Nobody is taking Donald away from me. I love his perpetual grumpiness and ‘over it’ attitude, combined with that wet and phlegmy unintelligible babble. In a game of childlike magical wonder and relentless positivity, Donald’s is the squawking voice of reason – at least, with subtitles on.
Disney Illusion Island reviewDeveloper: DLaLaPublisher: Disney Interactive StudiosPlatform: Played on SwitchAvailability: Out 28 July on Switch
Disney Illusion Island is a 1-4 player co-op metroidvania, with players able to choose between Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald. The famous mouse is persistently upbeat, he and Minnie are all lovey-dovey, and Goofy is just gormlessly there to make irrelevant comments. There’s no contest on who to pick.
I do feel sorry for Donald, though. He’s always ready with a sassy remark to undercut this whimsical adventure, yet he’s forever the butt of the joke. Take upgrades, for instance: whenever the four characters receive a new ability – typical of the genre – it’s individually tailored to each but with the same function. For the boost jump, Mickey gets a cool jetpack, Minnie an elegant origami plane, Goofy rides a spicy pepper (all his upgrades are food related), and Donald gets a firework rocket in danger of exploding beneath him. Later he’s ironically given two extra feathers to glide with – apparently his wings aren’t already enough.
It’s testament to developer DLaLa that it packed so much character into the game. Players will have their favourites, but Donald is irresistible to me with his determined run and panicked flaps. The animated story scenes are gorgeously presented and filled with slapstick and sarcastic humour, which translates in-game to expressive character design and comedy audio: the eccentrically silly power-ups, the of a bouncy platform, or the of an enemy hit. The developer also isn’t afraid to poke fun at genre conventions (there’s a recurring joke about those upgrades for example, and the map giver is bizarrely a toaster handing out bread fragments) and there’s some amusing wordplay in the script. The playful orchestral score, too, adds to that Disney authenticity of a playable cartoon. It’s all thoroughly charming.