Disney Illusion Island is full of video game Easter eggs

Disney Phantasm Island is out now, and it serves as a wonderful gateway to Metroidvania to get new gamers into the style and gaming as a complete. As I highlighted in my three-and-a-half-star review, there’s nonetheless a good bit in Disney Phantasm Island to entertain extra skilled gamers. I’m not simply saying that’s the case when it comes to sport mechanics, however for references to different video games as effectively.

From an enemy to some important sport mechanics, these three references in Disney Illusion Island caught out to me probably the most. They present a reverence for the business and pay homage to some nice video games which may’ve influenced facets of Disney Phantasm Island. Hold an eye fixed out for these and extra Easter eggs whereas enjoying by way of it your self.

Portal

This Disney Phantasm Island reference is unavoidable. There are factors the place you’ll wish to heal your self, and thru the sport’s world, you’ll discover some containers that comprise hearts. Upon nearer inspection, these containers appear to be the companion cubes from Portal, as they’re white with a coronary heart within the center. You received’t be carrying round these containers, although; you merely leap on them, and a few hearts for gamers to gather with come out.

Naturally Portal performs fairly otherwise than Disney Phantasm Island, so there’s not a lot of a deeper connection there. Nonetheless, it’s fairly humorous that certainly one of Disney Phantasm Island’s core intractable objects is a reference to a different sport and one thing that can probably fly proper over the heads of the children enjoying who’ve by no means heard of Portal.

Sonic the Hedgehog

One of many enemies you’ll come throughout throughout your journey bears a placing resemblance to a widely known gaming mascot. Referred to as a Spindle, this creature is a blue hedgehog with a spikey again that rolls round whereas making an attempt to hit gamers. “Who’s blue, spikey, and spins? Spindle!” its Tokun description reads. “This critter loves nothing greater than to carry out a buzzsaw-like spin forwards and backwards over small stretches of floor. It’s extremely really useful you wait till it will get dizzy after which keep away from it.”

If you happen to couldn’t already inform, Spindle is a spoof on Sonic the Hedgehog. Whereas Disney Phantasm Island doesn’t play very like any Sonic the Hedgehog sport, it’s nonetheless a approach that the sport pays respect to one of many platforming style’s greats. It took me without warning whereas enjoying and reveals a deeper appreciation for the style Disney Phantasm Island is part of.

Spelunky

This one’s extra of a mechanical reference that’s harking back to among the finest fashionable 2D platformers on the market. Once you’re enjoying Disney Phantasm Island with another person, you may press down and Y to put down a rope for different gamers to climb up. This isn’t solely a mechanic that can assist much less skilled gamers but additionally a reference to a different platformer. Anybody who has performed Spelunky or its sequel ought to acknowledge it. Co-op rope dropping is certainly one of that sport’s defining multiplayer options.

The primary distinction is that Disney Phantasm Island is a considerably simpler sport than Spelunky, so this mechanic is supposed extra as a approach to assist struggling gamers than as a option to create shortcuts to get again the place you already got here. Nonetheless, it’s neat that Dlala Studios discovered a useful mechanic from one other nice platformer and located a inventive option to recontextualize it inside their journey.

What do these references imply?