Game Spotlight: Disney Epic Mickey

This is one of those few moments when Australia actually gets something before the rest of the world, so I’m going to take full advantage of it and bring you this game spotlight so I can try and be one of the first out of the gate among the big game site reviews.

Disney games haven’t been awesome for a very long time, at least not since the days of the SNES with The Lion King and Aladdin… and in turn, Disney itself has changed much and has lost a lot of its awesomeness over the years. The kind of awesomeness I’m talking about is the type that gave birth to the original design of Mickey Mouse which is far superior to his current form, and also the type that spawned things like Fantasia (which is being released on Blu-ray soon!).

Epic Mickey takes us all back to those days before Mickey Mouse was corrupted and also takes you through Disney’s lost history in what is a very interesting game for so many reasons.

Disney knew what they wanted from the beginning which is why they approached Warren Spector to develop a different kind of Mickey Mouse game. In the beginning, it was to have been a multi-platform game for the PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. Though, eventually it was decided that Epic Mickey would become a Wii exclusive and that all of the hard work being put into it would go into this one iteration.

Story

I really could go into the story, but in all honesty it’s better just to watch this YouTube video which is the opening cinematic for the game…

…so there you have it, the premise of the game. What happens from that point onwards is up to you. Will you disassemble the world of forgotten characters, or will you choose to rebuild it? What happens in the end is determined by the choices you made throughout the game. Actually, in a strange sense it felt like Disney’s own version of BioShock or inFAMOUS… no, really.

Gameplay

As stated above, the gameplay mechanics are based around Mickey’s ability to create or destroy elements of Wasteland at his whim. To do this, Mickey has a magic brush he uses to shoot paint or thinner at object or enemies. Paint will create objects and turn enemies into friendlies. Thinner will erase objects and destroy you enemies. Depending on how much you use either the paint or thinner, your reputation in Wasteland will change during the course of the game.

There are also some elements of the game that are based on pure choice… do I want to take the treasure but then activate a pressure switch that’ll launch one of the trapped friendly characters into oblivion? Or do I want to save that trapped friendly character but miss out on the treasure? Basically it’s a pretty simple choice between good deeds and bad deeds that will shape the way you play this game.

The game is full of platforming elements from both a 3D and 2D perspective, but there’s also an RPG element to the game as well. Interactive with characters in the game will open up quests that Mickey can undertake… and yes, you can actually fail a quest. Failures in this game are permanent on your save so if you fail a quest or miss out on any treasures in a particular stage/area, that’s it… there’s no going back to get them.

Some people, especially die-hard completionists would find that a nightmare, but I think it works for the overall concept of the game since it is all based on how you’ve chosen to interact with the world Mickey is in and the characters he’s interacted with. You can’t just go around doing what you want and expect to be given a second, third, infinite amount of chances if you fail.

Though, I guarantee that if you do end up failing, you’ll probably be blaming the controls for your failure…

Controls

As first, the way Mickey moved seems to suggest he was just a slower version of Mario in Super Mario Galaxy… complete with a spin move when you shake the Wii Remote. That quickly rubbed off once you realised that while Mickey has a double jump, the spin move does nothing to propel you up any further. Basically it’s just one of Mickey’s attack moves he mostly uses to destroy environmental elements to find pick-up items.

Mickey’s movement, while well animated can also feel very sticky and unresponsive at times. He tends to slow down and stick to walls if you get to close to them and his movements can be difficult to get used to since he tends to slide off of some rounded surfaces if you don’t land on them correctly. There’ll be plenty of times where you’ll find yourself falling from a great height and splattering on the ground below or falling into a river of thinner that’s going to end up killing you even if you try to head to the nearest safe platform.

Basically if you don’t screw up, you’re good. If you do, you’re going to regret it more than you realise…

Of course, while there is quite a lot of platforming to do in the game, the real focus is on the use of the Paint which you can use when you hold the B button, and thinner which you can use by holding the Z button. The Wii Remotes pointer has become very popular with many Wii games over the years and is used fairly effectively in Epic Mickey, though it does have its issues. It doesn’t feel quite as smooth as it should and there are plenty of times when you’re trying to use either your Paint or Thinner on an object but end up hitting something that’s in your way that you’re not actually aiming at.

The difficult camera system can also hinder things when you’re trying to aim at things that are at a high angle…

Camera

To put it bluntly, the camera is horrid and can really screw things up for you while you’re trying to make your way through some of the more difficult platforming parts of the game. Sure, they give you the C button and the D-Pad to try to put a leash around it, but you end up doing a lot of unnecessary wrestling with the camera that does tend to take away from the experience.

I found that while the C button was convenient, it felt very sticky to use… there I go using that word again, I’ll explain. When you press C mid-run, Mickey will end up stopping for a moment until the camera is aligned again before he’ll start running again. It breaks the flow of what you’re trying to do and ends up being pretty annoying. Of course, even when you do center the camera behind Mickey, you find that you can’t tell where you’re jumping to in many places unless you use the D-Pad to try to shift the perspective to angle downward.

Then there are other moments where the camera tends to lock in a certain angles for some odd reason. It’s all very strange and while I know I’ve complained a lot about the camera… at least I have nothing to complain about with the 2D perspective parts of the game… not that you really can to begin with.

Visuals

Now, most people would naturally assume that having a multi-platform game turn into a Wii exclusive would mean that this game would lose any beauty it had as a potential high definition game. But you’re all wrong, wrong, wrong in so many ways. Epic Mickey is a beautiful game even if you are viewing it in standard definition.

The amount of time and polish that went into making this single version was put to good use on the visuals to make sure everything held up against games you would find on the PS3 and 360.

Of course, it’s not like you really need to go that far to do so, this isn’t a photo-realistic kind of game, this is based in a cartoon world, so the key is art style and implementation of that art style. Unfortunately, none of the screenshots seem to do this game much justice which is pretty much what happens with every Wii game. To get a sense of how nice this game looks, you really have to watch the videos in HD or play the game yourself.

The opening cinematic is one thing and the cartoon animated clips in between certain parts of the game are another, but the in-game environment still looks just as good and you don’t get a jarring sense of difference when you go from the opening cinematic into the game and then view your first cartoon animation sequence. The world you’re pulled into is dark and gloomy but still has that sense of wonder that Disney was once famous for.

Mickey sports a variation of his original design and loses the whole rounded cutesy look he’s gained over the years. He’s sleek, he has his original mischievous nature and while he does make some noises, he’s pleasantly mute…

Audio

One thing I like about this game that many people probably won’t agree with is that they kept the characters mostly mute. There are just some games that need to have characters speaking in text and not with sound. I don’t particularly want to hear characters in a Zelda game speak using voices and it’s nice to see that tradition carried over to this game. I feel in many ways, it’s better to let your own imagination do the work as you read the text the characters speak. This adds to the flavour of the whole experience and helps bring Mickey back to his roots… the loud mouse Mouse we know today didn’t used to be so chatty.

It doesn’t take very long to realise how much effort was put into creating the score for this game. Everything is fully orchestrated and you’ll quickly recognise some very familiar themes right from the very start. Just like the visuals, the music is filled with a lot of the oldskool Disney charm that they’ve been missing for quite a few years.

Some final thoughts…

Revisiting Disney’s lost history and doing it with a retro style Mickey is what makes this game awesome. This game is basically an interactive history lesson of the Disney company that is fun to play despite its less than perfect controls and camera system.

Ever since it was announced, I’ve been hoping desperately that this game would turn out to be good and I was not disappointed. Thanks to Warren Spector and the folks over at Junction Point Studios and Powerhouse Animation Studios for making this game what it is.

It’s been a long time since I pulled out the score stars but here we go…

Score

Star scoring system explanation
5 = Excellent!
4 = Good.
3 = Mediocre…
2 = Rent only.
1 = Ugh, this sucks.
0 = This game should never have been made!

So there you have it… despite the few flaws it has, it’s an excellent game you should experience even if you don’t own a Wii to begin with. Mickey Mouse is cool again! Well… at least in this game, and with the help of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.