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.

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, Part 3 - A 1UP Classic from Dec. 22, 2010

Yesterday I asked if Epic Mickey was the new Castle of Illusion or the new Magical Mirror? It Epic Mickey was to be compared to any game before it, then it would most accurately be described as the new Mickey Mania. It was a love letter to the character, the films and the legacy that made the mouse an international star. The early news described the main villain as one that had appeared once before in 1933. What most gaming sites and magazines failed to mention was that the Mad Doctor, level and all, had appeared in 1994's Mickey Mania as well. Right from the get-go it seemed as if gamers and the press had already begun forming their own opinions on the game before it was even finalized. Epic Mickey would be compartmentalized by the gaming press and handed down reviews based on concept art and ideology rather than content and design. This blog will try to unravel the details, mechanics and design that went into the game and explore the reasons why it was received with criticism by many media outlets.

As with most reviews we should talk about the story of Epic Mickey. This game was a character driven experience. It was not solely about Mickey, but by every character that he came across through the course of the opening cinema and the levels themselves. In order to make the story connect with gamers the character of Mickey Mouse had to be presented as a complex and flawed character. All of the cues that Warren Spector and the people at Junction Point used were from the Mickey films themselves. The earliest movies featured a character that was equal parts fun and feisty, not always friendly. His curiosity would get him into all sorts of adventures, some dangerous but most lighthearted.

Junction Point made sure to animate a version of the mouse that looked far more retro-inspired, more two-dimensional like a comic-strip character, than the 3D models featured in Kingdom Hearts or the DSN sport games. Junction Point even managed to keep Mickey’s ears in a constant 2D perspective like in the comic books, even when he turned his head. This helped take the mouse back to the elements that made him a hit. This look allowed Spector to show rather than tell audiences why early Mickey was an important character to animation and pop culture. He could be cheeky and selfish when he wanted to and did not always rely on his friends to round out his personality. In the early films Mickey conveyed many of the same qualities that Donald, Goofy and Pluto got credit for. He had a temper, a silly side and a sincere loyalty. The mannerisms, curiosity and fight of Epic Mickey were in stark contrast to the way the mouse was presented in Kingdom Hearts.

Square-Enix presented Mickey in the format that most audiences are familiar with. Perpetually a hero and always noble of heart, Mickey Mouse was everyone's friend. The difference was that KH gave him a fancy wardrobe with lots of zippers.

Unfortunately the version of "King Mickey" was also bland and uninspired. A character that was more saint than hero. Like many Disney characters that appeared in KH Mickey was added to help push a convoluted plot along. A hero that was perfect could not tell a story, there would be no dramatic expression they could convey, or genuine sense of loss or even joy. From a design standpoint a perfect Mickey could only exist as a deus ex machina, appearing at the end of an adventure to pull a character out of danger and then disappearing. The best characters, heroes and villains alike have traditionally had a flaw. Perhaps gamers never wondered why the main character in Kingdom Hearts, Sora, came from a broken home. It made for a more sympathetic character and one which was more complex than what gamers gives credit to.

The mouse in Epic Mickey was anything but perfect. He was far more relatable to audiences because he didn't have all the answers to the story. He got caught up in a mistake he had made and forced gamers to help write the path out of his dilemma. The premise was simple; Mickey Mouse had gotten into the sorcerer Yensid's workshop and ended up spilling magic paint and thinner on a model city, a place for forgotten cartoon characters. The paint ended up creating an animated ink blot that Mickey tried to erase away. This mistake would grow and grow, eventually becoming the Phantom Blot, a villain that harassed Mickey in the old comic adventures. Mickey ran away from the scene when he heard Yensid returning. Yensid served as the narrator of the game. He was also featured in the film Fantasia for what was considered to be Mickey Mouse’s greatest role as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

As the story goes years later Mickey Mouse grew in fame and popularity and completely forgot what he had done to the model city and the citizen therein. The Phantom Blot appeared from behind a magic mirror to pull Mickey into the "Wasteland" and trap him there. Gamers were dropped into the middle of the action. Mickey was strapped to an operating table by the Mad Doctor with a giant machine trying to pull the heart from him. Gamers immediately had to find out where they were and try to find a way out. The first thing was to get away from the giant machine by navigating a dark and twisted castle. Junction Point introduced a character to guide players, act as a traveling companion to Mickey and also serve as a moral compass. By extension he was also a moral compass to the game players, suggesting course of action that would be constructive or destructive.

Gus the Gremlin, from the lost Gremlin project would be the first of many lost characters that were brought back from the Disney archives specifically for the game. Gus served to teach players how to use paint and thinner from a magic paint brush and other game mechanics. The other characters introduced, like Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow, helped pull the gamers through the world and introduce layers of detail pulled from decades of Disney lore. These supporting characters created branching missions that ran parallel with the main plot of returning Mickey home. Each of these side quests could be explored or ignored, the choices of which would influence the ending movies in the game.

The in-game characters were all modeled in 3D, retro-inspired and cartoonish. Most were in black and white and maintained a familiar squash and stretch format of early animation. They harkened back to the time when Disney was growing by leaps and bounds and new characters were being introduced to the universe on a weekly basis. Sadly Mickey did not recognize most of his early colleagues when he met them. The lynchpin of these forgotten characters, the one that came before all of the others, and even before Mickey himself was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald was very jealous of Mickey’s success which he believes should have been his own. The true heart of the game would revolve around Mickey trying to make amends with Oswald. To atone for the thinner accident and try to undo the damage he had caused.

The cinema versions of these characters appeared as if they were illustrations from a children's book brought to life. They were animated superbly by Powerhouse Animation Studios Inc. the style of which helped bridge the Disney Comic and Animation traditions with those of its newer videogame one. The mechanics of using paint and thinner served as the focus of the gameplay elements. The paths and ending of the game changed depending on how gamers used paint or thinner to solve puzzles and defeat opponents. The more paint thinner gamers used to solve problems the more Mickey would drip floating ink and have his face blur, similar to the Phantom blot. Using a paintbrush kept Mickey in a mostly solid state. Thinner could be used to knock down the environment, make walls disappear and dissolve opponents. The mechanic of fixing or destroying the environment was first made popular in Super Mario Sunshine. The paint and thinner mechanic worked very much in the same way that Mario's water canon cleaned up Isle Delfino.

The levels and themes that made up the wasteland took full advantage of the play mechanics. It was the amount of detail that Junction Point put into the game that set it leagues apart from every other Disney game to-date. The world that Epic Mickey takes place in is the model for forgotten characters. We are constantly reminded that the world is an illusion by seeing false walls, painted alleyways and closed-off sections. Gamer might think that the model was based on the original Disneyland. They would only be partially right.

Each major level was broken into two basic components, a staging area, which introduced gamers to the theme of the level and the adventure stage itself which could be compared to one, or a combination of several, major rides in the actual parks. For example Bog Easy was the New Orleans type theme area with Lonesome Manor being the main attraction. In Disneyland that would be akin to Orleans Square being the home for the Haunted Mansion. Junction Point took many cues from the theme areas of the parks, including the rides, and amalgamated them into the stages. The tiki look, complimentary colors lush greenery and tropical atmosphere from Ventureland was inspired heavily from the Enchanted Tiki Room.

The kaleidoscope of color and patterns that made up Gremlin Village was undoubtedly based on “it’s a small world” featured in Fantasyland.

While Walt Disney gets credit for the parks, it was anything but a one man project. His best artists and designers, creators like Roland “Rolly” Crump and Mary Blair, moved from the animation studio to Disney’s World’s Fair projects (precursor to a lot of Disneyland tech) and became some of the most influential “Imagineers.” Their fingerprints are all over the parks, and by extension, all over Epic Mickey.

It was many of Crump’s designs which lent themselves perfectly to the look of Ventureland. Mary Blair was a genius of color and design, whe created the inspiration for it’s a small world. The design of Tortuga, Skull Island and the Jolly Roger preserved many of the elements from her original art for Peter Pan as well.

These cues were taken in a different direction by Junction Point and distorted into twisted relics of the designs and parks that Walt had envisioned. The thinner accident stripped away the wholesome elements of the parks and left gamers with a barren version of the areas.

The amount of work and detail that went into the levels was redoubled for the interior shots of several buildings. Junction Point exploited a lesson from classic cartooning here. There were no straight lines, no fixed angles in a cartoon world. Cabinets were rounded, edges kept soft and perspective a matter of layout rather than 3D modeling. The end result was yet another layer of detail that the studios could be proud of and gamers could explore again and again.

Each of these parks were connected via movie projectors. This gaming element was written in as a way for Mickey to cross the oceans of thinner separating the parks. He could jump into a classic cartoon playing on a projector screen and navigate to the next area. The cartoon levels were presented in a side-view-format, very much like all the early 2D Disney games. The stages preserved the music, characters and even visual style of the individual films. Players could collect movie reels and unlock bonus material in each of these levels.

Older gamers were reminded of the good times they had with Castle of Illusion or Mickey Mania. New gamers got a taste of how the good early Mouse games played in each of these film levels. Characters from the classic films turned up in many of the levels of those early titles and they were faithfully reproduced in 3D for modern audiences as well.

Navigating the Wasteland was not without its own perils. Using the paintbrush or thinner Mickey could either befriend or fight the inky monsters that answered to the Phantom Blot. Mickey could use a spin attack to knock back opponents or trigger level action with a shake of the Wiimote. He could also be assisted by pixie-like sparks that acted as paint or thinner guardians of the world. Junction Point's original minions called "Blotlings" were ink-based monsters, rough and unshapely. They helped balance out the polished cartoon citizens of the wasteland. These monsters also reinforced the story that Mickey's mistake caused not only the world to become misshapen but also the creatures that inhabited it.

The criticism behind the game was twofold, one was tangible, gamers and critics alike found fault with the camera, the other major complaint was more subjective, that Epic Mickey somehow did not live up to the concept. We shall explore these things tomorrow in the final part of this review.

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