Disney Epic Mickey (Wii Review) by Carl B.

Disney Epic Mickey
Publisher: Disney
Developer: Junstion Point
System: Wii
Release Date: November 30, 2010

December 1, 2010, by Carl B. - Ever since his first feature cartoon on November 18, 1928, Mickey Mouse has been one of the most easily recognizable cartoon characters in the world. Mickey has starred in countless cartoons and comic strips, and has had large roles in several video games, including the Kingdom Hearts series. On November 30, 2010, Disney released their latest video game starring Mickey Mouse, titled Disney Epic Mickey. The game was developed by Warren Spector, the creative mind behind Dues Ex and Thief, and deviates from Mickey's cheerful style that has been standard since 1928. With Epic Mickey, Disney and Warren Spector promise to bring a darker Mickey Mouse experience where the player's every actions shape the world around them. Does Disney Epic Mickey fulfill on its promises or is all the excitement for naught?

Epic Mickey features a charming and often times humorous story from start to finish. In the game's optional opening cinematic, Mickey enters the sorcerer Yen Sid's workshop through a magic mirror, and finds the model world Yen Sid created for forgotten Disney characters. Out of his curiosity Mickey picks up the sorcerer's magic paint brush and accidentally creates the Shadow Blot. In an effort to get rid of the Blot, Mickey uses the thinner and unwillingly pours it onto the model along with the Blot. Mickey escapes Yen Sid's workshop and after many months the Shadow Blot finds Mickey and drags him into Yen Sid's world, now called the Wasteland. Players take control of Mickey Mouse as he and a gremlin called Gus find a way to escape the Wasteland with the help of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the character Walt Disney created before Mickey Mouse. Dialogue between Mickey and most characters in the game is quite funny, specifically when they reminisce on old cartoons they starred in with Mickey, who has no idea who they are.

The original leaked concept artwork for Epic Mickey was fantastic, depicting an incredibly dark-themed world that was completely different from anything Disney has done with Mickey previously. The final product certainly isn't as dark as the initial artwork suggested it would be, but it's a welcome change from the standard Mickey style and creates a fantastic atmosphere. The game's many locales have been mostly destroyed by the thinner disaster and the overall mood of each area is dreary and depressing. Epic Mickey's soundtrack features many outstanding themes that help to set the game's mood.

Epic Mickey is a mash-up of several video game genres, including 3D and 2D platforming elements, exploration similar to the Zelda series, and an RPG-like morality and quest system. The majority of the game takes place in 3D levels where Mickey is able to jump, double jump, use a spin attack, and manipulate his surroundings with paint and thinner. By pointing the Wii Remote at the screen and pressing the B button Mickey will spray paint at objects with Yen Sid's magic brush, and pressing the Z button will spray thinner. Transparent objects can be brought back with paint, and "toon" objects can be destroyed with thinner. This creates some clever platforming segments where players must destroy an obstacle to get by and then re-create it to continue moving on.

While every area of Epic Mickey lets players manipulate it as they see fit, the game progresses in a linear fashion. However, exploration is very similar to the Zelda series, meaning that while the end destination for a quest may always be the same, players are still able to explore the world freely and take part in a multitude of side-quests. Epic Mickey makes use of a hub world called Mean Street where players can reach several of the game's other locations, complete side-quests for residents, and collect items.

Each and every location in Epic Mickey is separated by 2D platforming segments inspired from classic Mickey Mouse cartoons such as Steamboat Willie and Clock Cleaners. These levels pose little to no difficulty at all, but they can be sped through in at least 30 seconds on average so they never overstay their welcome. The 2D segments aren't randomly thrown in, either; when players are in the Asia Boat Ride locale, the 2D levels between areas is Steambot Willie. When players have to climb a clock tower, the 2D level between areas is Clock Cleaners. Collectable film reels are hidden throughout each 2D level in an effort to add some incentive to each segment.


Similar to open-ended RPGs of the current generation, Epic Mickey features a quest system that allows players to continue the main adventure or partake in side-quests. All quests are displayed in the pause menu, and are marked as Active, Completed, or Failed. Players can click on active quests to gain more information about them and view quest items when they're needed, but the game doesn't allow players to pick one quest to make a priority, similar to how the more recent games in the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series manage quests. The game's map is also very un-helpful; not only is there not an on-screen mini-map, but the pause menu map doesn't display Mickey's current position or the names of all landmarks. At one point in the game I progressed through the Tomorrow City area and wanted to return to finish a quest for Animatronic Goofy, but I couldn't remember how to get back to Tomorrow City and the map wasn't of any help at all.

One of the big gameplay elements in Epic Mickey is the title's morality system. Depending on how players interact with the world, what quests they take, and how they battle enemies, Mickey will become either good or evil, and the choices affect how characters in the game view Mickey and even changes the game's ending. When Mickey enters combat with an enemy, players can either destroy them with thinner or befriend them with paint, and then use a spin attack to finish them off. If players choose to destroy them with thinner, Mickey slowly becomes more evil and black paint will drip from his body into the atmosphere, similar to the Shadow Blot. If players use paint on enemies Mickey will gain good morality and characters in the game will look up to him. A lot of quests in the game have two ways to complete them: either with paint or with thinner. For instance, in OsTown players need to gain access to a safe to free a gremlin. The safe is locked and only a resident named Moody knows the combination. To get the combination from him, Moody asks Mickey to re-paint his house. Alternatively, players can use thinner to destroy the crane holding the safe, causing it to drop on Moody and kill him, thus opening the safe from the collision and freeing the gremlin. Some quests are flat-out evil to begin with; for example, a resident in OsTown doesn't like everything to look so colorful, so he asks Mickey to use thinner on a house to make it look dark and uninviting.


Boss battles are also affected by the morality system, letting players either use paint to befriend a boss or thinner to destroy it. Previous quests can also prevent or initiate boss battles as well. Early on in the game I failed to complete a quest for Small Pete, and a later version of Pete was angry with my decision and a battle ensued.

Unfortunately, where Epic Mickey succeeds in combined several genres, it fails in some of the most standard gameplay mechanics. The game doesn't use a lock-on system for battles, requiring players to maneuver the camera with the d-pad and C button. Sadly, the camera itself doesn't work as well as it should. The camera is often placed in awkward positions but never causes unintentional deaths during 3D platforming segments. An easy fix for the camera issue would have been to have the on-screen pointer move the camera around; it's a mystery as to why Warren Spector's team didn't incorporate this easy fix.

Hundreds of different types of pins can be collected by players to add some replay-ability to the game, and they actually prove their worth later on in the adventure. Epic Mickey took me just over 20 hours to complete, and that was without completing every side-quest and without collecting every pin.

The Verdict

Sound
15/15 - excellent soundtrack that fully compliments the mood of the game.

Graphics
18/20 - Epic Mickey's art style isn't as dark as initially presented, but it is still one of Disney's darkest creations, and is by far the darkest and most mature Mickey Mouse outing. A few frame rate hitches here and there prevent it from having perfect fluidity.

Appeal
22/25 - A 20 hour-plus adventure with a great story will keep players engaged and tons of unlockable extras and collectables will keep players coming back for more.

Gameplay
32/40 - The quest, morality, and paint and thinner mechanics of Epic Mickey shine, but camera issues and a bad map system hold the title back.

Overall
87/100 - Epic Mickey features a great morality system that rewards players for the way they interact with the Wasteland made possible by the paint and thinner mechanics of the game. Every great gameplay mechanic is made even better by the game's outstanding atmosphere and soundtrack, but at the same time, they're bogged down by a faulty camera and map system. Epic Mickey is just short of being a truly amazing game, but it's certainly one of the best and most unique games to release on Wii in 2010.