Epic Mickey's brief moments of cleverness and knowing affection for obscure Disneyana are mired by clunky, perfunctory platforming and a general lack of followthrough.
Smee is one of the more recognizable faces in Epic Mickey. Right off the bat, the name Disney Epic Mickey sets some high expectations for this new Mickey Mouse adventure from famed designer Warren Spector. While there has been no shortage of Disney-branded shovelware over the years, there's a history of well-remembered Mickey Mouse games stretching back to the 8-bit days. While Spector's name hasn't been attached to a game in nigh on a decade, he's a designer known for his vision, and Epic Mickey promised a dark, sophisticated Mickey Mouse story aimed at the adult players who grew up with the likes of Castle of Illusion. Nevermind these heightened expectations, though: even on its own merits, Epic Mickey is a platformer that feels about a generation behind, though one with just enough flashes of inspiration to keep you constantly aware of its wasted potential.
As someone with an honest appreciation for the design aesthetics, cultural significance, and nostalgic payload of all things Disneyana, I was personally delighted at the premise of Epic Mickey. While there's a whole world of familiar Disney characters to populate a Mickey Mouse adventure with, Epic Mickey, after a somewhat senselessly convoluted start, traps The Mouse in a painted Wasteland filled with generations of forgotten Disney stars and little-known extras. In a way, the metagame of name-that-obscure-reference is the most fun thing to do in Epic Mickey. Sometimes the game just lays it on real thick, such as with an encounter with a Tron version of Bad Pete perched atop Space Mountain, which I'll admit I'm not immune to the pandering charms of. It also shows a certain capacity of self-awareness, most notably with the location of Mickeyjunk Mountain, a world comprised entirely of discarded Mickey Mouse merchandise. The delicious irony here, of course, is that Epic Mickey will itself one day become consumer detritus, though the game refrains from going that deep down the rabbit hole.
Mickey's Morality is the name of my new post-twee-pop acoustic hardcore band. This Wasteland is a shadow version of the bright and familiar Magic Kingdom, even mirroring the basic layout and themed worlds of Disneyland, though its approach to this idea often feels rote in its own way, owing significant inspiration to the muddled palletes and general disdain for 90-degree angles fostered by practitioners of dark whimsy like Tim Burton and American McGee. In another interesting kink, Mickey's position as favored son is held by Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in this shadow realm, which is overrun by horrible inky monsters due specifically to Mickey's own characteristic capriciousness. Mickey is, essentially, the villain at the start of the game, and it's up to the player to redeem Mickey's name.
Interesting ideas abound in Epic Mickey, but they're all sadly in service of gameplay that just doesn't deserve them. While it has some half-baked open-world and role-playing elements, this is a platform-jumping game first and foremost. Specifically, it feels like the kind of mascot-driven platformer that was legion in the N64/PlayStation era, before dual analog sticks were standardized and when most third-person polygonal games struggled valiantly with camera controls. Epic Mickey's unruly camera isn't insurmountable, but having to replay sections due to blind jumps and constant fussing gives you plenty of time to consider just how boilerplate most of the platforming feels, and just how dull vast stretches of this game are. Mickey doesn't just hop--keeping with the game's painterly theme, puzzles and treasure hunts are presented on the regular that require you to employ a magical paintbrush that can shoot either paint or paint thinner. Shoot paint at specific, silhouetted parts of the environment, and they'll fill in and come to life; shoot thinner at the brightly colored spots, and they'll melt away, revealing hidden paths and such. There are a few specific puzzles where you're tasked with starting and stopping mechanized systems with your paintbrush that struck me as kind of clever, but it's mostly too obvious--once you've seen it, you've solved it.
Steamboat Willie is cool the first time around... Combat also revolves around the paintbrush, and you can choose to either thin enemies out of existence or paint them until they turn against their brethren. This ties into the thin notion of Mickey's morality and its impact on the world, but like a lot of the support elements in Epic Mickey, it doesn't seem fully formed. There are other mechanics tossed around as well, such as TVs that can be deployed to distract enemies and timepieces that can slow things down, but it all feels bolted-on rather than integrated. At a point, it feels like Epic Mickey is deliberately squandering its gifts. Among the most novel bits in Epic Mickey are the 2D sidescrolling sections that are nicely modeled after classic Mickey Mouse theatrical shorts like Steamboat Willie, The Band Concert, and most apropros, Thru the Mirror. Like the rest of the jumping and double-jumping in Epic Mickey, it's not the most sophisticated stuff, but it's got charm. Problem is, these sequences serve as the portals between various worlds, and Epic Mickey is just rife with fetch quests that have you frequently going back and forth between worlds, forcing you to play through these sequences every time--that means coming and going--and it's a choice that strips away the charm like paint thinner.
The real tragedy with Epic Mickey is that every last part of it could, and arguably, should, have been totally amazing, but it so consistently falls short of that potential. The Disney enthusiast in me got a certain charge out of the experience, at least for a while, but as a game, it's pretty far from a masterpiece.
I dig this game a lot more than most it seems, but I'm not blindly going to defend some very valid points made in reviews. The camera is your enemy and pure, focused, reflex driven action and set pieces are not in style here. It's more successful as a Banjo-Kazooie style "exploration" based platformer. And I kinda like having that here now to complement games like Mario Galaxy, Sonic Colors and DKC Returns. I just think that the levels are fun to explore, what with the secret paths, hidden objects and whatnot that can be revealed - the Magic Paintbrush is a cool game mechanic, that's for sure. But man, Warren Spector would've been well served cutting out like 20% of the half baked ideas here and polishing up the remaining 80% of the game. And just plain rethinking some design choices, like pointer-based combat. Melee would've been better. I know it's not perfect, but I really dig the game. The review is fair though; I just think it is worth it if you miss the old Rare-style platformers, and want to see one made in the mold nowadays. I really think the camera is surmountable (except for probably towards the end of the game), and it's worth it to see the cool story and levels and play around with the brush. But it could definitely have been better, and I wish they'd get the chance to do just that in a sequel or at least a director's cut HD version. I side more with guys like IGN, Gametrailers and Joystiq on this one though. But good, fair review Giantbomb:)
@endaround: Seriously. I guess they were trying to be like Zelda or something, but it doesn't come off as being "pure" and it doesn't remind me of the good 'ol days, because Disney animation almost always has voice acting. If they had went purely text, maybe I would have been okay with it, but they hire the VAs just to do little grunts and sounds during cutscenes and that just fucking annoys me.
There are a lot of mixed reviews for this game. IGN gives it an 8.0/10, Ryan gives it 2 stars out of 5, X-Play gives it a perfect 10, those are some pretty different scores. I think I'll pass on it for now, although i was looking forward to playing it.
I would just like to say that i was listening to the bombcast and just got to the part where ryan said it was not good and saw the review on the front page at the same time.
Holy crap. It's been a bad month for games at the Giant Bomb - a 3 for GT5, a 2(?!) for Epic Mickey. I've been hearing how (drumroll) epic Epic Mickey was supposed to be, that even after hearing the podcast this is coming from out of left field.
It's a bummer that the game is being received so poorly. Fortunately, I have enough Wii titles to play at the moment. Cave Story will be released shortly (here in Europe, that is) and I still need to finish the excellent Donkey Kong Country Returns.
I can't believe they were talking this game up so much at e3 like it was going to be the greatest thing the Wii has seen in some time. Excellent review as usually. Don't buy this game.
Great review Ryan. What I liked about the game is that it gives the player options while tackling numerous directions and goals . Other games like Super Mario Galaxy 2 you are just moving from point A to point B. But, it certainly doesn't have the Mario polish.
Because of my disability (paralyzed on the right side) like most Wii game, I can't play Epic Mickey. However I bought Epic Mickey for my kids and none of them liked it. My two 10 year old boys were only interest in playing it for longer than 20 minutes. My 7 year old daughter who is probably the biggest Disney fan in the house got frustrated after 10 minutes and quit. Not a single feature in this game has the quality that was hyped. You could have told me the game was developed by some fly by night game company in 14 months and I would believed it. Watching my kids play has killed any desire I had to play that game if it came out for a system with a real controller.
I absolutely agree with the review, though I do believe I enjoyed the setting more than Ryan did. Wasteland is so depressing, like a limbo. Characters seem to just plod along, with no meaning, objective or hope of change. It's a terrible and yet fascinating place to explore. It's the parts that are game per se that I thought weren't good. Controls, the supposed moral choices, the paint and thinner mechanic etc. I think it's something I would've enjoyed if I just watched someone else play.
I honestly have to vehemently disagree, which is probably the first time I've ever done so versus a Giant Bomb review. Epic Mickey is charming as hell.
Well I haven't played yet but I'm fine with my purchase. Especially if it helps an inevitably logical port and fixer-upper to PS3/Move. I definitely feel poorly about how Spector has chosen to address reviewers directly. Nobody wins when that happens; you should know that, Warren.
This saddens me. Such wasted potential. When I first saw the cover art on Gameinformer, I was very excited. A dark Disney game! Then I learned it was a Wii only game. Now this.
" This saddens me. Such wasted potential. When I first saw the cover art on Gameinformer, I was very excited. A dark Disney game! Then I learned it was a Wii only game. Now this. "
To be fair, the problems of this game would have still been there on any other console. None of this is the Wii's fault.
This game was so dissappointing it had such a build and unfortunatly every bit of news that came out just hacked away at the excitment, then the game came out with a archaic camera and easy puzzles. got to give it to them for content though great characters
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