Sega was the king of 16-Bit Mickey Mouse games. I remember the first time I saw Castle of Illusion in gaming mags back in the day, it was amazing looking. They also did Fantasia (affiliate link) which was not as good as the other Mickey games Sega did. Anyhow, Forest of Illusion, by DomKid on YouTube looks to be a spiritual sequel of sorts. No word on a Sega Genesis getting a port though, this version is for the Commodore Amiga computer.
Why Sega never continued the Illusion series of games is beyond me. World of Illusion was amazing and showed Sega could make an action-adventure game in the style of Super Mario. Maybe they lost the license to Mickey Mouse before a third game could be created, or remasters released for the Sega Saturn. Who knows at this point.
That is not stopping fans though. DomKid is doing this using the Scorpion Engine on Commodore Amiga. According to the comments section, Scorpion Engine has been ported to the Sega Genesis so a port could be in the future. Right now, the version of Forest of Illusion we are seeing here is 0.01 Beta. That means very early, and a lot still can change before release.
It is a new game featuring Mickey Mouse in a 2D side scrolling action-adventure. What is not to love, unless you do not like those things. Maybe you are more a McDonald’s fan.
Graphically, Forest of Illusion is impressive. I cannot pinpoint where the sprite for Mickey is from. It is not from Sega’s games (based on the second half of a jump animation). Could be from Sony’s Mickey Mania games but I am not sure.
The level graphics are quite cool and there is already plenty of parallax scrolling and enemies in place. According to Indie Retro News, DomKid is also working on a Castlevania port to the Commodore Amiga.
More when I know it.
