1437: Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (Trial) PS3 \\ delisted demo horror loop 3=O
1This demo version ("Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (Trial)") has I THINK been delisted from the PS3 PSN store: it doesn't come up separately for me in a search there, & the store page for the full 2013 game (delisted for 6 months 2016-2017, says Wikipedia) isn't showing me the typical "download free demo" link.
My other PS3 games playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZO3OPzPjIzOtF9kkXeWpsMwEwiDfsCA5
0:00 - options
2:38 - intro
6:32 - playing
10:42 - silly restart
17:06 - left from fork
21:13 - first clear (hit X)
24:31 - canopy jumping
31:28 - fall, crucifixion, embiggening?
38:38 - left from fork again
39:45 - hole teleport, clear 2 (hit X)
42:45 - more canopy tries
47:28 - got card
49:00 - clear 3 (hit O)
Developed by Sega Studios Australia, loosely remade from the 1990 Genesis game by Sega. The demo runs at 720p, 30fps w/ sluggish controls, mysterious collision boxes, & animation too intricate to see clearly at 30fps.
The game begins w/ a narrated soft-focus sequence of reasonably Disney-ish illustrations (everything in the game is soft-focus--maybe being internally upscaled from sub-720p?) showing the of-course abduction of Minerva "Minnie" Mouse by an unusually wrinkle-free attempt at a stereotyped magical "wicked" witch, and Mickey's immediately thereafter run-in w/ an awfully convenient & generic unnamed "old mouse" who popped up out of nowhere to explain to Mickey intimate details of the witch's plans, motivations, location, & security arrangements, and added the final admonition that the helplessly confused-looking Mickey should be "cautious."
Prodded into adventure, Mickey does his best Charles Martinet impression* in constant vacillation between uncaring glee--forgetting, perhaps, over and over, that he's there to rescue his girlfriend--and abject terror; he's clearly deeply insane.
And I, it seems, am just terrible at platforming.
The music and sound are nice, as are the visuals, in their soft way--when you aren't trying to play them as an unresponsive action game filled with unsteady jumps over instant back-to-the-beginning drop pits.
Mickey's scale can vary from scene to scene. SOMETIMES when I respawned back at a certain loop-fork, the narrator matter-of-factly mentioned that Mickey was "back at his regular size"--but they'd never mentioned he'd been shrunk, or how!
As Mickey falls out of the tree canopy & spawns into the loop-fork, there's a frame w/ nothing but Mickey, the fork sign-post, & the skybox: Mickey, spread-eagling in his fall, appears to be, in that flash, crucified on the post.
I had been stuck--I thought--trying to get through a tricky tree-canopy-jumping loop; but now I notice that a play-through of the full version just dropped out of that section entirely https://youtu.be/VLvd_hfmSBA?t=351 ; & I suppose the playing card at the end of it is an optional item mentioned in a random load screen (30:10) as used "to unlock new outfits."
So I could'a fallen outta the tree & looped back to the beginning, engaging the climactic sequence, at any time. So narratively, the stage's purpose is nearly zilch. When you fall back to the fork w/ the card, a modified narration mentions Mickey has it--trying to give a generic collectible meaning.
Falling into the hole at the end of the hitchy forced scrolling climax may restart you at the beginning of that sequence...or it may spawn you past the hole.
When you get to that apparent end of level, you loop back to the beginning. This is made even more confusing by the game a) having already presented 3 looping sub-sections within the stage--and b) giving you 2 button press options at "Stage Clear," "(X) Continue" & "(O) Return to Castle," both of which, it turns out, restart the stage.
"Mizrabel's twisted playground of trickery," the narrator reminds you afresh.
What fiend would delist an endless demo? The best castle of illusion is the forbidding fortress of bad game design! Don't worry, you can still pay for the full version--& it's also still on Steam, also w/o a demo.
(Haven't played it, but from what I see on the internet, the Steam version appears capable of higher resolutions & frame-rates--maybe after it's been hacked https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLvd_hfmSBA&lc=Ugyy7XxPBVBFsbGySuZ4AaABAg.9ONfigHY3f49OYiD24BIOA a little.)
* (The game only credits "Voice talents" collectively, & after everyone else at Disney Interactive US, including all the testers, suits, middle managers, & support staff; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Iwan credits Bret Iwan as Mickey & says he's been Mickey's voice since the 2009 death of the previous voice, Wayne Allwine. I hope they're at least giving him plenty of the giant diamonds Mickey is made to crave above all else.)
6/11/23
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