Disney Illusion Island (2023)

When I saw a new AAA Metroidvania was being made, I couldn’t contain my excitement. Metroid Dread was excellent and I love seeing the genre go mainstream. Unfortunately, Illusion Island feels like a lower mid-tier indie game - it lacks a lot of polish, breadth, detail, and life. But despite this, it managed to do a few things quite well and kept me entertained.

The biggest issue - the environment. The art design is super basic, low-detail, and lacks variety. The world feels strangely empty and lifeless, and visually isn’t interesting. Also, the platforming is super basic for much of the game. Strangely, it’s at its worst near the beginning, which almost made me abandon it. There is no combat, and the player movement feels… ok. The abilities are generic and this is one of the biggest issues - where is the AAA Disney ingenuity?!

But the game does pick up. After the first couple of areas, you hit the first boss fight which was really fun. The bosses are well made throughout, very simple but solid. After this, the level design got more interesting and challenging, and the environments got more detailed and less lifeless.

The exploration is also quite good. It isn’t a breeze to 100%, but it’s also not impossible - the end game completion was possibly my favorite part.

Overall, I had a good time (after the first couple hours). The game could’ve been so much more, but I still think it’s worth a play through. It’s also great to get a new entry that is inviting towards children! There are probably 60 indie games I’d recommend before this, but I still can say it’s competent and does enough right to warrant checking it out.