It seems Disney Illusion Island was torn between aligning itself with the audience that will love its IP or the genre that it has chosen to design the game around. Ultimately, Disney Illusion Island falls in a no-man’s land between the two because it’s neither a great metroidvania nor a challenging platformer that we’re used to with Disney games of the past. All in all, Disney Illusion Island is a great game for families to play, especially parents with their kids, which will surprise no one. As a family man these days, I can appreciate this; I just wish they had provided more challenging gameplay options to cater to a wider audience.
Curse of the Sea Rats is certainly an enjoyable experience for metroidvania fans, and it’s a lovingly crafted, feel-good title. Sadly for me though, the limited combat and boss fights undermine the experience and rank it lower than many other great metroidvania titles recently. Had these elements had more care or originality invested into them, then Curse of the Sea Rats could have been an absolute hit, but unfortunately, it ends up being just another metroidvania as a result.
Overall, I had a great time exploring Royla with Pronty and Bront, and I hope we meet again. However, describing Pronty as a metroidvania is a bit of a misnomer in my opinion, but that shouldn’t take away from all of the many plus points on offer here. The graphics, story and combat are all well executed and when you nail those pillars, who cares what genre of game it is?