Disney’s beloved corporate mascot Mickey Mouse finally gets a next-gen video game all of his own with Disney Epic Mickey. Mickey, who was the lead in what are now considered two classic 16-bit console games – Castle of Illusion and World of Illusion – back in the SNES and Megadrive heyday, finally gets to cut loose in a new Wii game that sees Mickey cross the entire of Disney’s historical landscape with a little help from legendary game producer Warren Spector!
In Disney Epic Mickey [you] guide our hero Mickey Mouse through the whimsical Wasteland, home of past Disney cartoon characters and attractions. Using the magical abilities of paint and thinner, Mickey runs and jumps across a vibrant landscape. This imaginary theme park has been pieced together from sketches of never-created attractions, vintage rides and inventive animatronics, and populated by characters that have been forgotten by time. Battling the minions of the villainous Mad Doctor and an ominous new version of Disney comic book nemesis, the Phantom Blot, Mickey eventually meets and confronts his somewhat resentful “half-brother” – Walt Disney’s first cartoon star, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
Boot up Disney Epic Mickey and you’ll notice something rather interesting – the game doesn’t look anything like a “typical” Disney video game. This is the antithesis of a Disney game – dark and twisted rather than light and fluffy! Strangely, while a lot has been made of the games historical aspect, this isn’t entirely a new thing – Mickey’s Wild Adventure on the PSOne took a similar stance, with Mickey travelling back in time through his old cartoons, including Steamboat Willie, Mickey and the Beanstalk and Prince and the Pauper, in a manner very similar to this game, only here there’s a lot more reverance for the history and tradition of the ENTIRE of Disney, rather than just Mickey himself.
Combining 2D and 3D platforming traditions, Disney Epic Mickey certainly lives up to its title – the game is epic, in fact possibly too epic… I found myself playing the game for hours before I even got to the core of the games at Mean Street (which is a more stylised, darker version of Walt Disney World’s Main Street). Those same early hours of gameplay were also punctuated by an over abundance of “hints and tips”, I could understand such intrusions in a kid’s game, but Disney Epic Mickey was never marketed as such, and really doesn’t feel like one either. However make it as far as Mean Street and the world (in the case the Wasteland) is your oyster, and there’s some superb, if a little simple, RPG elements added to the game in the form of quests. It’s also here in Mean Street where the paint and thinner aspect of the game ceases to be all about platforming and more about exploration, really opening up the true possibilites of the game.
Disney Epic Mickey does have some serious flaws – the camera system can be very frustrating at times, leading to problems in actually traversing the platforms and I did have some issues with the paint and erase system too – it’s sometimes not clear where you can erase, or paint on, portions of the surroundings, leading to a lot of trial and error, which too can get repetitive. Then there’s the whole Wii control system itself… Yes it works great for the “point and shoot” aspect of the paint and thinner portions of the game, but the Wii-mote is not the best when it comes to precise movement – of which the same sometimes demands. Just be prepared to fall off platforms on numerous occassions!
Despite the games issues, there’s still a lot of fun to be had playing Disney Epic Mickey, especially for the older gamer who has more of an affinity for Disney of old, and fans of Mickey Mouse of course… It’s just a shame that developers Junction Point have since been closed down – I’m sure that any issues could have been ironed out in a sequel.
Owner and Managing Editor of Blogomatic3000. Loves movies, tech, tv, comics and general geekery... Occasionally writes for other websites such as Bloody Disgusting, and you can find him rambling on about his DVD collection on YouTube
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