THAT PLOT SYNOPSIS IN FULL

Well, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck appear to have, rather carelessly, gone and accidentally transported themselves to the dimension of a malicious wizard while mucking around with some magic tricks. To get out again, they're going to have to travel through several worlds, battling lots of magical meanies and end-of-level zzzzz.... Oops, sorry. Tell you, what, let's forget the plot and get on with the review(s), shall we?

THE REVIEW FOR ANYONE OVER THE AGE OF 11

Look, just forget it, okay? When World Of Illusion first appeared in the office, we sat Paul down with it at 9:30 and told him he wasn't allowed to eat again until he'd finished the whole thing (we thought he could do with losing a couple of pounds, y'see). At quarter past 10, Andy fancied a cup of coffee, so he shouted for Paul to go and make him one. At about half-past ten he realised he was still thirsty, and wondered aloud where Paul had got to.

'Oh, he nipped off to Macdonalds about ten past ten,' said Amanda. 'Mumbled something about the easiest game he'd ever played in his life.'

Yep, our boy Paul sailed through the entire one-player version of World Of Illusion in 40 minutes flat, and it wasn't a fluke either - the rest of us found it just as straightforward. The thing is, while it's all very (very) pretty and everything, there's very little actual game in there - enemies only stroll up every half-a-day or so, and when they do a simple swipe of Mickey or Donald's magic cape from half-a-screen away will miraculously turn them straight into a harmless little flower or butterfly or something. Even the bosses are an absolute pushover, and generally the only way you'll ever lose any lives is by getting a bit careless and falling off the bottom of the screen on one of the mildly complicated cloud-hopping sky levels or something.

If you're at all grown-up, you'll go through this game like a dose of salts, and get very very grumpy indeed about what you've just done with 40 quid. If you just want to watch a cartoon, after all, buying a video of Fantasia is a lot cheaper and it lasts twice as long...

REVIEW FOR ANYONE NOT OVER THE AGE OF 11

Wow! Look at those graphics! They're brilliant! It's just like a real cartoon! And I must be a really great gamesplayer, 'cos I'm getting miles and miles and it's only my first go! And the graphics are brilliant! And you get to be either Mickey or Donald, and they've got their own little bits of speech! It's brilliant! And so are the graphics! Wow, look at the brilliant way the backgrounds go all wobbly in the underwater levels! It's better than a Super NES! Brilliant! Now I can really slag off that guy at school who always says Mega Drives are rubbish! And you get about a hundred different tunes to listen to! And the graphics are brilliant! Oh no! I'm going to fill my pants! (Snip! - Ed)

REVIEW FOR ANYONE WITH A FRIEND

Hang on a minute, though. Let's just try out that two-player game before we consign this one to the 'Let's Try It With A Bit Of Playtesting Next Time, Eh Guys?' file. You can't beat a bit of interaction with a close personal friend, that's what my granny always used to say.

Playing two-player mode, the first thing you notice isn't so much the extra thing you get (ie the other character), but the stuff you actually lose. Lots of bits which were previously present disappear, in order to make the two-player interaction a bit more, well, interactive. But wait - progress a little bit (ie past the first level) and you suddenly notice that something's changed. In fact, something's been completely added - it's a whole new level!

Yep, in the two-player game you get whole new extra sections which just aren't there in the solo version, and it makes the whole thing massively more entertaining. Because, unlike most two-player games where you're simply there to get in each other's way and hold up the scrolling, World Of Illusion in two-player mode is a real co-operative effort - most of the time you simply can't get anywhere if you don't play as a team. It's a lot more rewarding, too - you get a real sense of achievement from managing to co-ordinate your efforts, especially on the mine cart where one slip can see you plunging through a rickety bridge to your doom(s). It's still not the toughest game in the world, and some of the flaws in the single-player game are still there (like the general slow pace, and the fact that 'continues' actually send you back as many as three sub-levels, which is a real pain in the bum when, due to the aforementioned slow pace, it'd just taken you 20 minutes to get through them), but World Of Illusion, two-player style, will make you smile a lot, and there aren't too many games you can say that of these days.

So, bearing all that in mind, I'm going to give this a much higher mark than I'd originally imagined. When you look at it, though, bear in mind that if you're playing the game by yourself you should knock about 30% straight off, and if you're a battle-hardened action freak you'll probably want to drop even that by about another 10. If you're quite young, not very good at games and a fan of Mickey and Donald, though, this might be the best game you ever buy.

GRAPHICS 10

SOUND 9

GAMEPLAY 6

GAME SIZE 4

ADDICTION 7

Very very easy to complete, and very very dull in one-player mode, but fantastic for a couple of youngsters.

82 PERCENT