Castle of Illusion

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Goddammit Minnie...

Castle of Illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse is a platformer developed by Sega in 1990 for the Sega Genesis and Sega Master System.

The game takes place within the Castle Of Illusion of the title. Mickey must take it upon himself to rescue Minnie Mouse from the clutches of Mizrabel the witch, who has kidnapped her in order to steal her youth and beauty. The player must battle through six stages and confront each stage's boss. Only with the gem from each defeated boss can he then build a rainbow bridge leading to the castle tower to face the evil witch in a final battle.

Cue classic side-scrolling and all the glory of 16-bit graphics and sound.

In 1992, it went and had two sequels: Land Of Illusion and World of Illusion. A few years later, an additional sequel was released known as Legend Of Illusion. 2012 will see a Nintendo 3DS companion game to Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two going under the name Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, officially billed as both a fourth sequel and an Epic Mickey game, in which the Castle of Illusion has been transported to the Wasteland and Mizrabel seeks to escape from it by draining the essence of popular Disney characters.

Tropes used in Castle of Illusion include:

• Abnormal Ammo: The Genesis game gives you apples, marbles and candles to throw at your foes.
• Asteroids Monster: The letter A's from the Master System version.
• Auto-Scrolling Level: The cakes and sweets section.
• Back Tracking: In one of the sections in the second level, the door to exit is at the beginning of the level, but you need to climb all the way to the top to find the key.
• Bottomless Pits: A standard hazard.
• Clock Tower: The fifth level of the Master System game.
• Easier Than Easy: The easiest difficulty level is essentially a heavily abridged version of the full game. Large sections of each level are omitted, and the game ends after the third level.
• Damsel in Distress: Minnie Mouse.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Bizarrely, when Mickey ends up defeating the evil witch and preventing her from stealing Minnie's youth, she actually takes them both back home. On her broom. Whilst they snuggle up on a bench swing.
• Follow the Money: Diamonds in the Genesis version.
• Goomba Springboard
• Goomba Stomp: Unlike most games that feature this, Castle of Illusion requires an additional button press in mid-jump in order to stomp enemies, making it more like a Ground Pound than usual.
• Heart Container: Present in the Master System version.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Cake in the Master System version.
• Ledge Bats: In the third level of the Genesis game. The bats have a tendency to jump out at you right as you're crossing a gap.
• Level Ate: The third level of the Master System game and part of the fourth level of the Genesis game.
• Load-Bearing Boss: A strange example of this. Once the final boss is defeated, the castle begins to fall apart, likely as a result of the battle, considering she's still alive and in fact has to flee alongside the heroes.
• The Lost Woods: The first level of both games is a grassy woodland. In the Genesis game, it phases from Green Hill Zone through deeper and darker (and, in some places, spider-filled) woods to a haunted forest toward the end.
• Lucky Seven: Seven gems, seven levels, seven bosses.
• Macro Zone: A giant study or library forms part of the fourth level of the Genesis game and the entirety of the fourth level of the Master System game.
• Never Say "Die": Lives are referred to as "tries".
• Punny Name: Mizrabel.
• Quicksand Sucks: In the Toy Time stage. Okay, it's more like Quick-Jelly, but it definitely Sucks.
• Shout-Out: The evil witch looks an awful lot like Queen Grimhilde in her "hag" guise when she's old, and just like her normal incarnation when she's becoming younger in the final battle.
• Spring Jump: The second level has springboards for you to jump on.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: In the stages where you can swim, you never run out of air.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: You can't jump high enough to stomp the second stage boss. Don't worry, he'll start releasing helpful springs for no real other reason than chivalry.
• Toy Time: The second level of both games.
• Water Level: The third level of the Genesis game, which transitions from a lake with islands to flooded ruins.
• When Trees Attack: The first stage boss in the Genesis version is a living log that jumps out of the tree it's resting in and rolls towards you. What? It Makes Sense in Context... sort of. The Master System version just has a tree as the first boss.