même le taffe. Les quelques cinématiques qui ponctuent l'aventure sont assez soignés et drôles, grâce au doublage officiel français qui est un apport non négligeable et l'écriture des dialogues.
Niveau maniabilité, ça se joue facilement sans aucun souci et le jeu propose des options d'accessibilité ou une difficulté modulable pour que les bambins ou les non-joueurs puissent en profiter. Pour un joueur aguerri, quelques passages un peu plus retors mais rien de compliqué et la notion de Game Over n'existe pas réellement. La map se parcourt de façon agréable, on ne se tape pas des allers retours de fou furieux et pour arriver au 100%, va falloir cravacher un peu car certains secrets sont bien planqués. Je regrette juste que quelque soit le personnage choisi, il n'y ait aucune différence dans la manière de jouer.
Pour la bande-son, David Housden livre une partition qui colle parfaitement à l'esprit Disney. Pas toujours mémorable mais quelques pistes sortent du lot et donnent l'impression d'être à Disneyland Paris haha.
Je pensais aux défauts du jeu et en fait, il n'y en a pas une en particulière qui m'a sorti du jeu mais le jeu manque un peu de folie, de génie dans l'ensemble. C'est vraiment bien fait, c'est propre et carré mais résultat, on aurait peut-être apprécié que l'aventure soit un peu plus épique.

En clair, un jeu à faire avec des gosses ou si vous êtes fan de Disney et voulez une aventure cool et rapide à faire, c'est nickel.

This was quite an enjoyable game. Between the fluid movement, the sense of humor, and the scale of the world that's not too big nor too small, it's easily one of my favorite recent experiences.

I do have a few gripes however. The only collectible really worth getting are the Glimts, the floating energy spheres all around which can increase your maximum health and ultimately unlock the Iron Mouse mode (where you get one life to beat the game). The other collectibles being the Memorabilia and the Hidden Mickeys? No reward. They are there just for percentage and naught else. I would've liked a bit more reward for getting them but they were still fun to track down and figure out how to get.

Those nitpicks are really worth the full star. Still really solid gameplay, really fun to go through, doesn't wear out its welcome. It's quite great and highly encouraged. It's ideal for those experienced with Metroidvanias and also those who aren't as familiar and want to dip their toes in without too much challenge.

I only played in single-player but I hear multiplayer is where the game really shines. I eagerly look forward to seeing speedruns of this game.

My wife and I have been looking forward to this game for so long now and I’m kinda bummed it’s already over!

It is definitely an entry point if you want to get into metroidvanias, and watching my wife play her very first game of the genre was super fun! The artwork and animation is also extremely charming, and there were quite a few funny moments as well.

The star of the show apart from Mickey and friends is the movement. Once you get all the abilities, the movement is so seemless and limitless. I honestly loved exploring the map and quite literally gliding around looking for all the secrets. Speaking of, there are a ton of secrets to find and collect, which is something I’m always down for.

All in all this is a very fun, very easy entry point into metroidvanias and I hope we see more from this series!

Stuck between giving this game a 6 or a 7, ultimately chose a 6 because I'll probably never play this again.

Had high hopes for this game cause I love this style of Mickey and friends. The graphics in this game were by far the best part, one of the kind of games that I feel the Switch was made for and not those 3d games that run like fucking trash.

The powerups you get make exploring and moving around fun, but the rewards kind of suck. I could be wrong, maybe you fight Sephiroth when you get 100%, I ended up at 93% before deciding to stop playing.

The negatives are heavy, unfortunately. While the graphics and movement were great, the environments and enemy design look like something that could have been used for a different game, I didn't feel like it was something I would expect Mickey to be in. You look at something like Kingdom Hearts and the non-Disney worlds still feel like a place you could see a Disney character. Here the levels felt like an abortion derived from the most random mobile games.

The movement was great, but the exploring was kind of tedious. This game is sort-of a Metroidvania but I feel like those kinds of games tend to make getting everywhere not annoying, and you get fast travel here right at the end of the game. This is the kind of shit that I imagine will be fixed in a sequel, and ultimately that's where my review ends: me hoping that this first game ends up making a great game in a sequel.

“Mousetroidvania”

There is something to be said for art that offers little resistance. There’s a reason why we have The Office on as we fall asleep, why we return to Gilmore Girls in the fall, why we’ve seen Jurassic Park so many times. We appreciate being challenged and engaged, but there is also comforting reward in the elegantly simplistic experience.

Illusion Island is shocking in its effortlessness. Sure, it comes from a lineage of the combat-light and polish-heavy Disney games of the 90s, but there is a breeziness and fluidity here that those games were never interested in. The Metroidvania of it all — huge sprawling maps full of twists and switchbacks — highlights the wonderful locomotion and the understated precision of the level design. It feels like you could traverse the world in one fluid path of speedrun-esque movement as you lazily wall and double jump your way at a blissful pace. Add the stupendous and ethereal music, the classic Disney bouncing animated works, and you have a panacea for high strung gamers everywhere.

This game is probably my second biggest disappointment of the year, behind Fire Emblem Engage. Unlike that game though, this game isn't complete dogshit, just not what I wanted. I was expecting a Metroidvania that plays like Rayman Legends and is beautiful, which is what they described it as and....well 2/3 ain't bad. This doesn't play like Legends at all. A MASSIVE part of Legends is the combat and ability to dash through enemies at lightning speed with punches and kicks. You don't have a run or attack at all in this game. Don't get me wrong, they said quite often there was no combat, I just didn't hear that bit. I heard that they were inspired by Legends. So I got my hopes up. Instead I got a slow, but decently fun, Metroidvania with cute cutscenes (besides the last one oh my god did the budget completely run out or something?). It's fine and worth the 6 hours it takes to finish, but wait for a price drop.

If anyone ever wanted to be introduced to the basic dynamics of how a Metroidvania works this is a great place to start. It has all the workings of Metroidvanias but is never overwhelming and is a very easy quick game to get through.

I was able to play through this with my wife and it was fun to watch her experience her first Metroidvania. At least 10 times she said “let’s go over her. I think there’s something over there” and each time I told her “it’s a Metroidvania they’re something in every direction.” It was just fun watching her enjoy something new.

The star of the game is the artwork. It has a lot of charm and is my favorite version of Mickey and friends. There were several good laughs throughout the dialogue and the story was simple and acceptable for a Mickey Mouse game. The movement feels very precise which was important since you are only able to avoid enemies not attack them.

My only real gripes about the game is that it was way to easy, but I get it, it’s a Mickey Mouse game. The other is playing two or more players locally the camera follows player 1 and does not pan out enough for player 2. There were a few times where, if I was my wife, I would have became frustrated because she couldn’t see what she was doing because we got slightly to far apart.

I would recommend this game to most people and definitely anyone who is newer to games and would enjoy Metroidvanias or platformers.