Epic Mickey Review

Official Site

Platform: Nintendo Wii
Developer: Junction Point Studios
Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
Genre: Action Platformer
# of Players: 1
U.S. Release Date: November 25th, 2010
MSRP: $49.99

Talk about a tough game to review.

On the one hand, there is a serious chunk of Disney history in this game – a ton of different elements in here that would make Disney fans absolutely nuts with excitement. On the other hand, the game itself has some serious issues that make it something of a chore to play.

It might be best to start with the positive – the elements of the game that anyone with a real appreciation for Disney history and lore will absolutely adore. First and foremost, there is Mickey Mouse. This game is part of an ongoing effort to revitalize some of Mickey’s more mischievous and devious personality traits (famously seen in Sorcerer’s Apprentice, for example) to make him more relevant to today. On that note, it succeeds wildly. The game is set in a version of Disneyland created by Yen Sid for all of the forgotten Disney characters to live in. Well, Mickey ruins that world – trying to mimic the wizard and use his magic paintbrush to create something of his own. Mickey creates a monster instead, lacking the skill of the wizard, and in an effort to beat the Monster back spills thinner on the map of the Forgotten Disneyland, seemingly destroying the monster in the process. Mickey flees, leaving his damage behind, and eventually goes on to have the celebrated career as it happened in reality. But decades later, the Shadow Blot returns, dragging Mickey into the ruined Disney Wasteland, where he has to finally face the consequences of his actions.

Another major part of the game is the return of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald is a character that predates Mickey, and if anything, Mickey is a rip-off of Oswald. As Disney history buffs will know, Oswald was created for Universal Pictures, and after a rift with Universal’s Charles Mintz Disney lost control of the character. Mickey Mouse was basically created in Oswald’s image, with just enough changes to avoid copyright infringement. The rights to Oswald finally came back to the Walt Disney Company in a famous “trade for Al Michaels” with Universal back in 2006, and Disney has been carefully figuring out how to reintroduce the character. This game seems to be their first step towards that end. Oswald is the first resident of the Disney Wasteland, the older half-brother of Mickey Mouse who was sent there after Mickey replaces him. Oswald is painted as a noble but bitter character, who resents Mickey for replacing him, but ultimately longs to be loved by their shared “father,” Walt Disney. When the game begins, you almost believe that Oswald is set as the villain, but as the story continues you grow to sympathize with him. He proves himself to be good, and his reputation in the Disney Wasteland is impeccable. And while he holds on to his resentment toward Mickey, you grow to understand why he feels that way – and given the things Mickey has done, you kind of agree with him. I have no idea how much more of Oswald we will ever see, but I love the dynamic between he and Mickey and this game. Hopefully we see more of it.

As I mentioned before, the ruined Disneyland serves a home for the forgotten Disney characters. Of course, many of the characters aren’t forgotten at all (The pirates from Peter Pan, for example), but there are many classic characters that are borderline. There are some truly obscure characters that populate the levels, and some a little more known characters that take a central role and are given a chance to shine. The Gremlins (Dahl’s characters) are constant companions throughout the game – Mickey must rescue them to get their help advancing through levels. Various versions of Pete appear in the game – and you are even treated to an explanation of why there are so many Petes. Pete ends up being kind of a Chaotic Good sort – kind of a bully, but always with good-natured motives. Many of Mickey’s old friends appear as well – Clarabelle and Horace Horsecollar being the most prominent examples. Evil forgotten characters like the Mad Doctor appear here as antagonists.

Another aspect of the game Disney fans will appreciate are the cartoons. In order to travel between levels, you have to use a “projector” system. You jump into a projector, and have to pass through a 2-D platformer interpretation of classic cartoons like Plutopia, Steamboat Willie, and Jungle Rhythm. In each one, you can find a filmstrip – and by collecting these filmstrips you can unlock two cartoons – “The Mad Scientist” (featuring Mickey Mouse) and “Oh What A Knight” (featuring Oswald). These platform levels are awesome the first time you go through them, but some levels you need to travel between more than once, and the repetition on some of them gets a little tiresome. Especially Thru the Mirror, which connects Ostown and Mean Street. You travel through this one frequently, but there are two points in that level that pause and go through an animation to jump through the mirror – annoying when you are sent through there over and over again on fetch quests.

This is kind of where the game falls apart. While it seems like an absolute tribute to Disney, the game itself is more of a chore than anything. The best parts of the game are all of the parts that don’t actually involve playing it, which might just be a fatal flaw. First I have to mention the camera – the camera controls on this game are so broken that they literally destroy the game. You spend more time fighting with the camera to make it look where you need it to go. In fact, the enemies you fight in this game are total pushovers, but they are only dangerous because sometimes you can’t make the camera look at them.

The game’s main draw is the “moral choice system.” Mickey’s magic brush has the power to create and destroy by spraying paint or thinner. The paint creates objects (in predefined locations) and turns certain enemies into allies, while the thinner destroys certain objects and enemies. I have to admit that I liked how really unimportant the moral choice system was in the game. You can accomplish some quests by creating or destroying, and ultimately it doesn’t matter which path you chose. You do eventually increase your paint or thinner capacity by choosing one path or the other – but that’s absolutely perfect. If you are going to use thinner all the time, you want to increase your thinner instead of your plate. The game isn’t too heavy-handed with the moral choice system like some others, and it works perfectly here.

Unfortunately, there is very little variety in what you do. The sidequests end up being mandatory, and they are almost entirely fetch quests, which get really repetitive when you have to travel through projector levels over and over again. You can make use of the create/destroy mechanic in every level, but the terrain is either made of “toon” or it isn’t – which means that there are only certain predefined pieces you can affect. The trouble is there is little logic behind what does and doesn’t qualify. Usually there is a bit more color on the pieces you can affect, but not always, meaning you basically have to spray the entire level to see what you can find. And when you exit the level, everything you did reverts to its default condition, making all your efforts to create and destroy worthless. So basically every level involves going in, destroying everything you can to find all the items, creating a few things and then moving on. It gets dull, quickly.

The difficulty in this game is ridiculously low (probably a good thing thanks to the camera) and this adds to the monotony. I have to wonder who is supposed to play this game. I understand that Disney’s default position is to make things kid-friendly. The trouble is, what kid cares about Clarabelle? What kid even knows what Plutonia is? Is there a kid under 12 who has ever seen Horace Horsecollar? The appeal of the game is all things that older players would appreciate, but the game itself is not nearly difficult enough to be interesting. Beyond that, while it is supposed to be Disneyland, it is never really named as such, making me wonder if they just cheaped out and didn’t want to include too many licenses in the game. Tomorrow Land is Tomorrow City, Toon Town is OsTown, Main Street is Mean Street… hell, Small World is referred to as “Boat Ride” for crying out loud. And the levels don’t look anything like Disnleyland itself, with the exception of Mean Street… it was really a let down. I was really looking forward to exploring a ruined Disneyland, complete with levels that took place in rides, not just things similarly named with an approximate theme.

Oh, and the final nail in the coffin? There is no voice acting. None. The cut scenes in this game are made up of not particularly impressive animations where the characters grunt to subtitles. All of them. They wouldn’t even spring for voice talent to tell this story?

Overall I have to proclaim Epic Mickey a disappointment. It was like they had this awesome idea for a game, and after coming up with a fantastic concept and a few fantastic ideas, kicked it down to a design team and their licensing department who defecated on a plate, stuck a copy of the concept on top, and shipped it out to the stores. Epic Mickey should have been epic. It had everything it needed to be an amazing game, except good design. I am extremely disappointed in the result here. If the game is good for anything, it might inspire some people to look into Mickey and Disney’s rich history, and see some amazing things they probably missed out on. Sadly, since they didn’t do a complete job on this game, they missed out on making it a cultural event. Which it should have been.

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