What I've found is that Sega and its closest partners spent almost a decade, largely under the cover of darkness, pumping out one high-quality product after the next. And while doing so, they showed that they had the knack for taking any subject-matter and making a great 8-bit game out of it. I've observed as much as I've played through stunningly great games like The G.G. Shinobi, Batman Returns, and, most relevantly, those that comprise the Master System's collection of Disney titles. That's right: Mickey and his pals were prominent on the system, though not many seem to be aware of this fact. You might be surprised to learn that they appeared in quite a few Master System games.
Well, about two and a half years ago, my chosen path led me to one of them--to one of the best: Land of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, a late-era Master System game that saw release in Europe and South America (a compromised Game Gear version came to North America in 1993). I've been enamored with it ever since, and all that time I've been hankering to talk about it!
On the surface, Land of Illusion looks like your standard 80s-era platformer, and to some it may even appear as though it's is a mere rehash of the earlier Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, but believe me when I say that you'd be making a big mistake if you were to slot it as either and subsequently dismiss it. It's a cutesy platformer and in some ways derivative, yes, but that's only a small part of the story. Land of Illusion, you should know, transcends those definitions in a big way. It's imbued with innovative spirit. It's creative and clever in a way that other games of its type dream of being. And it's filled to the brim with fun, interesting ideas, all of which I intend to talk about today!
So strap yourself in and get ready to go on a tour of Land of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, one of the best 8-bit Disney games in existence!
First we're presented a minute-and-half-long intro scene that provides us the details of the game's Isekai-style plot: One evening, Mickey falls asleep in his chair while reading through a book of fairy tales. When he wakes up, he's no longer in his home and instead finds himself standing in the center of a strange and gloomy village. He finds his new surroundings to be creepy and expresses as much to an approaching villager (Daisy Duck), who explains to him that an evil phantom has stolen the magical crystal that was designed to protect everyone in the village. With the crystal gone, the valley's "good" magic has disappeared and has since been replaced with "bad" magic, which has served to alter the nature of things; there's no longer happiness, she says, but instead gloom. She then asks Mickey for help.
Still confused by what's going on around him, Mickey, as if he can't believe his ears, hesitantly inquires about this "phantom." Bluntly, she brings him up to speed: The phantom, she informs him, lives in a castle in the clouds. If he wants to reach the castle, he must go to the northern mountains and find the "good princess," who can show him the best way to get there. Feeling a sense of justice, Mickey accepts her request for help and vows to give his best effort.
OK--so we're not dealing with Total Recall-level storytelling here. We're probably not going to get any themes that are any heavier than "good magic goes bye-bye because of bad phantom!" What do you expect, man? This is a kids-focused platformer.
Still, we can appreciate that the story and the setting are rich with whimsy--the type that is commonly pervasive in these old Disney games. And its influence is as disarming as ever; it'll make you feel inclined to leave your adult cynicism at the door and enter this space with an open heart.
Further layering is provided by a classic Disney theme: All of the supporting characters are fantasy counterparts of familiar Disney characters (like the aforementioned Daisy), whose presence provides us some measure of comfort in this strange new world. We expect them to be there; we look forward to interacting with them and finding out what role they play in this alternate reality.
That's what makes a Disney-style production.
Land of Illusion's intro scene is, I have to say, very finely rendered. The character illustrations are some of the most convincing I've ever seen in an 8-bit game; Mickey and his pals look almost exactly as they do in their cartoons and animated movies, and their gestures and mannerisms are nicely animated. I especially like its closing shot, wherein the phantom's castle and the surrounding clouds are cropped into a smaller image that transitions through the title screen's fade-in to become the cover art of a hard-cover book--the book of fairy tales Mickey was reading before falling asleep. (Note that you'll miss out on seeing the title screen if you skip the intro, of which it's a part, since doing so immediately starts the game.)
This scene makes quite the first impression. You'll come away from it correctly sensing that you're about to play a high-quality game.
"So, Mr. Chatterbox, what are the basics?" you ask, nudgingly.
Well, let's start with the controls: We get a jump button (Button 2) and an action button (Button 1). Mickey's jumps can be fully modulated, though they're a bit floaty and their heavy momentum causes him to slide forward a bit when he hits the ground (though, you can cancel out this animation by immediately jumping again). Also, if you hold the action button while Mickey is in the air, he'll enter into a ground-pound pose and remain in such until you land. This maneuver allows him to (a) stomp on enemies and bounce off of them to gain greater height, (b) clear away destructible blocks, and (c) slide down slopes and in the process eliminate all enemies with which he comes in contact during the animation.
Used conventionally, the action button allows you to pick up blocks and other transportable objects when you're pressed up against them. Once you're in possession of one, you can toss it away, throw it at an enemy, or use it for a special purpose (depending on the block type). Similarly, you can interact with switches, snapping them into an upward position.
Otherwise, you can enter an evasive crouch by pressing down on the d-pad, and you can grab onto vines and ladders by pressing up on the d-pad; after grabbing onto a vine or a ladder, you can freely climb on it. Pressing Start brings up the standard pause screen; though, later on, after you collect a certain item, this screen will come to act as prompt from which you can trigger it.
In addition, Mickey will learn new abilities at specific points in the game. I'll elaborate on these as we earn them.
Along the way, we'll collect the standard action-platformer items. Most of them are locked away in treasure chests, which appear frequently in stages. You can break them open by throwing them or by bouncing on them. A chest can contain one of five items: a cake slice that replenishes one unit of health, a whole cake that replenishes two units of health, a small coin that awards 500 points, a large coin that awards 2,000 points, or a 1up (in mouse-ear form) that grants you an extra life (a "try," as the game calls it). Some chests are hidden from view and will be revealed only after you pass through the screen tiles that conceal them (a common 80s-era action-game mechanic).
Then there are the non-chest items. These include keys and power stars. There are two key types: the magical type whose procurement reveals stages' unseen exits, and those that can be carried around and used to unlock barriers (this second type appears only in certain stages). Either type can be found lying around in plain sight. In contrast, power stars are hidden within stages. They serve two purposes: Each of the first three you obtain adds one unit to your health meter, and those obtained thereafter go toward a potential bonus-points reward received at game's end; if you want to earn those bonus points, you have to collect all 14 of them.
I'll discuss the other block types, items and mechanics as we encounter them.
You start out on the game's world map, gauging which gives you an idea of the landscape's scope and the type of terrain you'll be exploring during your adventure (forests, castles, lakes, mountains and other interesting locales). There are 14 stages in all, though they're not all present here; two of them appear within an upper-map portion that becomes accessible much later on. Naturally you have to clear a map icon's associated stage before you can advance to the next map area.
At any time, you can return to a completed stage and re-explore it--collect whatever treasures you missed and search for the hidden power star. In fact, there are instances wherein you're forced to return to past stages for the purpose of locating alternate exits and therein accessing map areas that were previously lacking for entry paths. Also, if you've acquired any of the game's five special items, it'll appear within the "Item" box seen in the map's upper-right corner.
Once we enter a stage, our HUD comes into view. We see that it features four boxes worth of information: The "Power" box displays our number of health units (we begin the adventure with two) and keeps us informed of our current health situation. "Tries" displays our current number of lives (we start with three). "Score," of course, displays our current point-total, which increases as we stomp enemies, collect coins, and clear stages, after which we're awarded points for each second remaining on the timer (we're awarded an extra life for every 20,000 points we earn); when we're underwater, this Score box is replaced with an "Air" meter (I'll talk more about this in a bit). And finally there's our standard "Timer," which displays for us of the number of minutes or seconds we have left to traverse a given stage or stage area; you'll know that time is short when the music suddenly speeds up. (Note that you can bring up this same HUD on the map screen by pressing Button 1.)
In any stage, our goal is to locate and obtain a magical key, doing which makes the exit door appear. Stages are open in nature and fully explorable, and many of them contain branching paths and alternate routes. Some of them feature boss battles. You can prevent from having to repeat stages from the start by locating and activating checkpoints via contact with them. If you run out of lives, you'll be sent to the Game Over screen, where you'll be given the option to continue or start a new game. Continues are unlimited, so you don't have to worry about meeting a decisive end; all that happens is that you lose checkpoint progress.
Now that we know the basics, we can get started on our adventure! All we have to do is move left from Daisy's house and enter the game's initial stage.
The action starts in the spooky Forest Stage. Immediately you notice that the environments are crisp and clean and their colors are so wonderfully vibrant. Mickey's movements are very well rendered: His every action--be it walking, jumping, climbing or sliding--is rife with animation. Also, he looks the part; his is a faithful depiction of the character (I'm always impressed when designers, faced with color and pixel limitations, are somehow able to make 8-bit Disney or Warner Brothers characters closely resemble their cartoon counterparts). Also, textures are finely detailed; you can plainly make out leaves' veins, tree barks' ridges, and stones' craggy surfaces. The backgrounds are comparably sparse but still replete with character; they do well to convey atmosphere and stir your imagination--make you wonder about what's going on back there. This is, quite simply, one of the best-looking 8-bit games I've ever played.
You'd expect for the first stage of a lighthearted platformer to feature bouncy, upbeat music, but Land of Illusion's Forest Stage instead greets you with something different--with a tune that's lively and high in octave, certainly, but also mysterious and strangely unsettling in character. It creates for an atmosphere that's spooky and creepy and not much like those that welcomed us in Super Mario Bros., Adventure Island and Sonic the Hedgehog. The message here is that Land of Illusion isn't afraid to defy norms and break from convention. It's indeed a sign of what's to come.
Early on in the forest, we encounter two classic platformer enemies: snakes and crows, both of which, we find, we can dispatch with bounce attacks. Our first challenge is to climb up to the treetops and maneuver between them (there's no smooth scrolling when you move to upper or lower levels; instead the camera quickly transitions up or down, which honestly feels kinda clunky). The problem is that the trees are too far apart and giant spider webs and their 8-legged creators clog up the space in between. Though, in all such instances, the solution soon presents itself: Loose leaves float down from above and become stuck to the webs. They become platforms using which we can work our way across; while crossing over, we have to evade the spiders that circumnavigate these webs.
In the next segment, you have to work your way around sweeping tornadoes. In the first instance, you have to maneuver over the tornado while making sure not to get swallowed up by it and carried all the way back. To do this, you have to first grab onto a vine, to which you'll remain gripped even when a tornado passes over you, and then jump off once the tornado has shifted over to your left. The second instance, cleverly, pulls a switcharoo: Though doing so has proven to go against your interests, you have to ignore what you just learned and instead purposely let yourself get swallowed up by the tornado. Only by riding the tornado can you safely pass over the series of spike balls that obstruct your path. To escape from the tornado's grasp, you have to grab onto the vine at the path's end.
The game likes to do this: It likes to create a set of logic then soon after hit you with a challenge that mischievously defies it. It enjoys betraying your expectations.
The door at the endpoint takes you to the next section. It's a vertical area populated by a tall, thick tree, which we have to scale. Here we witness a cool layering effect: You can enter the tree via its openings, and when you do, there's no fade or cut during the transition; rather, the tree's bark peels away to give view of its inner portions, which allows for the screen's outer layer and its active elements to continue operating as they were!
Also cool is the main visual: a giant snake tail that coils around tree's wide trunk and creates sloped surfaces upon which we can traverse. While ascending via these slopes and the tree's branches, we have to dodge the fruit and the spike balls that continue to come bouncing in from the left. Also, we have to look out for patrolling snakes. Eventually our progress will come to a halt when the branches above prove to be out of reach. That's where the area's layer-shifting gimmick comes into play: We have to enter the tree via a nearby opening and pick up the honeypot (a block emblazoned with an "M") that's laying within; we can then carry it outside, set it down (by hitting the action button while standing still), and use it as a platform.
When we reach the tree's top, we find ourselves face to face with the snake. Its jaws are fully extended as if it's expecting us to foolishly feed ourselves to it. To clear away this obstacle, and thus satiate the snake, we have to pick up a nearby apple and throw it into the snake's mouth. Once the snake's been fed, it'll close its mouth and enter a docile state. We can then travel over it. Just beyond is the magic key, picking up which reveals the stage's exit.
And that concludes an opening stage that effectively conveys the game's strong creative spirit and speaks of the designers' high level of ambition. It wants us to know that there's nothing "standard" about Land of Illusion.
The path ahead leads us to the Lake Stage, whose action, as you've probably guessed, takes place underwater. Water stages are never anyone's favorite, no, but Land of Illusion's feature some interesting twists that make them bearable if not kinda fun. This will be evident all throughout the piece.
But first I have to mention my favorite touch: The stage's background is actually the previous stage, viewed from a distance! It reminds us of where we just were and in doing so creates a feeling of logical progression. Also, the woodsy background has depth to it, with one sheet of silhouetted trees layered over a second sheet that's dimmed as to appear much further back. I love it when designers create this effect.
The music here is more jaunty--more akin to what you would normally hear in colorful platformers--though this proves to be misdirection. "This theme implies that the game is about to soften up and settle into formula," you might think. But then you'll soon find that it doesn't have any desire to do so; it has no plans on going easy on you. And you have to keep in mind that you have only two units of health, which doesn't go a long way. Bop to the cheery music, certainly, but also traverse carefully.
While in the water, you can swim by pressing the jump button. You can do this repeatedly to maintain your rhythm and keep from sinking (it's very much like swimming in Super Mario Bros.). This is where we get our first look at the "Air" mechanic. When we're underwater, our "Score" box is replaced by an "Air" box that shows our remaining amount of oxygen. We have seven units worth of oxygen, and we lose one for every three seconds we're submerged. If we want to remain alive, we have to return to the surface before the air meter fully depletes and remain buoyed while it replenishes. While buoyed, we can float along the water's surface and jump out from the water--to exit from it or to jump over surface-dwelling enemies. If ever a surface is accessible to you, it's usually the best option to buoy near it in lieu of swimming between or around deadly obstructions or packs of aquatic enemies; being at the surface is advantageous, also, because you now have the ability to speed up the pace by repeatedly jumping out from the water and advancing using your quicker open-air movement.
In the stage's first section, the water lowers and rises. You have to wait for it to reach a high level so that you can swim over the spikes that line the lake's floor. While in motion, you'll have to evade green spiky urchins, which hover near the surface, and piranhas, which swim back and forth. And you have to be precise, since the game's hit-detection isn't exactly favorable and you are, as mentioned, limited in terms of health. You'll die very quickly if you try to force the action. You're given a fair amount of post-damage invincibility time, sure, but not enough to where you can pass through an enemy's entire frame. Attempting to boost through enemies, you'll learn, is a bad idea.
You can branch off at a certain point--sink down into the depths--and grab some treasure (you're able to pick up treasure chests and other objects while standing on a water body's floor). This teaches you to always keep an eye out for openings, any of which can lead to a hidden area.
At the end of this section, you'll have to ground-pound through some blocks to access the door below, though you'll first have to wait for the water to lower; if it's too high, the animation will be canceled and you'll simply reenter your swimming pose.
In the next section, you must swim to the end of a long horizontal underwater cave and stay alive by swimming up to the available surface pockets as they appear. The catch is that a tide washes through every five seconds and carries you back, all the way to the section's starting point, if you get caught in it. To avoid getting caught, you have to grab onto one of the helpfully placed vines and remain there until the tide passes. So your challenge is to quickly swim from vine to vine and wait out tides while remaining cognizant of your air supply. You can grab some treasure along the way, though doing so is risky because the process of picking up and tossing chests consumes time and leaves you vulnerable to incoming tides. Note that you're safe from these tides when you're buoying within surface pocket.
At the cave's end is a door that takes you back outside.
I have to stop for a moment and talk about something that becomes more and more apparent as you play: Mickey has an idle animation for just about every situation, whether it's standing still, crouching, hanging onto ladders and vines, standing on slopes and platform edges, or floating on the surface of water. To me, these are more than just small details. No--they're significant additions. They provide us further insight into how the developers approached this project--into what their ambitions were. This was 1992, when the more-powerful 16-bit consoles were dominating the market. Realizing this, Sega was determined to push the aging Master System to its limits and produce a game that was almost as impressive as any of the platformers currently available for the 16-bit machines. They wanted for it to appear as though the technological gap wasn't as large as we thought. The way I see it, Sega succeeded in that mission. I give its developers all the credit in the world.
Anyway: We start the stage's final section in a small, narrow pool whose upper portion is patrolled by piranha. Using careful timing, we have to swim past it and then make our way to the surface. Once we're back on land, we have to traverse across what appears to be watery marsh, into which we'll sink if we remain idle; while leaping across its surface, we have to remain alert because at certain points piranhas suddenly dive out from the marsh for surprise attacks. At the section's end, we must drop into another small pool and use the blocks within to take out the circling urchin that inhabits this space. When it's been dispatched, it'll drop the magic key, picking up which triggers the appearance of the exit. We get to it by swimming to the surface and jumping out onto the cliffs seen directly to the right. The exit door is resting at the top.
Our next stop is the Blacksmith's Castle Stage. In terms of music and aesthetics, this is your typical castle stage: Its structures and surfaces are composed of darkly toned brickwork, and series of barred portals taunt us by providing small glimpses of the contrastingly hopeful outside world. The musical theme is dark and disquieting, and its series of shrill, piercing chord strikes poke at you and evoke a feeling unease.
Early on, we have to advance through a number of sinuous passageways and do so while being constantly pursued by bipedal flame creatures that spring to life moments after we pass by them--or, rather, after we pass by the flames from which they spawn. We have to stay as far ahead as possible, since there are instances where we have to suddenly cease our forward movement and clear away blocky obstructions with our lifting and ground-pound moves. You can't evade the flame creatures by jumping leftward--over their heads and back--because they leave residual trails of flame that remain onscreen as permanent hazards. This also means that you can't backtrack to pick up any missed treasure. It's risky to stop for treasure, anyway, since doing so allows for the flame creatures to quickly gain ground on you. If we can outpace the flame creatures, we'll arrive safely at the area's endpoint, where there lies a door.
The next section has a straight-platforming focus: We have to jump across series of stationary and moving platforms that hover over big, long lava beds. In the first sequence, you should traverse cautiously, because there's one part that may catch you off guard; it's instance where timing is involved--where one such moving platform dips into the lava bed below. This is another example of the level designer promptly, mischievously betraying a seemingly established logic. While advancing, we have to be cognizant of the small red dragons that suddenly emerge from the lava, Mega Man-style, and spit fireballs at us. If we're feeling brave, or if we're looking to speed up the pace, we can speedrun along (a strategy that the game's level design often invites) this segment and avoid having to engage in fireball-evasion by preemptively ground-pounding the dragons.
Once we're back on safe ground, we're met by an odd-looking stick creature (likely one of the blacksmith's creations). It slowly walks back and forth across a the platform to which it's been posted and generally serves to obstruct. Though, it's not much a threat; we can take it out with a ground-pound or simply jump over it. In the space beyond, we find a new item: a spring. Its function is obvious: We can propel ourselves to new heights by bouncing off of it while holding down the jump button. We find, also, that springs are block-type objects; we can pick them up and carry them and then either throw them at enemies or set them down directly in front of us. We can do that here: Before taking the obvious route and bouncing up to the otherwise-out-of-reach platform seen atop the screen, we can pick up the spring, carry it over to the right, and use it to bounce up to the top of a wall upon which lay a large-coin-containing treasure chest. Then we can carry it back over to the left and use it to access that high-up platform and climb up to the next screen.
In this room, we can again carry the spring over to the right and use it to bounce up to the top of a wall. Beyond this one is a small recess containing a power star, procuring which extends our health by one unit.
To the left is another segment wherein we have to platform our way over a long lava bed. This time, we meet more in the way of resistance. We'll engage with the following: (1) stick creatures, which generally clog up the tiny platforms. (2) Podoboo-like enemies that can pop out from any portion of the lava; if one of them crashes into a platform's underside, it'll set ablaze that respective section of the platform. And (3) more small dragons. At the segment's end is a door that takes us to our first boss.
Our first major foe is a large dragon. It flies back and forth across the top of its chamber and stops every eight seconds or so to spit out a diagonally-moving fireball that rebounds about the screen for five seconds. We can damage it using any of the blocks seen layering the chamber's floor. All we have to do is pick up a block, jump high into the air, and toss the block at the dragon's vulnerable area--its head. The action isn't as cramped as it seems, since the dragon's frame can't damage us; we can safely pass through it. We have to hit the dragon with three blocks to slay it.
Dispatching the dragon frees its hostage--the blacksmith (Horace Horsecollar), with whom we engage in conversation. He tells us that the dragon used bad magic to trap him in his own castle and thanks us for freeing him from its hold. He then informs us the correct path lies through a tiny cavern found up ahead; though, in order to enter it, we have to find a way to shrink in size. Fortunately, he says, there's a "Shrinking Potion" in the castle ruins. Now that the fire in his castle has waned, the water in the lake has risen; because this has happened, we can now swim our way to a previously hidden passage that leads to the ruins.
Thereafter, he gives us our first special item: the Magic Flute, playing which allows us to exit a stage if we've already completed it. After exiting, our health will be fully replenished. If you want to play the flute, simply pause the game and select "Yes" when the prompt asks you whether or not you want to exit the stage.
Following the blacksmith's instructions, we head back to the Lake Stage. Upon reentering the stage, we notice that the water has risen to new heights and that it no longer lowers and raises (so we get a stage-exit item and then a resultant-environmental-change occurrence? I'm getting serious Mega Man X vibes here. Could it be that Capcom was inspired by this game?). Also, these waters are now home to a new enemy: a smaller fish that darts toward us when we get close to it.
We won't be staying here long. In fact, we never have to leave the first section. Now that the water-level has been raised, all we have to do is swim along the water's surface until we come to the top of the previously-unscalable eastern wall. Resting upon it is the door that leads to the castle ruins. Exiting the stage from this point allows us access to a lower map-screen path that was previously inaccessible.
So we enter the Castle Ruins Stage in search of the Shrinking Potion. This castle is a dark, spooky haunt whose aesthetic features bring to mind images of Castlevania. While adventuring through this place, we'll see curtained backgrounds, candelabras, large arched windows, tattered brickwork and other visuals that would feel right at home in a Castlevania stage. The accompanying musical theme is mysterious and riddling in tone and works to create an unsettling atmosphere. It's a nice backdrop for another well-executed stage.
After we take a few steps into the castle hall, the lights will suddenly fade out, leaving us completely in the dark. There's no way we can advance under these conditions, so we have to rely on newly introduced mechanic: A few screens in, we see a lantern--our newest block-type item--laying on the ground; if we pick it up, the hall will re-illuminate. If we desire for the hall to remain illuminated, we have to continue to maintain possession of the lantern. We have to carry it along while dealing with patrolling ghosts, which can only temporarily immobilized, and flying pumpkins that fly across the screen in a wavy pattern. Maintaining possession of the lantern is important, also, because we eventually have to use it as platform to reach the top of an obstructive wall. Thereafter we the sequence repeats: We have to locate a lantern, carry it along while dealing with enemies, and then use it as a platform.
In the next segment, the illumination returns on its own, eliminating the need for lanterns. Our challenge here, instead, is to travel over spike pits by bouncing on the pumpkins that hover vertically over them; these sequences require some precision-platforming--specifically good timing and skillful use of Mickey's jumping momentum. At the segment's end is a wall atop which lies another power star. In your first play-through, you'll likely theorize that you can access it by somehow transporting a lantern over here and using it as a support platform. You can't. In practice it proves to be impossible; all of your attempts to maneuver lanterns over walls will fail. No--we have to leave this one for now. We can come back for it later once we've earned a certain ability.
A ladder takes us down to the level below. Here we find more sequences wherein we have to bounce our way across spike pits. The difference is that these spike pits are much longer in width and the platforming is trickier. Now we're required to bounce off of series of patrolling ghosts and vertically-moving pumpkins. Later on, we have to travel over a portion of a spike using the newly introduced "Mickey" blocks, which can be thrown or set down. We have to maneuver them onto the spikes and build ourselves a bridge or a series of small platforms and continue to construct such while dealing with more pumpkins; alternatively, we can build an entry path and then clear the rest of the spike pit by bouncing on the pumpkins, though be warned that this method requires great timing and the maximizing of your momentum.
At the segment's end, we can reach the top of the rightmost wall and access a large-coin-containing chest by stacking the three available blocks and using them as a tall platform.
After moving through a door, we arrive in an auto-scrolling section that introduces a really cool, innovative mechanic: The passage ahead contains a number of floor switches that when depressed cause the screen the scroll in the opposite direction for however long they remain in that position! By utilizing them, you can buy yourself more time whenever you find yourself in a situation where, say, the screen's edge is closing in on you and you haven't yet finished clearing away an obstruction. But that's only if you can make it to switch in time.
The scrolling ceases once we reach the passage's endpoint. That's where we find a key; we soon deduce that we have to transport it back to the starting point and use it to open the locked barrier we saw on the passage's left side. To do this, we have to initiate and then sustain leftward scrolling by depressing a floor switch and then hurrying over to the next one in the series as soon as it appears onscreen. All the while, we have to find time to clear away obstructions--mostly those we didn't realize were obstructions when we were viewing the passage from a rightward perspective. There's also a block puzzle we have to solve along the way; solving it entails using the key to depress a switch and utilizing said key as the platform required for lining yourself up with a stacked block that needs to be picked up and tossed away--this if you hope to return to the starting point. Things can get real tense.
What a great sequence! It's one of those elements that made the game for me. It's what symbolizes it.
After we unlock the barrier, we find a final door. This one leads us to the chamber of the game's second boss. And, well, it's your classic ghost--a sheet with eye-holes cut into it. This foe flies back and forth atop the screen and intermittently executes a swoop-attack. We can damage it with well-timed ground-pounds. Though, each time the ghost takes damage, it conjures a small flame that continues to trail its master and otherwise clutter up the open space. We have to ground-pound the ghost four times and do so while evading an increasing number of flames. When it's had enough, it'll flee and leave behind the Shrinking Potion we've been seeking. After we procure it, a prompt informs us that we can use the potion by simultaneously pressing down on the d-pad and the action button. Then we pick up the magic key and escape from this place.
So now we head over to the Tiny Cavern Stage, passing through which was apparently impossible before. And immediately we discover why the blacksmith claimed as much: Its passages are so narrow that we can't fit into them at our normal size! We remedy this by putting to use our Shrinking Potion, which reduces us to half-size. Now we can access the first passage. We do this after taking out the pill bug that's guards it. Once we're in the following tunnel system, we have to evade more pill bugs by detouring around specially carved passages that were provided for this exact reason; doing this is necessary because half-size Mickey can't dispatch enemies with ground-pounds; he can only bounce off of them. There are two other drawbacks: While in this form, he can't pick up blocks or climb ladders and vines.
Later on in this section, we must traverse around and in between surfaces that rise and lower (very much like those in Super Mario World's cave stages). While moving along, we have avoid being pushed up into spike-lined surfaces or crushed against lower ceilings. In some instances, we'll have to strategically park ourselves in the gaps between spikes and wait there. Since these spaces aren't as cramped, we can retake normal form (by again pressing down on the d-pad plus the action button), but we find that it's better to remain tiny because having lesser mass gives us more time and opportunity to run underneath low-hanging ceilings as the surface is rising.
Also, we have to continue evading enemies. The occasional pill bug will drop in from an upper passage, and beetles pop out from certain parts of the ground when you're in proximity; you'll know where they are because you'll see their pincers poking out from the surface.
Next up is a larger, more-open cave section that has some fun with the game's layer-based mechanics. Here we have to work our way around and up to the cave's top and locate an archway, moving through which transports us into the background layer. While on this plane, we have to drop down and head left, switching between large and small forms as required. Pill bugs and beetles will attempt to obstruct us. On the far left, we'll locate the Magic Key and thereafter exit the cavern.
Now we head north and enter the Flower Field Stage--a colorful, flowery garden whose most conspicuous specimens are its giant plants. Most common are the giant roses whose petals and sepals can be traversed upon. All throughout the stage, these rose-tops serve to create a higher level across which we can travel--usually when the low road is fraught with peril. But these roses also present their own dangers: Some of them are patrolled by slinking worms, whose jerky movements can throw off the timing and accuracy of your ground-pound attempts. Some are budded but suddenly bloom to reveal inhabiting bees, which dart toward you with theirs stingers outstretched if you're standing directly below. And one in particular releases water droplets that slide down both its own sepal and one belonging to the neighboring rose; they can inflict damage during any point in their journey.
This is a straightforward, single-section stage, but it's not without its troublesome sequences. There are three of them, in fact. In the first one, we have to platform our way over a patch of giant piranha plants by jumping on the slowly descending petals that are being endlessly spewed by a nearby budded rose; we have to make sure to jump off of a rose before it descends all the way down into the piranha patch. Next up is a more-difficult variant of the previous sequence: This time we have to platform over a much longer piranha patch by jumping across the smaller, lighter flower seeds that are being released forward, endlessly, by a nearby dandelion. They sink very quickly once we land on them, so we can't simply stand around; instead we have to try to remain aerial--continue to execute short hops--while we ride them; otherwise, we can make quicker progress by jumping over to the flower seed in front of us, if such a seed exists.
In the final sequence, we have to jump across series of rose petals and sepals, all of which break off when we land on them, in order to travel over a field of spiky brambles. If we come across any budded roses, we can force them to bloom by ground-pounding on them; forcibly-bloomed roses are likely to reveal treasure chests. We can skip this sequence entirely if we take an alternate path that we may not recognize as such upon first seeing it; there's actually an upper screen we can access by jumping up to a high-up rose petal near the sequence's starting point. We can stay on this upper path by bouncing off of a butterfly and landing on the rose petal seen on the screen's far-right portion; here we'll find an extra life and some other goodies. Both paths lead to the stage's endpoint, which is marked by a budded rose. Ground-pounding it reveals the exit-door-summoning Magic Key.
From here, the road forks, though we're only able to travel along one of the available path. The one to the north is obstructed by a large rock formation, so we have no choice but to head east.
That eastern path takes us to the Toy Workshop Stage. And, oh, is this a fun one! It's constantly throwing new things at us.
All of the workshop's environments, we see, are formed from bright, colorful blocks and other toys. Their presence helps to create a very vibrant and cheerful atmosphere. Contributing, too, is the stage's musical theme, which has a carnival-like flavor to it; it's bouncy and lively and makes us happy to be here; also, it promises us that there are fun challenges ahead.
In the opening section's first segment, we have to evade mounted cannons' arcing cannon-fire and work our way over to a door on the right side. The door is blocked off by a barrier that we can force open by depressing its associated floor switch Though, the barrier remains raised only as long as the switch is depressed, so we have to keep the switch in the down position by placing a honey pot on top of it. This process entails carrying the pot over to the switch and placing it down while dodging cannon fire. Cannons can be taken out with with ground-pounds or thrown blocks, yes, but this last one is nestled behind the barrier, so there's no way for us to cheaply remove it from the picture.
When we go through the door, we enter the shop, itself, but we don't transition to a new section; rather, we're tossed into a background layer. That's how navigation continues to work in this stage: We move not from one section to the next but instead constantly shift between two planes. Here, in the background's opening portion, we have to maneuver our way downward and do so by zigzagging around the horizontal streams being fired out by the giant water guns that are affixed to the room's walls. The streams are actually platforms; they function as conveyor belts and push you along as you walk upon them. Some of the them move back and forth. The main threat here are the little fish that swim across these streams and generally complicate the navigational aspect. They're a problem mainly because they tend to pop in suddenly, in the most inconvenient places, whenever the screen transitions; so before dropping down, it's important to have an idea of where they might spawn. You can dispatch these fish by ground-pounding them or by pelting them with the newly appearing pellets (yet another block type).
At the segment's midpoint, we find a door. It takes us to a front-plane room wherein we find a question-mark block. We can't pick it up because, we soon discover, it's actually a deadly instrument. Boxing gloves spring out from its sides, successively in clockwise order, and inflict damage with their battering motion. We notice that the block is propelled into the air whenever a boxing glove springs out from its bottom. Observing this block is all we're able to do here--we determine, feeling a bit puzzled--so we exit the room.
Further down, past a mounted cannon, is a second door. To access it, we have to break through a surface comprised of pellets while evading the cannon's fire. The door takes us back to the front plane, where before us lay giant piano. We have to traverse across it while dodging the undulating notes that fly in from offscreen. The cool part is that we can actually play this piano! Really--its white keys give us the full C major scale to work with. We decide to play some Chopsticks before moving on.
Halfway through this segment, we find another door. It leads to an optional room wherein we can activate a checkpoint and then travel right to find a power star. To get to the star, we have to platform over some spike pits. At one point, we have to utilize a giant hanging yo-yo that winds up or down depending upon the direction we push while standing upon it. As this one is already in the perfect position, we don't mess with it; we quickly spring off of it and then procure the nearby star. The door located in the room's far-right portion takes us back to the piano area, re-traversing through which turns out to be a safer option than turning back and jumping over those spike pits again.
In the area's final segment, we have to deal with a new enemies: anthropomorphic playing cards. They can be seen occupying an upper platform off of which they jump down one after the next. As they drop, they flutter through the air and do so in an increasingly wide arc. We can't reach them, so all we can do is run the beneath the platform when the path is clear. When we move past them, we see two spike pits divided by a column of toy blocks, on top of which lay one of those question-mark blocks. Because we've seen one in motion before, we know why it's there and how we can utilize it: We want to jump onto the block after the boxing glove has sprung out from its top and wait there until the glove springs out from the bottom and propels the block into the air, at which point we can more comfortably leap over the latter half of the spike pit from a much higher position!
"So that was the purpose of the room with the mystery box!" we say to ourselves, having come to understand. "It was a training room!"
Past the spike pit is a door that takes us to a room in the front plane. Here we use a question-mark block to access a platform high atop the screen and then zigzag our way up and around another water-gun sequence. In following, we have to ride a yo-yo all the way to the top of this room while dodging more cannon fire; the process entails tactically winding the yo-yo down and holding it in place whenever you sense that continuing on unabated will lead to a collision with a cannonball. To the right is the room's exit door, though it's blocked by a barrier. We can acquire the key by picking up a pellet and tossing it into the party ball seen hanging from the ceiling; when struck, the party ball breaks open and drops the key.
In the segment ahead, we encounter a sequence that's similar to the one we saw in the game's first stage--in the second section with the giant tree. We have to shift between the two planes and use a honey pot found in the background to depress a switch in the foreground; doing this removes a horizontal barrier. Then we have to drop down to the door below. But we have to do this while remaining centered, since the door rests upon two blocks that hover within the room's center space; if we're too far to the left or right, we'll miss the platform and fall all the way back down to the piano area.
Once we're in that middle room, we have to shrink down, sneak under a propelled question-mark block, and enter into a tiny passage. At regular points, the floor and ceiling have question-mark blocks embedded into them, so we have to tread carefully and try to avoid being walloped.
The door beyond takes us back to the front plane. Here we find a key. Though, there's nothing we can do with it. There's no locked door, as far as we can see, and we can't maneuver the key over the wall to our left, since it's too tall. All we can do is set the key down and use it as the support platform necessary to clear the wall. When we arrive on the opposite side of the wall, we look closer and see both a crane and a floor switch; we discover that depressing the switch causes the crane to move rightward along a ceiling track and that releasing the switch causes it to descend and perform a grabbing action--this before returning to its original position. Soon we understand what we're meant to do: We have to maneuver the crane over to the right and time the switch release in such a way that the crane will descend down above the key, pick it up, and then carry it over the wall. And that's what we do; we get the key over that wall and use it to unlock a nearby barrier, beyond which is the area's final door.
That door throws us into the stage-boss' chamber. Waiting for us this time is a sentient deck of cards. It drops in and begins hopping its way back and forth across the room. We find that we can damage it with ground-pounds. After we attack it twice, it starts spinning around and whipping its way across the screen; it does this a number of times. It's invincible while in motion, so all we can do is evade it. We can attack it only when it momentarily pauses. Each time it takes damage, its whipping motion increases in speed. We take it this thing out with five ground-pounds.
When the boss is defeated, the workshop's owner (Goofy) is freed from his confinement. He thanks us for saving him from his own toys. He then tells us about the cliff that lies to the east. If we want to climb it, he says, we'll have to use a rope; we can find one in the palace ruins. As a way of thanking us further, he fires off the workshop's toy cannon and destroys the boulder that was blocking the path to the palace. This action is observed on the world map. We watch as the obstructive boulder is blown away.
Thus ends another terrific stage. "This game just keeps on throwing new things at me!" I said to myself during my first play-through of Land of Illusion. "What a fun, innovative game!"
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