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First Impressions: Epic Mickey
Does industry legend Warren Spector seek to reinvent the mouse or simply give him his own magic touch?
Written by Andy Griffiths, 29 October 2009
When it comes to challenges this one is one of the biggest - how do you reinvent and redesign one of the most iconic and recognisable characters on the planet? It's not something which many developers would feel comfortable doing, especially when building on a platform which seems to widely ignore creative ideas and original properties.
Mickey can jump!Whatever the reasons and whatever the problems that occur ahead, when we saw Epic Mickey for the first time all of our initial concerns were completely blown away. It could have been Warren Spector's calming narration while we saw the game being played, but Disney Interactive's big project for 2010 has some amazing ideas. This title will change the way you think about Disney's most prolific mascot.
Is Oswald the king of Cartoon Wasteland?A sorcerer named Yen Sid creates a twisted yet pleasant world as the home for Disney's forgotten characters. This is where Mickey's nemesis resides, the very first Disney character created in 1927, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. As Osworld's retirement continues he begins to resent everyone's favourite mouse and his worldwide popularity. As the decades roll on, Mickey finds a magical map forged by Yen Sid during the construction of the Cartoon Wasteland. Somehow the clumsy mouse ends up accidentally destroying the home for retired characters and he's plunged unwillingly into Oswald's home realm.
Scrapper Mickey looks less friendly.At first glance Epic Mickey looks like the sort of platformer you would have found on any console circa 2000, but Spector's framework style of moral choices is very much intact. Utilising a paint brush or thinner Mickey has the choice of either repainting the world or destroying it. Using either method is vital to finding your way into this unfinished world but from our demo it seemed it was easier to destroy with paint thinner than it was to create.
Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit.You'll come across problems which have multiple solutions and whichever way you approach it will effect your hero or scrapper rating. Each of your actions will effect how Mickey looks and behaves.
PlayZine Issue 37
For our latest Epic Mickey coverage, click here to download PlayZine Issue 37 for free.Mickey is essentially good whatever he does but it's the way he accomplishes his goals and who he takes with him which will change decide which of the games multiple endings you'll see. Some NPC's won't elect to come with you due to your earlier actions while others will try and tempt you away from the good path, by opening doors or removing obstacles.
Heroic Mickey resembles the mouse during his earlier years.During our session with the game we were shown a short introductory cartoon which introduced the world which Mickey resides. It was a sinister world and the vibe was very pre-1950's Disney, with danger being an ever present theme which was exemplified by Mickey bound to a surgical table with a dark hooded enemy wielding a saw menacingly over him, during an introductory video- this wasn't what we expected. It wasn't clear if these cartoons would be prominent in the final version but the sense of menace in the world is definitely a recurring theme.
Even at this early stage the visuals looked outstanding and the substantial artistic talent behind the game is obvious to see. Colours are vibrant and the character design places some favourites in a brand new light. Seeing a one eyed animatronic version of Donald was a particular highlight, especially when he tasks you with finding his missing parts and putting him back together.
As we didn't we get any hands-on time with the game we can't mention how the Wii controls will be implemented, but it would be easy to presume that the paint tool is controlled via aiming your remote at the screen and the Nunchuck is used to control Mickey's movement.
It's rare to see Disney taking any kind of risk with any of their core franchises, but Epic Mickey struck us a radical departure anything we've seen before. There's plenty of new ideas at work here, many of which still remain secret. Warren Spector is obviously a huge fan of Disney and his admiration of these characters was clear to see.
The amount of content that Disney can harvest from their back catalogue is mind boggling and during our demo we heard the iconic theme from "It's a small world." It seems as though everything Disney related has the potential to be included.
The fact that this title is a Wii exclusive- for the time being- may put off a lot of players, but we haven't been as genuinely excited about a project like this for a long time. With the substantial creative talent and investment behind Epic Mickey, this game has the potential to reinvigorate the platforming genre. Let us hope they can pull it off and there's still plenty of development time to go.
Epic Mickey coverage available in PlayZine Issue 37 - click here to download it for free!
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