The Epic Mickey 2 the Power of Two Review - a 1UP classic from Nov 28, 2012

Hello friends, I have finished my Epic Mickey 2 review for JimHillMedia.com. I'm not certain when it will be posted or how much will be edited but here is the original draft for you to look at.

Epic Mickey 2 the Power of Two (EM2) is out now on multiple consoles including the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii and Wii U. The game deserves special consideration for readers of JHM because it is layered with several generations worth of material from the Disney Archives, theme parks and film library. The world of Epic Mickey, or "Wasteland" is so saturated with history that it could catch trivia specialists flat-footed. Warren Spector, lifelong Disney fan and creator of the game had said at the San Diego Comic Con that he wanted to create a world with substance. He did not want to have gamers dig underneath the surface and discover that the Wasteland was like other games. His studio Junction Point succeeded in doing just that. In some areas of the game when Mickey Mouse dissolves the walls and floors of the world players can actually see the blueprints. The grey paper of the imagination with penciled out blue lines created by the great architect Yen Sid himself.

The feeling that players come away with is more than a wash of nostalgia, it is almost indescribable. Players may recognize a piece of art hanging on a wall or a radio standing in the corner of Mickey Mouse's home exactly as it appeared from the 1936 film Thru the Mirror. Players are not only visiting the home from the film, they are now interacting with it. They are walking around in his kitchen, jumping on his furniture if they choose to. Players then begin to peel away at the walls and floors only to find there is another world beyond, waiting to be explored. The game is filled with these "a-ha!" moments. In addition to capturing the details and minutiae from the Disney legacy the game gives audiences a fresh perspective on the iconic Mickey Mouse without betraying the character. The amount of work that went into the game is staggering. Disney is trying to make Mickey and his friends relevant again in the new media and are sparing no expense in making that happen.

I've spent the past two weeks with fellow gamer Alice Hill going over the game on multiple consoles. The game has average difficulty for seasoned players but is moderately difficult for younger gamers. The main portion of the game is long but can still be beaten over the course of a weekend by experienced players. In order to get the full experience however a player has to explore every inch of the Wasteland, collect hidden items and accept side-mission that enhance the story and extend the gameplay to dozens of hours. The best way that Alice and I could review this game was by playing it on the different platforms in single and multiplayer modes and trying different options and paths. If you are interested in purchasing the game and do not want to read the spoilers then here is a one sentence review… Epic Mickey 2 is a good game but its faults prevent it from reaching true greatness. For those that want to know how we came to that conclusion please keep reading.

The camera was a major sticking point in the original game, the new camera system is much more user friendly, it follows the action better and can be moved with more precision. The camera and control really shine on the PS3 and Xbox 360 using the regular controllers. It was still a chore to use motion-based controllers in the game, and doubly so when in 2-player mode. The limited screen space and drawbacks of the motion controller were apparent when playing on the Wii and PS Move. We constantly had to keep realigning the camera to line up our targets, not to mention it was harder to perform double team moves on the Wii than the other consoles. Alice and I would recommend getting the sequel on a different console if available. Those that do have the Wii can at least play using the cool new light-up peripherals, a paint brush and remote control available for Mickey and Oswald respectively.

Visually the game was stunning. The lighting, animation, and effects featured in the new game were better than the original. Characters cast shadows, light bounced off of objects and refracted or reflected realistically. Junction Point made good use of the new physics engine as well. Items had weight, paint and thinner flowed convincingly and objects dropped as they would in the real world. These things were put to use on the new levels created for the game. Environments that collapsed remained that way for the rest of the game. Players were warned early on that all decisions they made would have consequences and could ultimately effect the outcome of the game. The level design was as good as the original game, albeit some of the best "Lands" or attractions like Lonesome Manor were featured only in the original title. The scale of the levels was much larger in this game, but like the first game they maintained an incredible amount of planning and detail. Exploration was rewarded with items that could be used in game, pins to collect or even costumes for Mickey and Oswald to wear. There were many details pulled from the parks, movies and even television shows which would appeal to even the most jaded Disney fan. Where else could a fan visit the Rainbow Caverns, fight a robot modeled after V.I.N.CENT from the Black Hole and wear a Tron costume?

Players could travel from land to land using film projectors. The side-scrolling levels used the setting of a classic Disney film and allowed both Oswald and Mickey to explore, interact and even combine resources to get through the stage. The projectors were featured in the original game as well and contained some of the most memorable experiences. Some of the sequences in EM2 include the Old Mill, Night on Bald Mountain, the Skeleton Dance, Music Land and Building a Building. A second side-scrolling component has also been added. Mickey and Oswald can now navigate the Dahl Engineering Corridors or D.E.C., a series of underground tunnels that connect the remote areas of the Wasteland. The tunnels were named after Gremlins creator Roald Dahl but based on the Utilidoors from Walt Disney World. Each D.E.C. is made up of junk from the Wasteland, of course junk to the residents are actual antiques and merchandise from company history. Look carefully for a tape, doll or record that you might have in your collection!

This game also features actual voices for the main and supporting characters instead of the text boxes and generic grumbles used in the original. Veterans Bill Farmer (Goofy), Tony Anselmo (Donald Duck), Tress MacNeille (Daisy) and Jim Cummings (Pete) are joined by Bret Iwan the new voice of Mickey, Dave Wittenberg as the Mad Doctor, Frank Welker as Oswald and Cary Elwes as Gus the Gremlin. The supporting cast made up of Gremlins and forgotten monochromatic characters also have their own unique voices. Most blended well with the main characters. The opponents consisted of Blotlings, Beetleworx and Blotworx. Those original creations were made of animated ink blots, machines or a combination of the two. They did not have any voices per-say, mostly grunts or screams. Three additional classic animated characters appear in game if a player searches high and low for them.

The Three Little Pigs are trapped in Wasteland and have Mickey try to help them. Fifer and Fiddler Pig sing with the exact high pitched voice and even rhyme and meter from the old cartoons. Practical Pig maintains his raspy voice and serious demeanor as well. Whomever voiced the characters was spot-on. Not all of the voice acting was great however. Some of the residents of Mean Street seemed out of place. Listen for the surfer and overdone Caribbean accents. The stand-out character and voice for EM2 goes to Ian the ghost. His gruff but friendly "Hey Boss!" was a welcome addition to the cast.

He was in the first game and originally appeared in the Lonesome Ghosts short. Ian challenges the player to mend the relationships between the citizens of the Wasteland, the Blotlings and Mickey. His was the best developed new personality in the game. A close second would be the robot A.B.E. He is a curator to the diorama museum and can best be summed up as Jimmy Stewart-meets-Tom Morrow. The addition of color characters in the Three Pigs contrasted the black and white citizens of the Wasteland and animatronic representations of Daisy, Donald and Goofy. The addition of cartoon stars other than Mickey is creating precedence for combining the toon and park worlds, these things may be expand upon in the next Epic Mickey title. Hopefully Ian and A.B.E. will be featured more prominently if that happens.

The greatness that Junction Point was going after began to break down when we stopped watching, stopped looking at the details and started playing. Epic Mickey was promoted as the first gaming musical. The plot was all told through song so technically Disney was right. However the Mad Doctor had all of the singing parts with one line reserved for Oswald. The gravely voice did nothing to make the character sympathetic or pull on any nostalgia strings. Imagine seeing the Little Mermaid but only Scuttle the seagull could sing the parts. It was an odd decision considering that the Mad Doctor was used only once by Disney and was allowed to fall into public domain. None of the songs were truly memorable which was odd considering that the music was written by James Dooley. The television and movie composer wrote an amazing score for the first game, X-Play deemed it the best Soundtrack in 2010. Disney never released a physical album of the first game but did make the music available via iTunes. Many players reported crying when they heard the original end credits.

The original soundtrack worked on many levels whereas the new soundtrack felt lacking. It was not all bad though. The audio cues in the game were put to good use. When a player was thinning or painting the Wasteland the music on the level signaled whether a good or bad decision was being made. If players listened carefully to the choices being presented by the other characters in the game they could be prompted to make the right choice. Each level could be passed in multiple ways, some of the cues are obvious while others are well hidden. While playing in two-player mode several set pieces, particularly boss battles, were not triggered properly if at all. Gus the Gremlin would chime in and give us a hint over and over but nothing we tried would trigger the set piece. In other cases either Mickey would get stuck in an object or Oswald would fall through the floor and be unable to rejoin Mickey. This frustrated us to no end. For the minor glitches we would quit the game and then restart it. For the larger issues we had to turn off the system and go back later in the day. When we returned to the game the set piece would load properly and we could finish the stage. In several instances we ended up doing the "wrong" thing to finish the stage because the correct option did not load or would not respond to our attempts.

With two players working independently the majority of the game was very easy. Fighting or befriending enemies was much easier this time around as was compared to the solo battles in the original game. When the set pieces did not load, or when only Player 1 (Mickey Mouse) could trigger an event then it made the game far more difficult. The majority of the game moved quickly for two players, if they were not performing any side missions. The gameplay was smooth and intuitive, as good as most action platformers. The majority of battles were well balanced if not easy as well. Very often however the gameplay would change suddenly into a slow, grating experience. The battles would become extremely difficult and feel very redundant. It would feel like an insult to the players when their progress was suddenly halted. For example Gus the Gremlin would drop the same hint over and over if a puzzle wasn't solved within a set amount of time. He would not offer alternative strategies.

When fighting a boss encounter Gus would offer a clue to defeating it. Even if the player used the proper strategy Gus would continue dropping the same hint again and again. This was particularly annoying when a set piece or boss encounter did not load. There was nothing we as players could do about it unless we turned off the console or deliberately made the wrong choices. In at least one case just wandering around the level, not interacting with characters or the environment triggered a bad outcome. Alice said that it felt like we broke the game, which was alarming since we had only been playing it for a couple of days. Disney boasted that during the development they had near 600 employees working around the world in different countries. The sun never set on the production of EM2. Spreading the talent and workload over several timezones meant that something was destined to fall through the cracks.

Perhaps the QA testers focused the majority of their efforts on the 1-player experience and did not go over the 2-player mode with a fine tooth comb. Or perhaps Junction Point did not consider what elements would have to be changed if gamers wanted to experience 2-player mode the entire way through. Even in the single player attempts that we tried it seemed that the computer-controlled Oswald slowed down the experience and in certain portions made the game more frustrating than it should have been. The encounters and choices we made permanently affected the outcome of the game, as promised by Warren Spector earlier this year.The good or bad sequences would play during the credits. The endings varied depending on the choices made in game. Even though Alice and I had gone out of our way to try to make nothing but good choices we had amassed a melancholy string at the end of our first play through.

In the past two weeks Alice and I have found ourselves more frustrated than pleased with the game. We enjoyed the world that Junction Point created, the details that they filled the game with, the pins, costumes, wonderful personalities and experiences. However there is a difference between looking at the game and playing it. Pulling the experience out of EM2 was a chore. The story felt lacking and disconnected. The fear of Oswald being forgotten again was not fleshed out, why Prescott the Gremlin felt unappreciated and how the Mad Doctor set him up and then brainwashed him was a bit deus ex machina. Despite everything added to the game, including the voices, we did not feel as connected to the story as we did with the original game. Other comparative "epic" experiences like God of War, Shadow of the Colossus and Zelda did not feel broken. The player felt rewarded for exploring those games. They did not have set pieces that failed to load or a hint system that kept interrupting the player or insulting their intelligence. Gamers did not feel like they were being punished for missing an item or making a bad decision.

In EM2 we were frustrated with some puzzles, boss encounters and even backtracking. For example, the studio broke Mean Street, the Wasteland version of Main Street in two, which meant we had to spend more time traveling through the lands for simple tasks. We wanted to enjoy the game, we really did but several times we were so put off by the game that we swore we would never play it again. We calmed down after a day and tried but the experience felt redundant rather than rewarding. We wanted to say that the game was better than the original but we didn't know if that was a completely true statement. Epic Mickey 2 is not for everyone and that is partially why we say it was good but not great. Those that are willing to slow down their gaming experience, carefully consider the needs of Wasteland residents and revisit locations to search for hidden items will be rewarded. Those that just want to play through a game and feel good about it in the end may need to look elsewhere.

Did you play Epic Mickey 2? Were you a huge fan of Disney, or a casual fan? Did this color your perception of the game? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Epic Mickey 2 Preview Details! - A 1UP classic from Oct 11, 2012

Good morning friends, today the press embargo is lifted and we can look at the new elements announced for Epic Mickey 2: the Power of Two. Warren Spector introduced audiences to a new Beetleworx robot which was made up of a barrel, film reels and sported the head of V.I.N.CENT from the film the Black Hole. He was standing next to Prescott the Gremlin (who plays a major part in this game) Gus the Gremlin, Oswald and Hortencia. It looks like Junction Point will now be pulling in more movie and television references into the game than in the previous game.

Two new areas were announced for the game, one based on the desert plateaus of Frontierland, the other inspired by the attraction the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland. Those old enough to remember, or are die-hard historians, know about the rainbow caverns, the spinning rocks, people-shaped cacti and all other neat visual treats.

The re-imagined attraction has multiple paths. Players can go through the ominous lower section, with a maze made out of flowing lava curtains or a higher path made up of natural columns. There is an angel statue holding a sword on the higher path. That statue was pulled from a background detail in the Beauty and the Beast film. The designers thought that it would be a perfect addition to the game and they actually figured out a way to make it part of the level design.

Warren made sure to point out that the game screens were not far removed from the concept art. The same colors, layout, textures and themes from the concept pieces were carefully reproduced for the game. Junction Point was hammered pretty hard be reviewers because they claimed that the final version of Epic Mickey did not look enough like the leaked concept art.

This time around Warren made sure to point out to journalists how the actual game models matched the concept art to the letter. He showed one of the puzzles in the cave, featuring the Seven Dwarfs and the rainbow waterfalls.

Then he compared it to the actual game model. The finished level was spot-on and looked brilliant on HD displays.

The next new thing he announced were the additions of Costumes for the main characters. Mickey in his Brave Little Tailor costume was shown as well as Oswald in a Gremlin costume and in a suit of armor. Warren mentioned that the costumes changed the gameplay, how the attacks and defenses worked for the characters and even how they controlled.

On top of costumes there were also two other game changing modes for the characters. On certain levels there were inkwells with a special golden ink or iridescent / "invisible" ink. The player could jump into the inkwell and become soaked in the particular paint. While covered in the paint they had a new ability.

The gold paint made the character impervious to many things, including waterfalls made of thinner.

The iridescent ink made the player invisible to enemies and even motion sensors. The downside to the paint was that players had to move slowly using the analog button or else the paint would fall off. Players couldn't really use the spin attack or jump while covered in the paint but it stayed on for a long time if players moved slowly through a level.

The collectable pins available in the previous game have an expanded role. Now players are rewarded not only for defeating bosses, completing levels and finding hidden pins but also for how they play, what attacks (if any) they use and how they solve certain puzzles. The studio estimates that it could take an average of 20 hours to find all of the secrets and pins hidden in the game, making it a great challenge for the completists among us.

Pins can now be collected and viewed at the Pin Shop. Players can show off their collections to friends online as well. I'm not a big fan of the whole pin trading phenomenon at the Disney parks but I can appreciate the idea more than collecting achievements for XBL or trophies on PSN.

The game is also taking another page from the theme parks and has inserted a Photo Mode as well. Players are now equipped with a camera and can take pictures of their adventure at certain points throughout the game. The player has a limited amount of frames they can capture and post to their album. Players can always revisit the camera shop and get more film to record their adventure and unlock other goodies.

The pictures in the albums can be shared online. No word if the Nintendo Wii U version will allow these items to be shared on the Nintendo Channel or to change the user's account profile. It would be interesting to see future Disney games use the technology and share the images with the theme parks like their current social media campaigns have allowed visitors to.

Warren was happy to finally be allowed to show the asset for Mickey playing on the Wii U control.

Peter Ong from Dreamrift then took the stage and showed some new features for Epic Mickey the Power of Illusion including a new level based on the Little Mermaid.

There are dozens of characters from the feature films and television shows for the players to meet and rescue. Each character rescued goes to a Fortress, the more the player interacts with the rescued character the more their "room" in the fortress becomes decorated. For example, Scrooge McDuck goes from an empty room to his office in the Money Bin by the time the player finishes interacting with the character throughout the game.

At the end of the presentation there was a special animation created just for the press. Mickey visits Club 13, modeled after the famous Club 33. The door is answered by Petetronic who says he was fixing things for the Mad Doctor but he had something special for Mickey and Gus the Gremlin.

He hands over a lithograph and says that there is even one for Mickey's guests. It turns out that Disney Interactive will be sending the press copies of the lithograph. I believe that this might be the artwork included for deluxe versions of the game or even pre-orders at certain retailers.

This wraps up the preview of the game and event, a review will be coming later next month.

Did you play the original Epic Mickey, or Epic Mickey 2? Which platforms did you play it on? What was your impression? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Epic Mickey 2 press junket. Touring the Magic Kingdom. - a 1UP classic from Oct 10, 2012

Hello friends, yesterday I posted a short placeholder blog to let you know I was at a press event. It was hosted at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel, easily one of the nicest hotels in Orange County and the nicest hotel on Disneyland Resort property. The company was promoting Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two and they flew in representatives from all of the major gaming media outlets as well as a few Disney media sites including JimHillMedia. Jim invited me to join him as his West Coast Correspondent and video game expert. Needless to say it was quite an event.

We got to the conference room early to set up our video equipment. We took some pictures of the setup and demo stations before the rest of the journalists were let in.

We went right into a presentation of Epic Mickey and an introduction to Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure and the most recent additions of Buena Vista Street and Cars Land. The studio really pulled out all the stops on the press tour for this game. I wouldn't blame them for all the extra effort they put in for the event. I believe reviewers were a little heavy handed with the original Epic Mickey and this time Disney wanted to get off on the right foot.

Warren Spector quickly mentioned all of the details that had been covered already at the E3 and San Diego Comic Con, then he showed off new game levels, gameplay features and all sorts of other goodies for those in attendance. Unfortunately there is another day until the press embargo is lifted but trust me when I say the wait will be worth it.

Peter Ong, the Creative Director from Dreamrift talked about the 3DS version of Epic Mickey Power of Illusion and the various game modes, cameos and control features. The game is inspired by his personal favorite 16-bit series, namely the Castle of Illusion. Long-time Sega fans would enjoy the feel of the game and homage to the classic titles.

After the presentation the press was released to enjoy a fully catered breakfast, complete with the most delicious deserts ever and try out the games on all of the consoles including the first public showing of the Wii U. I made a beeline to the console and was first in line to try it out. The graphics were much improved over the original Wii and looked great on an HD display. The build was not finished, the buttons had just been remapped for the console and the studio had literally brought the build in that morning right from the studio. I then tried out the Wii version and saw a stark difference in the graphics department, the saving grace for the Wii build was that the controls seemed slightly more forgiving than the Wii U version and I was able to try out the updated brush and remote peripherals.

The guests were then asked to turn in their cameras and video recording devices because the studio wanted to take us on a very special tour of the park and no cameras were allowed. Since I was an 11th hour addition to the list I was worried about joining the group. Thankfully Jim talked to the organizers the night before. Since he had a good history writing for the company and since he represented both his own outlet as well as was a contributor with the Huffington Post they were able to accommodate me as well. It was a brief tour of the park with VIP access to the Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room and the inside of Walt's Apartment. Access to Walt's apartment is very rare, even for most tours. As a lifelong fan I was humbled to stand in the same places as the man and to get a view of the park from a very unique perspective. At the end of our tour we were given two rare pins, one for Walking in Walt's Footsteps and the rarer Lamp Pin which symbolizes that we had been inside his apartment.

As an extra-special surprise the group was taken to Club 33 for drinks and dinner. I had talked about this exclusive club inside the park previously. They gave us gift bags filled with items from the parks and Epic Mickey 2. There was an EM2 pin and tee shirt featuring Oswald and Mickey. I had not heard of the club having bags previously, they used to just wrap items from the gift shop in regular plastic Disneyland bags.

In the bag was a Cars Land travel kit, complete with pen, pad and keychain to the new area of the park. Each guest was also given a random Epic Mickey Capsule Toy from Japan. The luck of the rabbit was on my side as I ended up with an Oswald figure. Disney Artist Stacia Martin joined us for dinner and talked about park history and shared some pictures and posters from the archives to highlight the real attractions that inspired the levels in Epic Mickey 2. It was a great way of reminding the journalists that every little detail featured in the game came from somewhere and was part of a legacy. She then surprised the group by saying there were two tickets hidden under the chairs in the club. Two lucky guests got a sketch from her. One was of Mickey and the other of Oswald. Jim won the Mickey drawing and he asked the other person if he wouldn't mind trading for Oswald. The person did one better and gave Jim the drawing as to not break up the set. Jim gave me the Oswald one as he knows I'm a huge fan of the rabbit.

Both of the new light-up controllers for the Wii were included as well. Gaming will be a lot more interesting with my little gal and I going through the co-op mode this way. A copy of the soundtrack and a brush-shaped pen rounded out the gifts.

For a press junket Disney certainly went above and beyond the challenge. Getting game journalists to understand the genesis of Epic Mickey 2 and how it tied directly into 85+ years of the Disney legacy would do plenty to help the reception of the finished game. Last year the journalists ran speculative stories with some concept sketches that were never meant to be seen outside of the studio. Those pieces and articles skewed public perception and hurt the game before it came out. This time the studio is showing the community specifically what made it into the game and how it related to the company. Let's hope that the reviewers will go into the new experience with an open mind and give their honest critique to audiences. I certainly can't wait to play and review it for my friends on 1UP. Until then, stay tuned for new details about the game... 

Did you play Epic Mickey, or Epic Mickey 2? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Epic Review, Final Part - A 1UP Classic from Dec. 23, 2010

Audiences might credit Warren Spector with coming up entirely with Epic Mickey but it was actually a group of interns that sparked the idea of Mickey trapped in a twisted wasteland.

The concept pieces by Gary Glover and Fred Gambino set a tone for a dystopian world, which looked like a steampunk or post-apocalyptic wasteland with only a few, but prominent Disney set pieces scattered across the landscape.

The machinations featured in the concept pieces were combinations of the cartoon characters and theme park attractions. An amphibious Pete tank with tea cup turrets and cartoon arms reaching storming a beach and taking black and white cartoon characters. A gigantic paddlewheel ship / mechanical narwhal with enormous mechanical crab legs pulling the Spaceship Earth, the geodesic dome from Walt Disney World and water tower from Disney studios across an ocean.

Somewhere in the concept pieces the seeds of Epic Mickey were planted. Some elements translated well into game form, but far and wide the finished version of Epic Mickey had little to do with the concept art. Warren Spector was challenged to design a game that placed Mickey in an adventure, the likes of which had never been tried with the character. The Mouse would be trapped in a world, a twisted version of the one that inspired him, all for the sake of trying to get the character to resonate with modern gamers. But for many it seemed that the world in the final game was not as dark, mechanical or macabre as they would have wanted. What exactly did gamers and critics want? That would be tough to determine.

Metacritic gave Epic Mickey at a 73 out of 100 approval rating, whereas Disney's Guilty Party was rated at 78. This is not to say that Guilty Party was a bad game, but how was it possible so say that Epic Mickey was a worse game? Did it somehow lack the elements of play, control, animation, story or anything else that a Wii party game possessed? It could be endemic of a larger problem regarding ratings and genres, but I digress. I would like to challenge the critics of Epic Mickey, especially those that thought that Disney had made a better title this year. Show me where Epic Mickey was a worse game than anything else Disney released in 2010. Explain to audiences how this game was a letdown. The best I can do is take a guess at the design "flaws" that critics saw with the title.

Did the game suffer because Junction Point did not create a sandbox environment out of the Wasteland? A wide-open area for Mickey to travel in, jump on and explore? If this were a complaint did the critics not wonder how much time and effort that would have taken? The levels in Epic Mickey were crammed with hundreds of layers of detail. Every corner of the lands had their own specific layout, textures, palettes, and atmosphere. Just as each “theme” part of the real Disneyland had its own personality, with unique signage, decorative elements and even trash cans. There were no repeated elements from theme area to theme area, so that Tomorrowland would feel like a glimpse into the future and Frontierland always had a classic western feel. So too did the individual levels in Epic Mickey bear many layers of uniqueness. Colors, textures, layouts featured in the title were based on the work of the legendary Imagineers, like Mary Blair, Rolly Crump which I mentioned in previous blogs. Even the legendary Marc Davis, whose concept work on the Haunted Mansion was set to tell a story of a vengeful sea captain returning from the dead. This painting was never actually featured in the original attraction but helped add atmosphere to the game.

It was highly unlikely that Wii media had the memory capacity to hold an entire open world like those found in Grand Theft Auto and still had maintained the absurd level of detail that the individual theme portions maintained, inside and out. Even if the discs could hold that much data for textures and modeling, it would have taken years for Junction Point and Disney Interactive to have modeled a fully scaled-out Wasteland. Additionally, the concept art that gamers flocked to clearly showed miles of empty areas and oceans separating the park elements. What would gamers have done with miles of nothing to see or do? Where there gameplay elements in designs like that? Were the lack of interactive elements and miles of space what turned some gamers off of Shadow of the Colossus? The Wasteland featured in Epic Mickey was actually designed with the elements featured in the concept art and then given a purpose. Whether critics acknowledged this or not was something else.

Oceans and rivers of paint thinner separated the various theme levels. In order to bypass the thinner and get from park to park Junction Point added the movie projectors. It created a mechanic to allow players to transverse the levels and layered a game-within-a-game play element. Once outside of the projects gamers were sometimes met with the same twisted scenery, oceans of thinner and bold colors that were featured in the concept art.

Many of these twisted landmarks did not solely exist for the sake of shock value, they were given a purpose. For example, rather than place the Matterhorn Mountain in the Wasteland, Junction Point created a “Mickey Junk Mountain.” It was a mountain that was built on decades of Mickey merchandising. Just about every record, book, puzzle, toy, toiletry, figure and game that featured the mouse was crammed into the walls, floors and background of the mountain peaks. Off in the distance there were ravines hidden behind swirling toxic clouds with the occasional set of mouse ears. If one bothered to look then they would have been reminded very clearly of the concept art.

This mountain was used by Oswald to hide away the Mickey merchandising and keep the other citizens of the Wasteland slightly clueless about the mouse. Oswald did not want them to see how famous Mickey had become so he hid away as many products bearing the icon as he could. Not that it mattered because most everybody in the game knew who Mickey was and was delighted to meet him.

This bit of pettiness on the part of Oswald was tempered by the knowledge that he had been completely forgotten by the outside world. At the core of the mountain was Oswald’s lair. Inside he kept a solitary prized possession within a cabinet. Oswald took it out in a cut scene and polished the figure before putting it back. That small toy bearing his name was the only clue of the popularity that he had before Mickey came along. It was a tiny reminder of the Disney legacy that had been forgotten. Oswald’s purpose was in trying to keep the Wasteland going for the other forgotten characters and for himself to hold onto any memories he had left of the "good old days." Again, whether critics made the connection between Mickey Junk Mountain and the core made up of a single Oswald figure was something to be considered.

Other pieces of concept art made it into the game very much intact. Gamers might have paid more attention if the critics had bothered to find the connections between concept art and finished game design. Lonesome Manor in concept and the game were as complimentary as could be expected when converting 2d paintings into 3D models. The colors and overall shape of the model were very closely mirrored.

Another thing to consider was the preconceptions that gamers had about the Disney characters. This was the challenge of nostalgia versus expectations. Did critics ignore the gameplay just so they could complain about the lack of fanservice in the title? Where would these critics even assume that the only way a Disney game could work was through fanservice?

Kingdom Hearts may done wonders for the Disney name in gaming circles, however that popularity came at a price. Characters were dressed up in the costumes of the films the game was crossing into. It was original when the cast dressed up in (non-canon) Tron costumes, or in the black-and-white hues of the Steamboat Willie. Yet these visuals were done mainly for the sake of fanservice, appeasing fans by using cameos and crossover reference material as visual distractions. They supplemented the lack of actual gameplay by providing hefty doses of nostalgia. These nods to fan-favorite Disney films did nothing for the play mechanic. They were used solely for the sake of pushing along a plot.

I challenge the harshest critics to review Epic Mickey on the gameplay elements rather than fanservice preconceptions. Rating down the game because Mickey was not in a particular costume did nothing to point out the actual failings of the game. Complaints about a certain detail from a concept piece did not make the character relevant. It did not answer the challenge laid out to Warren Spector and Junction Point. Mickey had to be presented as a personable character with a sincere story yet wrapped into an original gameplay experience. The best games after all should be played and not watched. Epic Mickey was a title that required intense audience participation. Unless a costume change was relevant to gameplay then it wouldn’t be in the game. The mouse did not change costumes or identities in Epic Mickey. He did not don a Tron, Pirate or Ghost costume in any portion of the title, yet that was not to say that those elements crucial to the Disney name were not featured. Epic Mickey presented fantastic battles in familiar, yet distorted locations, with nods to the park and film legacies.

Whether it was fighting a gigantic Petetronic, part Pete and part Sark from Tron, above Space Mountain, or a possessed mechanical clock from it's a small world Epic Mickey maintained tons of originality and diversity to surprise even the most jaded gamers and visitors of the parks. Somehow these encounters and designs were glossed over by critics. Possibly because they not only supported but surpassed the concept designs.

Other concept pieces showed macabre, mechanical versions of Mickey's friends. These disjointed and unfinished "animatronics" did make their way into the game. Goofy, for example, did only have one arm and was missing his large cartoon eyes, only a small green camera served as his vision. Did critics bring attention to these odd creatures? Did they acknowledge that the concept art and finished pieces were not far from each other? Or that Junction Point managed to capture the essence of the actual character even with unfinished robotics? How mickey interacted with the characters and helped solve their problems shaped the direction of the story.

Mickey was given the ability to navigate the world in 2-dimension stages that gave a nod to the classic films and games that inspired the legacy. Those that did not grow up with the 8 and 16-bit titles got a sense as to how they used to play in the projector levels. The game served as an introduction to the original Disney animated shorts for an entirely new generation of gamers. Characters that had long been forgotten, like Oswald, got a chance to be reintroduced to audiences. Other forgotten characters, like Gus the Gremlin, were brought back in honor of the legacies that never got fully realized. When Mary Blair and co-designer Bill Justice were working on adapting the Gremlins from creator Roald Dahl’s (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) stories, they never got to see an animated project take flight. Decades later Mr. Justice, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, could not remember bringing the Gremlins to life or enjoy their part in Epic Mickey. Warren Spector was honoring his legacy as well as the other Imagineers that had left their mark on the company, some still with us and some that had passed on.

Players would be challenged working with the paint and thinner mechanic in 3D. This was the gameplay element that was actually bringing Mickey out of the 2D legacy and into a 3D gaming environment. Players could see how exploiting each mechanic made for a different experience. Gamers were given the option to assist or ignore the world that Mickey ruined. The outcome was the same; Mickey would escape the Wasteland, but the choices he made in doing so changed the way those left behind treated each other and how the world ultimately looked. These were the things highlighted in the series of clips played at the end of the game. Players could get all good, bad or mixed endings depending on the choices they made.

The harshest criticism and the biggest failing for Epic Mickey would probably have been the camera. There were a few places in the game where the camera made navigating platforms or aiming paint and thinner a chore. The camera forced a certain perspective on many outdoor environments and set a fixed side POV during the projector levels. In many instances the camera tried to focus the attention of the gamer in a certain direction. These were "look here" moments, a design cue used in many games by different directors. In shooting games there were set pieces, buildings exploding or planes crashing to draw the attention of the gamer, in an adventure title the player got a sense of scale when the camera panned back and then zoomed into the action. Some of these forced angles broke the illusion that the developers had worked hard to create, it was true of some portion of Epic Mickey, yet true of other adventure games including God of War or Shadow of the Colossus. Yet as bad as the camera was, it was not completely broken and it didn't break the game or experience. A press of the "C" button reset the camera position in all but a few locations. Those that complained most vocally about the camera problems should have mentioned that pressing a single button would have resolved many of the issues. Epic Mickey had gotten an unfair amount of negative criticism and bad word of mouth. These things have all but crippled sales in Europe. It would be a shame to see gamers not giving this title the benefit of the doubt because of bad reviews or harried reviewers. The game deserved far more attention than it has gotten and certainly second-look from the most biased critics.

The Disney name had been more of a miss than hit among gaming circles. It would be understandable if they released another flop and review scores were warranted. Yet as far back as the 8-bit era there have been titles like DuckTales to show that Disney could be synonymous with fun and original adventure gaming. It had been through the work of Capcom, which translated Disney Afternoon and movie franchises into titles. It was through Sega, that brought originality into the 16-bit generation with the Castle and World of Illusion. It was through Eurocom that created the last great 16-bit gems Maui Mallard and Mickey Mania, which acknowledged a love for the classic characters through superb animation while allowing changing tastes to influence game, character and level design. It was through UbiSoft that Disney first gained prominence in 3D with Goin' Quackers and PK: Out of the Shadows. It was through Konami that Disney learned that their characters could be icons in different genres with Disney Sports Soccer. And last it was through Square-Enix that Disney found success connecting classic characters to current gamers with Kingdom Hearts.

Epic Mickey was far more than the sum of its parts. It represented the culmination of almost 20 years of Disney videogame history, 55 years of theme park history and almost 90 years of animation and comic strip history. It represented a fundamental shift in the way Disney would be approaching their library of characters and how they would communicate with audiences. Animation was the legacy the company began but gaming was the medium that they could use to reconnect with fans. Epic Mickey was also more than a love letter to the characters or the parks. It captured the spirit of the mouse the same way that Steamboat Willie did generations ago. It expanded on the classic theme and allowed audiences to understand the character and give him a broader range of personality. This would not have been possible without advances in gaming technology, no movie or linear story could have done the adventure justice. No videogame saturated with fanservice would have been able to convey the same elements. Epic Mickey would not have been possible without an exceptional level of storytelling and guidance from a producer that was passionate about the source material. The plot was sublime, the characterizations impeccable, with generations of figures brought back from obscurity and made new to audiences. Some of the gameplay mechanics harkened back to the classic side-scrolling adventures while mixing them with build or destroy environmental abilities in 3D.

Epic Mickey was a fine game and a fun experience. It was an honest contender for game of the year in 2010. Unfortunately sales determine if Disney will continue to put this much effort into future titles. It is entirely possible that Disney will return to cheaply produced licensed titles thanks to the negative reviews on Epic Mickey. Gamers can go back to expecting little from the House of Mouse and be pleasantly surprised the next time a DuckTales or Castle of Illusion experience comes up (usually once every decade). Despite the massive ad campaign the gaming press will more likely be the determining factor for sales. They could disavow any responsibility for their overly-harsh reviews and back up critics as a matter of editorial integrity. If these critics failed to rate Epic Mickey on how much it actually accomplished, on how well it was made or how original the concept was then shame on them. If they failed to give the game a serious look and really take the title apart and review it without any preconceptions then the review scores are moot. Readers of this blog can play and tell me if it felt like an average-at-best experience or something more profound. I contend that it lived up to the epic title.

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