Disney Illusion Island wants you to know it is a Mickey Mouse game before you press a single button. The 2023 platformer, developed by Dlala Studios and published by Disney Games, opens with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy arriving on Monoth Island expecting a picnic.
There is no picnic. There is a giant bookshelf, a creature named Toku, and three stolen Tomes of Knowledge to recover.
Trailer, via Dlala Studios.
Toku Admits the Picnic Was a Lie
Toku leads the Hokuns, and he admits outright that he invited the group under false pretenses. He needs their help to recover the Tomes of Knowledge that protect the island. Mickey and his friends accept because they want to be heroes. That is the whole setup, and it is enough.
The plot does not stay simple. An inventor named Mazzy hands out new abilities to unlock new areas. The team retrieves the Tomes of Engineering, Botany and Astronomy by battling three bosses across different biomes. After each fight, they cast a spell taught by Toku that turns defeated enemies into stone statues. Placing the Tomes on the bookshelf opens a portal.
Grayzar Was Disguised as Mazzy the Whole Time
The back half is better than a licensed platformer has any right to be. The Hokuns take the Tomes and enter the portal. The bookshelf transforms into the Tome of History. It reveals that four heroes once ruled the island and created the Tomes to share knowledge with the public. Grayzar, who created the Tome of History, wanted the other Tomes’ power. The other three heroes defeated him and banished him.
Mickey and his friends use the spell in reverse to free the defeated guardians, who open a portal so the team can stop Toku from returning Grayzar to Monoth. They face Grayzar, who was disguised as Mazzy. They break his spell and he turns friendly. Grayzar says Toku manipulated him during the earlier battle and that he projected his subconscious to aid Mickey’s team without knowing Toku’s plan.
Then they find Toku casting a spell with the Tomes to control the island. He tries to make excuses. Minnie kicks him far away. The group interrupts the spell.
Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy All Play the Same
Here is the problem. You choose between Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck or Goofy. They have different animations. They play the same.
Every character walks and jumps identically, and every character earns the same platforming abilities as the story progresses: double jumping, wall jumping, ground-pounding and swinging. A Donald Duck who moved differently from a Goofy would have given the roster a reason to exist beyond preference. Instead, the choice is cosmetic.
The Game Has No Combat, and That Is Its Best Decision
Disney Illusion Island is a 2D side-scrolling platformer with a Metroidvania-like structure. There is no direct combat mechanic at all. Players avoid enemy attacks rather than trading blows. Boss fights work the same way: you dodge attacks, press buttons and perform platforming feats to indirectly harm the boss.
Stripping out combat forces every encounter to be solved with movement, and movement is what the game does well. Getting hit costs one life, shown as a heart. Lose every life and you return to the last mailbox you passed, which works as a checkpoint. Players can adjust how many lives they start a checkpoint with and can turn on invincibility mode. That flexibility lets a younger player finish the game and lets an older one keep the pressure on.
Monoth Island Rewards You for Looking Around
The island itself is the best argument for the game. Players travel through areas using an expanding map of Monoth. The biomes are varied and the art holds up. Collectibles are plentiful and mostly worth chasing. Glimts are small balls of light that unlock concept art and the island’s lore. Tokuns display character art and backstories. Hidden Mickey shapes in the background show photos of Mickey and his friends. Mickey memorabilia references earlier Mickey cartoons.
The lore collectibles are where the writing earns its keep. A licensed game rarely bothers to build a history for its setting. This one does, and it makes Monoth feel like a place rather than a backdrop.
The Hug Button Is the Best Idea in the Game
The game supports local co-op, and it is built around cooperation rather than competition. Players can hug each other to restore both their lives. They can drop ropes to help other players climb obstacles. Both mechanics are small, and both change how a session feels. The hug sounds cute in a pitch and turns out to be genuinely useful when someone is down to their last heart.
What the Mixed Reviews Got Right
Disney Illusion Island received mixed reviews from critics, and the game drew a critic aggregate of 7.7 out of 10 on IGDB across six outlets. That split is easy to understand and hard to fully agree with. The game is not trying to be the hardest platformer on the market. It is trying to be a well-made Mickey Mouse platformer that a family can play together on a couch, and it succeeds at that.
The weaknesses are real. The four characters are interchangeable in play. The lack of combat removes a whole vocabulary of challenge, and some boss fights lean on button presses where a purer platforming test would have landed harder. The Metroidvania structure is present but not deep, and players who want a map that rewards serious backtracking will find it thin.
None of that outweighs what works. The movement is responsive. The island is worth exploring. The story goes further than it needs to, and the Grayzar reveal gives the back half real momentum. The co-op design is thoughtful rather than tacked on.
The 2025 re-release under the title Disney Illusion Island Starring Mickey & Friends brought the game to Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on May 30, 2025, after the original Nintendo Switch launch on July 28, 2023. That wider reach is deserved. This is a game that understands its own scale and hits it.
KEY FACTS
- Score: 7.7/10
- Developer: Dlala Studios
- Publisher: Disney Games
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5
- Switch release: July 28, 2023
- Re-release: May 30, 2025, as Disney Illusion Island Starring Mickey & Friends
- Genres: Platform, Adventure
- Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
- IGDB critic aggregate: 7.7/10 across 6 outlets
Disney Illusion Island is a good game with a clear limit. It will not convert anyone who has no interest in Mickey Mouse, and it will not satisfy players who need combat in their platformers. For everyone else, it is a generous, well-built adventure with a better story than it needed and a co-op mode that respects the people playing it. 7.7 of 10.
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