Epic Mickey

Disney magic or Disney monstrosity?

The Pros

• Aesthetic bliss - truly gorgeous animation and scenic levels

• Amazing Disney nostalgia in the classic shorts and forgotten characters

• The power of choice, decisions and replay possibilities
  

The Cons

• The camera is not your friend

• Some repetitive elements - jumpy jumpy, collecty collecty

• Painted objects do not stay painty (I spent hours repainting Mickeys house and the area and by my next visit it was undone!)
  

For Christmas this year (2010) I received a Wii with a whole bunch of games and Epic Mickey was the one I was particularly excited to play. It came out in November / December too so I'm sure it was on a few Christmas lists to Santa and certainly mine, THE game I was after and had anticipated for a few years after reading a sneak peak article in a magazine.

I should probably explain quickly a little about my infatuation with Disney, its exactly that, an infatuation. I see Disney as my passion or one of my hobbies, I love 90% of the films; animated and live action, I have the children's package on Sky just so I can have the Disney Channel plus currently I work at a Disney Store, lets just say I'm a fan off all things Disney... So when I got to combine two of my interests; Disney and gaming I could not control myself!

Epic Mickey developed by Buena Vista is thankfully not your typical Disney game full of ridiculous over the top Disney spirit and singing but actually a game with darker running themes of revisiting older Disney classic animation and forgotten characters. There is plenty of Disney magic playing homage to the brand and well beloved heritage and is a charming adventure designed in a new imagined original way.

It is a 3D platform action game with RPG character interaction elements on the Wii console combining your typical button game play along with the motion control of Wii games. You play as Mickey Mouse who mischievously enters a small magical world created by the wizard Yen Sid (the same wiz featured in Fantasia)and then accidentally causes mayhem by spilling ink and thinner all over the toy size world and letting loose an evil ink blot who is the big bad, on his return to the wizards workshop. Eventually Mickey is called upon to save the day armed only with a paint brush and supply of paint and thinner that he will use to restore this world, which we find out is run by Oswald the lucky Rabbit; Mickeys predecessor in original Disney animations and rival.

Throughout the game you get to make the decision to either paint or thin objects and enemies and every choice you make has a good or bad consequence. For instance you can either paint an enemy which turns him good and he joins your team, taking out other enemies for you or you could thin the enemy, to just make it go away and in turn you receive an item. Boss fights are the same you can choose what to attack with and either destroy them or make them friendly to integrate them back into society... It depends of your moral point of view I suppose, I usually painted as much as I could to build up a Disney army of minions... In most levels you can save gremlins who act as your alliance throughout and if you do rescue them they help you find the item you are looking for to progress in the game as well or you can find alternate items and do it yourself. There are also millions of side quests; hunting for an item or fetching something for guy 1 to give to guy 2 who will then make guy 3 give you what YOU needed to continue and if you chose not to do something or do it in the wrong way future side quests do not open for you, for instance you have to free someone from a dangling safe at one point early on and I opted for the quick option; thinning out the rope holding the safe but it then fell on another character who could of given me more quests... So Epic Mickey gives you plenty of choice and scope for re-play, which I enjoyed and it means there are multiple video sequences and endings, similar to Heavy Rain.

You also use your paint to rebuild areas that you accidentally ruined, sometimes receiving items and unlocking secrets but you mainly use paint to colour in your path, whether it is the floor you need to walk on or a ledge you need to jump up to etc. The thinner is also used to wash away some painted areas that look obviously different to the rest of the scenery to reveal a hidden path or collectible.

The world is a twisted version of the iconic Disney theme parks, charmingly colourful and some of the scenery is breathtaking, especially for an avid fan like myself there is a copious amounts of nostalgia in the backgrounds, objects and characters. Mickey is definitely in his own little playground where you have to leap around, platform to platform to reach your goal, especially in between levels where you have to travel through little areas played out in a little big planet feel from one side to the other or upwards. I like these bits best, that are recreated classic old shorts like Plutopia and the lonesome ghosts, genuinely beautiful to play through.

The issues with the game are what everyone seems to have problems with and the most annoying part of any platform game: the controls and the camera view.

The physical controlling leaves something to be desired, you have the Wii-mote in one hand and nunchuck in the other, one controls the camera angle and the other is the motion. The wii-motes only motion type function is to spin attack enemies when you shake the Wii-mote around Mickey will twirl around in a speedy fashion to knock things out of his way. I admit I prefer a classic PlayStation controller for this type of game, this was my first Wii platformer, and I struggled slightly at first with the integral pointing the cursor to show Mickey where to look.

The camera is often slow and sluggish and doesn't point where you want it to! If you are in the main area of the level it behaves itself but once you go off to explore and pillage the camera either loves and is permanently attached to Mickeys bum like tween goths to Pattersonface or the camera goes off on its own little Disney adventure causing you to fall down a hole you couldn't see. There is a center camera button that works maybe 20% of the time and you are more likely to paint the floor thus appearing that Mickey has drank far too much blueberry milkshake!!

Despite moments of pure frustration, far too much aggravation and real scream at the TV parts where Mickey doesn't make a jump you know he can because the jump button didn't respond quick enough or the final level of the game where enemies are placed ridiculously out of view causing you to instantly die when they push you down awkward holes your so called wingman of a camera didn't bring to your attention, poke you and go "oooh look out for that death trap!!" This only slightly dampens the whole gaming experience and you can tolerate and make allowances for all of this due to the game being so so endearing, imaginative and Disney.

I would give Epic Mickey 8/10 based on the fantastical Disney world it portrays and my nostalgic experience while playing combined with difficult camera work and slightly repetitive game play.