Mickey Mouse is Walt Disney’s most recognizable and profitable cartoon character. Having starred in countless cartoon strips in the past, the once beloved Mickey Mouse isn’t making as grand an impact on this generation of young people and it is feared he may be turning into nothing more than a corporate mascot for the company that created him over 80 years ago. Change was sorely needed and that task of re-imagining Mickey Mouse was handed over to Warren Spector and the good people at Junction Point Studios.
In Spector’s new vision that is Epic Mickey, the usually cheery mouse steps out of his comfort zone and is forced to embark on a dark and dreary adventure that one will not soon forget. Ever curious, Mickey stumbles onto the creation of sorcerer Yen Sid (“Disney” spelled backwards) – a model world that is a mirror of Disneyland that serves as a home for all of Disney’s discarded cartoons and forgotten fairground attractions. Mickey fumbles around with the sorcerer’s magical brush and mistakenly unleashes a sinister Shadow Blot. The situation is made more dire when Mickey tries to erase the creature but ends up spilling thinner all over the the world. Delirious with panic, Mickey legs it from the scene while the blot invades the world. Months later with the event forgotten, Mickey’s nap is interrupted by the Shadow Blot who pulls him into the world.
Find out what happens after the cut.
The world that Mickey has been abducted to is a far cry from the Magical Kingdom. The Shadow Blot has warped and ruined the landscape so much so that the world now matches its rather depressing name, Wasteland. It is now up to Mickey to fix the world he broke and release its forgotten citizens from the clutches of the dreaded Shadow Blot. The characters Mickey meets on his journey are beleaguered and down-trodden but still hold onto hope that their hero will rescue their world. The characterization is strong in this game, not only with Mickey but also with Oswald Rabbit who plays a major role in the caper. It sets up for a grand tale of redemption.
After a lengthy tutorial where Mickey is introduced to movement and the workings of his magical brush, he eventually lands up in the first hub of the game, Mean Street which is a disfigured version of Main Street in the real life Disneyland. It contains a museum, a movie theatre, and other attractions tended by depressed proprietors. It from here that you start quests, stock on some supplies, interact with the characters, and travel to other areas.
Mickey’s magical brush is a Swiss army knife of sorts. With it you can use paint restore parts of the world that have been taken away or use the thinner to ruin the environment even further, you can remove obstacles from your path and create ledges upon which to jump, you can bring life to broken machinery. One time, I spent a considerable amount of time restoring a level and once I left it and returned, the level seemed to revert to its dilapidated state. That was very frustrating. Whilst I expected the paint to have a more permanent effect on the environment, there are other junctures where your actions will have consequences. You come across characters that you can choose to help or just as easily choose to ignore. For example, releasing a gremlin from captivity may prove to be a more difficult task but in return, it will solve a puzzle for you. In other situations, you may choose to drop a heavy safe on a character to gain access to its contents – it’s devious but you’ll get the booty. Because the brush also serves as a weapon you have a choice when it comes to dealing with enemies, with paint and thinner producing different results. Painting over an enemy will befriend them and they’ll help to fend off other enemies; thinning them will bring about their death. While the smaller minions are irrelevant, how you deal with the bosses is key. There is a paint and a thinner way of dealing with the bosses and your approach will not only determine the rewards you get after defeating the boss but more importantly the ending you’ll be ultimately presented with.
The environments Mickey visits are varied and beautifully designed. The visuals reminded me of Tim Schafer’s charming platformer Psychonauts with a drizzling of steampunk here and there. Spector mentioned them being a bastard child from the union of Disney and Tim Burton. In any case, like the protagonist, the visuals seem to have a character of their own. I don’t think you need to be ardent fan of Disney to like the aesthetics of Epic Mickey, but I can see how the older gamers may appreciate the nostalgia that oozes out of the game. There is a veritable treasure chest of in-game references to Disney characters and attractions from the odd Donald Duck shaped armour to an alternate version of the famous Disneyland statue, to a whole mountain made of Mickey Mouse merchandise.
It’s such a pity then that all the creative level design and your interaction with Wasteland and its characters is undone by the very thing that you need to the most. It’s like the camera has a mind of its own and often times I thought it an even worse plague than the Shadow Blot itself. The camera is clumsy, unreliable, unbearable. There is an option to manually control the camera but there are quite a few situations where it is even impossible to do that. It goes spastic in enclosed spaces and makes platforming finicky and more a guessing game at times. It also ruins the excitement of some of the boss battles. Imagine attacking a boss and then running away from a counter only to have to stop and manually re-orient the camera towards the boss. There is no lock-on either, the targeting is all manual. Trying to keep the targeting reticle trained on a foe whilst correctly orienting the camera in its direction whilst on the move is no easy task. Failing at this can be thoroughly frustrating as you might well imagine. The only levels I was rising through were that of anger. The checkpoint system too isn’t as generous as I’d hoped for. There is an autosave function which only kicks in when you have either obtained an important item or completed an important quest or a major point in the story. I can assume this was done so you can’t go back on the choices you have already made, although it’s frustrating to have almost completed a quest only to fall to your death and have to do it all over again because there were no smaller checkpoints along the way.
The various zones in the Epic Mickey are separated by projector screens. Some of these need to be powered up and once they are functional, you need to navigate a retro-vintage 2D platforming section before you can access your intended destination. These 2D levels are based on old Mickey cartoons like Steamboat Willie and Through the Mirror, and are represented in same monochromatic style as those cartoons. They’re enjoyable the first time you encounter them but soon get irritating when you have to travel between zones regularly as there is no way to skip them. The option to do so should have been included.
Overall there are a lot of things I liked in Epic Mickey. It’s a touching story, the game world has been lovingly created with engaging visuals and a great attention to detail. The paint/thinner mechanic works wonderfully for dealing with the environmental-based puzzles, enemies, and finding sneakily hidden areas and treasures. The cartoon world is alive with wonderful characters and creations and there is a lot to see, do, and collect (loads of pins, film reels, extra content, concept art, and cartoons). It’s by no means a short game and will take considerably longer to finish if you are a thorough completionist. The only glaring fault is, however, is quite a big one. The annoyingly spastic camera is the silent enemy that is with you from the very start of the game and you’ll no doubt suffer many a fail/retry sequence at its hands. Even though more experienced gamers may be able to deal with this level of frustration and difficulty brought about by the camera, I can’t imagine casual gamers would have the same amount of patience. It ultimately puts a damper on what could have a thoroughly absorbing tale of redemption. It could have been epic, but just fell a little too short I think.