While Castle of Illusion felt like a platforming homage to 60/70s era Disney of Sleeping Beauty/Snow White, World of Illusion feels like more of a homage to the 80s/90s era of renaissance Disney, with the exception of one level that is a homage to Alice in Wonderland.

The animations here are really impressive for a Sega Genesis game as they feel like they were ripped right out of a Mickey mouse saturday morning cartoon. While the backgrounds are pretty, they don't feel as detailed or as impressive with the painting-like backgrounds of Castle of Illusion.

Presenting itself as a sequel, the gameplay is not quite exactly the same or an evolution of what was provided in Castle of Illusion. Ditching the Ducktales-like bounce on enemies heads gameplay, this goes for a more Castlevania esque type of platformer. You no longer have a way of killing enemies by jumping or bouncing on their heads, you now have a castlevania whip-like magical cape. To most this isn't probably an upgrade or downgrade as it can be just as fun, but taking away the ability to kill enemies by jumping on their heads to just instead hit them with an attack button is not as fun of a replacement. The only improvement which I really did enjoy was the addition of a run button as I didn't like how slow Mickey moved in Castle of Illusion, so there is a definite improvement.

Castle of Illusion provided a decent challenge. While not as hard as most classic games, you will definitely die and find yourself getting a game over. World of Illusion is not only shorter, but much easier. I don't think I got a game over once. I literally breezed through this on a lunch break. Unfortunately this doesn't leave a lasting impression like Castle of Illusion did, but it's still a good well made game nonetheless.