Epic Mickey preview

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Preview: Epic Mickey- Destructoid



Kinda longish for a cut-and-paste, so just go click and read.

If you're wondering why you should be excited about this game, well, its made by Warren Spector. If you don't know who that is, go on Steam, buy and play the original Deus Ex, maybe Thief or System Shock and SS2 if they have it. Those are his games.

Been looking forward to this for a while now. Junction Point really dug into the history of Disney, going into some forgotten areas of its past to create the world of this game and its enemies, from classic Disney animation to animatronics. Lots of nods to various movies, such as Peter Pan and Tron, too. They even have a section of the game that reproduces Walt Disney's on-site apartment in Disneyland.

So far, its Wii only. Plus there's this 2D stage with old NES carts of Disney games in it. It was conceptualized as a Wii game long before Move came into the picture so who knows if another version will happen. There are currently no plans for a port. With all the platformers on the Wii of late, though, it seems like another great one to pile on with Sonic Colors, Donkey Kong and Kirby.

[jenova_9]

Re: Epic Mickey preview

Kewl! I wonder if Donald and Minnie are unlockable characters?

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Epic Mickey preview

I think its just Mickey and these "forgotten" Disney characters, though there is some stuff from the more familiar movies. I mean Smee and Captain Hook are in it, but that's old era Disney animation, too.

If they were to have Donald and Minnie, they'd have to make them so they reflect the era of animation that this game seems to want to celebrate.

Epic Mickey

Vs.

Modern Mickey

I'd love to see Disney get back to roots and really start cranking out some stuff for Mickey, Donald and Goofy. It still feels like the last time they really even made an effort to push their original characters was back at Roger Rabbit, Duck Tales and Rescue Rangers.

The fact that they remade The Christmas Carol a while back, but did it live action with Jim Carrey instead of just re-releasing the one with Scrooge McDuck made me die a little on the inside. In fact, I think outside of Alice in Wonderland, I've hated all these live-action versions of the classics. I don't know why they keep on insisting on doing them.

Then again, this is what happens when you put businessmen in charge of something that used to be run by actual artists. Eisner and his successor, Iger have not really pushed this company to stick or even return to their roots, but continue to encourage them to abandon them and let fucking Pixar do all the heavy lifting.

And even Pixar is pushing for classic hand-drawn animation where they feel it can apply.

Disney had a prime chance to reboot Mickey back when Kingdom Hearts was out and pushed him into the spotlight as this elite character that was rarely seen. Totally squandered it too, still do. Its like everyone except the board of directors at Disney appreciates the classics unless there's money to be made on a Blu Ray remaster or something.

Wouldn't hurt of Warner Bros. got back on the ball with Bugs and Daffy, either. Seems all they do these days are DC superhero movies. Voiced, designed and written in America, hand-drawn stuff outsourced to South Korea.

Its usually good stuff, though, I just wish WB deign Americans worthy of doing the hand-drawn stuff. Yes, they will want to be paid more. I'm sure the can cut a shitty TV series or two. God knows Smallville overstayed its welcom.

[Absentia]

Re: Epic Mickey preview

So this is where King Mickey goes when he isn't popping in and out of Kingdom Hearts cutscenes.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Epic Mickey preview

Better still, he doesn't have to deal with a twit like Sora in this game.

[Gobo]

Re: Epic Mickey preview

Better still, he doesn't have to deal with a twit like Sora in this game.

Twit is an understatement I think.

If I can scrape up the cash, it will be hard to decide between this, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and DKC Returns. Poor grad student and all; school giving me just enough for me to break even/save a little itty bitty bit every month.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Epic Mickey preview

Learned something interesting from an interview I watched. Well, EU players know of it thought they might not be able to fully appreciate this fact, but The Wasteland in Epic Mickey doesn't just have elements from the Disney amusement park, it essentially is a "dark world" version of Disneyland.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was only able to access the rejected concepts of the rides we know, so his version of Space Mountain is his interpretation of it. Mickey comes upon a statue of Disney holding Oswald's hand instead of Mickey being part of the statue. Instead of Main Street, there's Mean Street.

I understand there are some camera issues with the game and some framedrops here and there, but I've also noticed some reviewers failed to RTFM on certain aspects of the game that have actually been explain in interview. Things like getting lost while exploring the 3D areas. If you point your Wiimote upward, Mickey is actually given a dotted line to follow to his next main objective if you need the help.

They also say Mickey's jumps feel a bit too loose in the 2D sections, but I think that's just a matter of getting used to the difference.

I'm still grabbing it tomorrow, so if I'm mostly over this damn cold (thanks Black Friday for the sick people shopping) I'll try to have some impressions of it up. From the sound of it, though, if you're a Disney fan and know a great deal of the history and have been to the parks, you're going to overlook some of the problems and find a lot to appreciate here.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Epic Mickey preview

OK, I've sunk a couple hours into the game. The 3D areas tend to be rather massive and long, broken up by little 2D levels in between. First world is not terribly surprising as its the first ride most people would go to their first time visiting Disneyland or Disney World.

Its a Small World After All.

Thankfully the music varied here rather than just droning that one song, though you do get to hear a more dissonant version in certain portions. The sections pulled from the ride are the jungle section, Asia and European areas and the boss is the Clock Tower which is located just outside that ride, I believe.

The game is best described as part Mario, part Zelda and part Deus Ex. The Mario part is a hybriid of Sunshine and Galaxy. the paintbrush obviously kinda reminding me of the water pump from Sunshine. Jump, Double Jump, Spin attack - that sort of thing, but stompng and spin attacks merely stun or knock enemies into dangerous things, it does not kill them.

Mickey also has the power to use paint and thinner on his enemies. Paint will turn enemies into friends that assist you for a time and build/patch up stuff. Thinner is more straight forward, its for killing blot enemies and destroying things.

Kinda like this:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwPkAUBr4Sc&NR]YouTube - Judge Doom Dips a Shoe[/ame]

The Zelda part is obviously is using paint and thinner to solve puzzles and navigate areas. They also do the "You got a X" thing with treasure chests complete with a victory tune for that. The friendly gremlins (WWII propaganda rejects) are there to help Mickey in his quest, fixing things that paint and thinner cannot mess with (things that aren't made of paint/aren't cartoons). The gremlins are also a bit too much like Navi, always wanting to point things out in the early levels, I have no idea yet of this subsides a bit.

The Deus Ex part is more how you interact with NPCs, quests and bosses. Think of Paint and Thinner as your choices between good and evil in real time, but NPC interactions come with a couple choices, sometimes including a third option that is left for the player to figure out. There's no "wrong" answer to an NPC question, but expect to live with the choice you made in conversation.

For example, I rescued a gremlin. He thanked me, but pointed out that if I wanted his help with a certain obstacle that he would need to be paid 100 tickets. Telling him no means you have to solve that problem yourself, there's no going back on it. I told him to fuck off. I just got to 100 on those tickets. Mine. So I dissolved a few walls with thinner, looked for the place I needed to go to fix the problem.

How you use paint thinner in boss/miniboss encounters will affect parts of the main story. You can kill that boss with thinner or win him over with paint.

And in most other gmaes, the evil/destructive choice makes things easier. Not the case here, it tends to make things more difficult for you. When I shot thinner at the arms the clock tower was trying to smack me with, I eventually eroded his arms to the point where when he slammed his hand down he broke it. However, he started spewing thinner everywhere and Mickey is weak to thinner.

Depending how you beat the boss, your capacity for thinner or paint will increase.

Another layer to the paint/thinner element is the Guardians. You have a little meter beneath your life bar that fills up, as you make constructive or destructive choices in real time, this meter will build up if you skew to one particular approach. If you get three bars of green you get Thinner Guardian for each bar. Fill it with blue, you get paint guardians. They have two particular roles so far.

When you point your Wiimote at an enemy and flick the nunchuck - the guardian will attack, either instantly killing a target or charming it. The other function is universal. If you ever get lost or confused about where to go, you can hold up your Wiimote and one guardian will be expended to show you the way to the next main point of interest.

And you can find ways to fill these bars up even in NPC areas. Only catch is the paint/thinner dynamic will not apply to 2D stuff. 2D areas are just straight-up platforming and NPC talk, and in that case, usually for stores and such.

The graphics are easily close to what you'd expect from Nintendo first party stuff. Real nice job done on the graphics here. There are also 2D animation scenes that deliver the main points of the story and tutorial along the way. Mickey will meet old friends and since these are all forgotten or rejected Disney characters, well, Mickey doesn't remember them. Characters like Horace Horsecollar and Clairibelle, along with many others. There's also all the older versions of Pete in here.

And because I destroyed his little blot minions on the previous level, the bigger version of Pete tells me I'm not the nice, straight and narrow Mickey he knew.

I should also point out that the more you do bad things, the more paint oozes off Mickey, though this doesn't really come up in the cutscenes beyond an early one.

The music is quite good, lots of familar Disney fare here and since its coming straight from a Disney studio, I wouldn't expect anything less. James Dooley is the composer here, does a wonderful job of complimenting the world of the game.

The camera... well... you know how your worst enemy in some games is the camera? Yeah, there are instances here where the camera will just be a struggle. Nothing has been impossible because of it, but it was something that should have really been worked on. Fortunately there are no "lives" so when you die you just start from the last checkpoint and checkpoints are plentiful. The game autosaves at each checkpoint as well.

Camera annoyances aside, so far its been enjoyable. I wouldn't say its on Mario Galaxy 2/DKCR tier, but its about Sonic Colors/Kirby's Epic Yarn level right now. What sets Epic Mickey apart from all of them is the bold direction they took with Disney characters here as well as making a family friendly game that incorporates choice with an impressive amount of depth. I actually think this works better for teenagers and adults than the kids it might end up attracting, though.

Also, sadly, nothing here in the co-op department. That's probably for the best but with all the other platformers this year having an option for it in some form, its still a tad disappointing. Then again, multiplayer was never Spector's forte.

As a lot of the reviewers have said, approach this with balanced expectations and you won't be disappointed. The ambition behind the title tends to outweigh the camera issues. And if you collect enought film reels in the game, there's some watchable rewards for that. Completing the game opens a new game plus mode. so you keep all your collectables from the previous run and can make different choices for a different ending a such.

[Malacite]

Re: Epic Mickey preview

Kingdom Hearts meets Okami?

Sorry, just not excited for this after playing Okami. Loved that game.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Epic Mickey preview

Kingdom Hearts meets Okami?

Sorry, just not excited for this after playing Okami. Loved that game.

Okami doesn't even come to mind when playing this game, the paintbrush element in Okami is what the ocarina/Wind Waker/howling is to Zelda games. Granted, the key difference being action in Okami can be paused and influenced by the paint brush.

Epic Mickey's use of the paintbrush is more like western RPG mechanics being deployed as a real-time action element rather than a constant series of dialog branches.

As for Kingdom Hearts, this is Disney making letting someone under their own employ make bold decisions with its oldest IPs and beloved characters, instead of asking another third party to to play it safe with Disney IPs and fill the need for a "dark element" themselves.

That and Epic Mickey's narrative isn't nearly as overwrought. Story is important here, but its mostly influenced by the player.

I just entered an original area called Mickeyjunk Mountain, its more or less a landfill for all the Mickey Mouse memorabilia of days gone by. I just jumped on SNES cartridge floating in a river of thinner. I didn't recognize the label on the game.

Slightly related, Chad on Destructoid did a top 10 Disney games of all time list, Ducktales was #1, so I approve of this blog post:

http://www.destructoid.com/the-ten-b...e-188306.phtml

[Malacite]

Re: Epic Mickey preview

Epic Mickey's use of the paintbrush is more like western RPG mechanics being deployed as a real-time action element rather than a constant series of dialog branches.

Eh, the brush was critical to combat in Okami as well, not just dialogue or story progression. Really? Ducktales #1? idk about that. I kind of liked that old Disney World one where you're this kid going through all kinds of different settings & genres to get the keys back for Mickey. The Micky Mouse Ghouls & Ghosts-style one made by Cacpom for the SNES was also really, really fun. That's just out of the older stuff though.

Nothing holds a candle to Kingdom Hearts.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Epic Mickey preview

Eh, the brush was critical to combat in Okami as well, not just dialogue or story progression. Really? Ducktales #1? idk about that. I kind of liked that old Disney World one where you're this kid going through all kinds of different settings & genres to get the keys back for Mickey. The Micky Mouse Ghouls & Ghosts-style one made by Cacpom for the SNES was also really, really fun. That's just out of the older stuff though.

Nothing holds a candle to Kingdom Hearts.

The point of Kingdom Hearts is to keep stringing people along with the occasional treat of Disney nostalgia while really feeding you a JRPG narrative about characters that serve as an anchor in a crossover. You could seriously remove the Disney side and have them visit Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest worlds and it wouldn't feel all that different.

In fact, no characters I've seen in a crossover have survived as long and remained as relevant as they do in Kingdom Hearts. Usually the original characters are complete one-offs lost to history, lack of use or licensing conflicts. The hero Access - a guy that could visit both Marvel and DC Universes - got one appearance in a Green Lantern comic after Marvel Vs. DC and has never been seen again.

The point to Epic Mickey is to show people less familiar with Disney the greater history behind one of the world's most iconic characters. Disney animated films aren't totally foreign to kids, but there really hasn't been any new TV, movie or movie shorts for many of the the original Disney characters themselves since the late 80s to mid-90s. That's a long time for characters like Mickey, Donald and Goofy. There are plenty of people that don't get the Disney channel, I assure you.

I don't think Mickey has appeared on the big screen since Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Before that, it was A Christmas Carol (which the live action movie cannot hold a candle to, you know, since it introduced Scrooge McDuck and all).

I'd like to see these characters thrive again, rather than just have cameos in Kingdom Hearts.

At any rate, I would at least give this one a rent before writing it off as some Okami clone. And really Okami is a Zelda clone when you get right down to it. There's very little to deny it, too.

Also, I just unlocked the Oswald cartoon "A Knight to Remember" and fought a version of Pete called Petetronic.



I was hoping for a greater Tron reference than this, but oh well.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Epic Mickey preview

Finished up the path I chose to take with my first run. The ending is affected in a number of ways. The ending is similar no matter that that, but who you chose to restore/reddem along the way will indeed be reflected just as your actions are within the game during the story, so its nice the ending isn't a total generic cop-out.

My ending made me feel just a bit like a jerk, which is more or less how I made Mickey act the whole time. Rebuild the animatronic Goofy of Wasteland? Not worth my time. Help the pirates back to Tortooga? I kinda screwed the pooch on that one, so they could never go home.

There are even a few quests here and there that present an opportunity to literally lie to the NPC. Not some dialog prompt, but a deceive them with your actions.

So in terms of story, choice and artistry I really respect what they accomplished here. The story is endearing, the choice aspect is meaningful and the look of the world and the little historical elements they wove into it are all really cool.

In terms of combat and having to fight the camera about 25% of the time it could have used some more time in development. And really, most of these issues could have been addressed by fully explaining the controls in the manual, the tutorial and having an in-game reference to look back at.

Had I known early on that you held down C a couple of moments to lock on to enemies, that would have saved a lot of trouble with both combat and the camera. I also feel like if they had dropped the vanilla platforming elements (we're talking really plain double jump stuff, no flair or ambition like Mario has) and focused it more in the direction of Zelda and Deus Ex like the game truly felt it would have been a lot better for it. The camera just wasn't built for platforming, though it gets the job done most of the time.

I also wish there was a bit more meat to the 2D sections, though you to have to retread them at times to get back to certain locations. They're mostly there for cartoon nostalgia and little else, each of them a nod to some classic cartoon short, most of them from the black-and-white days, with a few color ones thrown in from time-to-time. Each one has a film reel to collect, get enough and you can unlock one of two classic cartoons for viewing, one with Oswald and one with Mickey.

I think they could have added a bit more in that regard, having to collect 36 for the Mickey cartoon is a bit much.

New Game + has opened up, though, so I get another shot at completing that. Too bad my money and maxed Thinner meter didn't cross over.

Length-wise, i'd say its comparable to a Zelda game, not overlong like Twilight Princess was, but doable in about 14-16 hours and then there's the replay value and the opportunity to make choices you didn't last time.

Good game that could have been great with a bit more time in the oven, but certainly worth a play if you're a Disney fan.

[Icemage]

Re: Epic Mickey preview

I held off on buying this because I have a sneaking suspicion it might end up on the PS3 one of these days, and that's the version I'd want to own. Plus I have a huge backlog of games still in the wrapper that I've yet to get to (hi2u God of War: Ghost of Sparta!), so Epic Mickey ended up on the chopping block for me in favor of Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom.

Granted, no PS3 version has been discussed recently, but the game was originally announced as multiplatform, and the determining factor was the pointing ability of the Wiimote. Seems to me like they could port the gameplay over for the PS Move fairly easily, and upgrading the graphic assets ought not be terribly difficult given the art style. If I'm wrong and a PS3 version never appears, I can always pick it up for less later when I've cleared the stack of new games on my list (also bearing in mind we've still got megaton-dropping games coming for the first three months of 2011 as well).


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Epic Mickey preview

It was announced only for Wii as far as I know and Junction Point, Spector and Disney Interactive have maintained there's no plans for a port elsewhere. Then again, this was in production for quite a while and conceptualized for Wii long before Move came into the picture, it could happen down the road. From what I've observed so far it seems to be selling quite well for the Wii. That success could lead to a port.

There's no question in my mind that Move needs more games like this, because its not selling with the games it has now and the fact that Move support gets gradually added to other games isn't well-publicized to the mainstream player. No amount of snappy Kevin Butler ads is going to sell Move. It might just be my area, but there's zero interest in Move when I'm at work. Sony loves to tout numbers shipped, but the honest truth is Move is not moving at all.