I'm relieved to say that this feels more like a sequel to Castle of Illusion rather than World of Illusion, bringing back the Ducktales like butt-bouncing mechanic that made the game so fun.

What differentiates Land of Illusion from Castle is the fact that it has some adventure game elements, rather than just being a straight up linear platformer. You now have a level select screen which allows you to replay levels to pick up items you may have missed or couldn't get to, such as health upgrades and finding new paths which open up new levels. I really like progression here because now there are items you can find my completing certain levels, which you can use to access new areas in previous levels. A lot of people don't like this backtracking aspect, but I really enjoyed it as it gave the game a Metroid/Zelda feel. It makes you keep in mind which areas you couldn't access until you got a certain item to help you get there.

The levels themes found here are slightly more generic than the magical Disney inspired levels of Castle and World. What you get here is the typical island level, the castle level, the desert level, the cloud level, cave level etc etc. fairly generic, but I guess it still works for the simplicity of the GG.

With it being a Game Gear game, unfortunately it is not as pretty to look at as it's predecessors, which is a shame because the aesthetic is one of the best things about the series so far. I would love to see a remake of this that uses Castle of Illusions artstyle. As for now, I think I like this as much as Castle of Illusion due to the progression system, but if it was instead made for the Genesis with the Castle artstyle in mind, it would have easily been my favorite.