<img src=http://www.valmg.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/DisneyEpicMickeyCover.jpg>
Imagine a character from your childhood. Any character that you remember growing up with. Doesn't matter who it is just get one in your head. Get the nostalgia going along with the halcyon days of enjoying their latest exploits on TV, or the radio, or the newspaper comic strip. Now picture that character vanishing, people are still aware the character existed but it hasn't been in anything recent in public consciousness to the point of future generations having no idea who the character is. Now imagine that character returning in a video game aimed at kids of said future generation, not just the character but its whole world. Now take those nostalgia glasses off. The world looks old, decaying and ready to just slip away into nothing. Get some pretty mixed opinions across the board over how such a game will perform, right? That appears to be the situation with Epic Mickey. But if there's one thing I enjoy about writing these reviews it's cutting through the mainstream's mixed responses to deliver something definitive about the work in question so let's get to it.
The story begins with Mickey Mouse in all of his old school deviant glory stepping through a mirror and coming across the workshop of the Wizard from Fantasia. He has left after creating a world "for things time has forgotten" unattended for Mickey to mess things up. After accidentally spilling magical thinner on the world and running for his life back through the mirror, the story fastforwards through Mickey's life of success, wealth and notoriety, just in time for the thing he created, The Shadow Blot, to pull him into the world he messed up, a dark broken parallel world to the Disneyland amusement park called Wasteland. Mickey wants to leave Wasteland, whereas every single forgotten cartoon that was sent there by Mickey's success, including Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, wants to take the one thing that allows him to leave, his heart.
<img src=http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb/GamesRadar/us/Daily/2010/08-Aug/16/Epic%20Mickey%20opening/Epic%20Mickey%20intro4--article_image.jpg>
Mickey: Why am I getting deja vu?
Gameplay wise, Epic Mickey manages to pull a juggling act relatively well. Before falling into Wasteland, Mickey grabs a magical brush that allows him to shoot blue paint which can restore objects into existance and turn enemies friendly, and green thinner that destroys objects and enemies alike. Using this mechanic, players must juggle use of paint and thinner for platforming sequences, facing ink blot enemies, and a mild morality system dealing with the Paint/Create and Thinner/Destroy duality linked to RPG style quests they recieve throughout. In addition to the 3-D platforming and fantasy art lessons, the game also has moments of 2-D platforming in which you navigate Mickey through levels inspired by the Disney cartoons of the 20s and 30s, injecting the game with a lightness of tone and humor to help with the bleakness of the landscape. As a matter of fact, in terms of artistic design and mood, it's probably the best looking and atmospheric game on the Wii this year.
So, with all that Epic Mickey does right, why does it feel unusual and worst of all, unsatisfying? The first reason has to be in the implementation of the gameplay mechanics. While the platforming sequences use the Paint and Thinner both equally, they are copy and pasted so much that trying to remember certain levels are a chore as of writing. The retro looking 2-D sequences go by too quickly to allow any juxtaposition to leave a more somber taste in ones mouth. The combat against Blotlings as they're called isn't so much combat as it is cleaning things up Super Mario Sunshine style. That being said, there is no lock-on system so unless you have a very steady hand, the forced in fight sequences are going to be torture. Actually, even with a steady hand it'll be a pain because the camera, and by extension, the camera controls are unruly and will fight you every step of the way more so than the enemies.
As for the morality system, it pains me to say this since the designer behind this game was Deus Ex and Thief Co-Creator Warren Spector, the choices feel vague at best and aren't reinforced by what can and can't be done in the beginning. I mentioned that about every puzzle or problem in the game can be solved exclusively with Paint or Thinner and they can, it's just that the means of how to go about it can get very obtuse, almost to the point of adventure game logic. Let me cite an example from the first boss fight of the game. You face off against a twisted version of the Small Small World's Clock Tower which now has two giant robot arms trying to crush you. My first reaction in this boss fight was to dissolve the arms with Thinner. After doing so, the Clock Tower exploded and I was given the "bad" thinner oriented upgrade after being scolded for destroying it. Turns out the other side of the fight was to use paint on the arms, after which you are given an opportunity to repaint the Tower's face, which turns it friendly, then win. Given with that knowledge in mind it seems natural to do one or the other, but to not keep both mechanics in mind is a problem with game design. Also, while I'm on the subject, why are there fetch quests in a platforming game? Moreso, why is not doing them considered a bad choice? With a title called Epic Mickey, I'm expecting something a little bit more than just helping find a guy's wrench every ten minutes.
<img src=http://www.elecplay.com/imgs/feature/4952.jpg>
I didn't mean to! It's a sensitive...it's a very sensitive trigger...
Which brings me to another thing going against Epic Mickey that I think has lead to its uneven reception, the demographic the game is being aimed at. From a veteran's point-of-view, that is to say, someone who has played a lot of games to discern an FPS from an RPG, Epic Mickey in the most basic sense, removed of its setting, art style and other flourishes, is a repetitive platformer with an unfocused morality system, clunky controls, and a ham-handed at best RPG style quest system all done for the sake of collectibles that have no real impact on gameplay outside of bragging rights. With that in mind, Epic Mickey is definitely aiming at kids first and hardcore Disneyphiles second, so some of those areas are considered immune to criticism because it's meant to be simple, which I find jarring.
We're dealing with a story that, under the surface deals with entropy, cartoon equivalents of death, alienation, and treatment of the past, meant to be an emotional punch in the gut to guys who've been around long enough to at least watch House of Mouse being marketed to a generation who have not heard of the character outside of what their parents tell them. So we have children who will probably pick things up better in terms of the mechanics and not worry so much about the camera and the repetitive platforming but be turned off by the morbid scenery, along with veteran gamers who will be turned off by the game's restraining tutorials leading to paradoxically not selling the core mechanics that runs on innocent child logic. If Epic Mickey was a movie, it would be a darker Toy Story 3 without Toy Storys 1 and 2 for back-up.
This doesn't mean that Epic Mickey as a whole is a bad game. It's just not as epic as it could have been and has some focus problems. The whole game is well written and has a lot to say on Disney's history, but the gameplay doesn't follow through on its promises. That isn't going to stop kids from playing it and it shouldn't stop you getting it for your kids, just don't expect a whole lot of gameplay variety if you intend to buy it for yourself.
Bottom Line: Epic Mickey for the Wii is a bold experiment that is a disappointment to gaming veterans but will hold its appeal to its intended audience. Buy it as a christmas gift for the right people, but for you big guys out there, keep this as a rental.