Epic Mickey
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"Unleash the brush."
— Yen Sid | ||||||||||||||||
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Epic Mickey (known as Epic Mickey: Mickey Mouse to Mahou no Fude in Japan) is an action-adventure platform game directed by Warren Spector, developed by Junction Point Studios and published by Disney Interactive Studios exclusively for the Wii. It received a remake on September 24, 2024 called Epic Mickey: Rebrushed.
Plot
After invading Yen Sid's workshop via a magic mirror portal, Mickey witnesses the creation of Cartoon Wasteland, a location that is very reminiscent of Disneyland for forgotten Disney characters. The mage then decides to go sleep and amazed by it, Mickey uses the brush and the magic paint to create a paint sculpture of himself, but it ends up turning into the Blot. Mickey then tries to erase the monster with the magic thinner to no avail as shown later on. All the ruckus wakes up Yen Sid, who decides to see what was going on. The mouse quickly moves out of the scene, but Wasteland is devastated by the mess. Decades of success later, Mickey completely forgets about the incident, until he is kidnapped by the Shadow Blot and pulled into the world. Before the so-called Thinner Disaster, the Mad Doctor worked closely with Oswald before he got power-hungry after the Blot was unleashed. The Mad Doctor and Oswald had created robotic "Beetleworx", which originally helped out in Wasteland, but then began patrolling Wasteland and capturing Gremlins. They also created robotic versions of Mickey's friends to keep Oswald company, looking like Donald Duck, Goofy, and Daisy Duck respectively. Upon realizing what he has done, Mickey sets out to clean up his mess and restore Wasteland with the help of the magical paintbrush, as well as defeat the Blot, gain the trust of Oswald and return home to the Toon World.
Why It's Epic
Original
- Great controls. Wii games are usually infamous for having screwy motion controls, but this is one of the games that handles it properly.
- A big variety of places to explore, with some examples being Ventureland, Mickeyjunk Mountain (this one being so big it's divided in 5 levels) and Tomorrow City, all of which are inspired by Disney-related things.
- There are plenty of collectibles to be found, from e-tickets to concept art.
- The story is engagingly creative and has a pretty dark and shady tone, which is a first for a Mickey game.
- A few jokes are sprinkled here and there, meaning that it doesn't take itself excessively seriously.
- As previously mentioned, lots of obscure Disney characters make a comeback after many decades, such as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, his girlfriend Ortensia and the Gremlins from an unreleased 1940s film and the 2008 comic Return of the Gremlins, as well as alternate versions of Pete (those being Petetronic, Pete Pan and Small Pete).
- Speaking of the Gremlins, their leader Gus is a very good mentor figure for Mickey, showing him what to do in various scenarios and teaching all about Wasteland, its inhabitants and history.
- The soundtrack (composed by James Dooley) is nothing short of impressive and it really brings the seriousness home. A few highlights being Dark Beauty Castle, Mean Street, Tomorrow City and the themes for the Clock Tower and Petetronic boss fights.
- Also, the song will change when there are enemies around, Zelda Ocarina of Time and Sonic Unleashed style.
- The song also changes depending on how much the player has painted or thinned.
- The character designs are really cool and help give off the vibe of a dark-toned game, such as Mickey having ink flow off himself.
- Goofy, Daisy, and Donald make appearances as animatronics. Recollecting their parts is also not only very satisfying, but rewards the player with a cutscene, more tasks to complete, and a better ending.
- The paint and thinner mechanic is really useful and unique, as it can reveal extra goods, trapped Gremlins and/or create alternate paths, additional platforms and even kill or befriend Blotlings (paint enemies).
- One of the enemy species is called a "Sweeper", and they're a good callback to The Sorcerer's Apprentice, from Fantasia.
- The sketches are quite fun to use too, and are all unique in their own ways:
- The TV can be used to distract enemies and activate electric contraptions, and the screen of the TV itself shows a short clip of the 1928 classic, Steamboat Willie.
- The Watch can slow down time, which is helpful against fast-moving elemental pieces, big groups of enemies and time-based puzzles.
- The Anvil can squash enemies and trigger pressure plates.
- The game uses projector screens playing old Disney cartoons as a means of transportation from one place to another, which is an extremely creative touch and it seems to take some notes on Mickey Mania's level design.
- By using enough paint or thinner to interact with the world, the player can attract Guardians (the paint ones are named Tints and the thinner ones are named Turps), and they serve to indicate where to go in case they get lost and to fight the Blotlings for Mickey.
- Lots of interesting bosses, such as animatronic Captain Hook and the Mad Doctor. They can be defeated either with Thinner or Paint, upgrade the capacity of the substance used to fight said boss and also get the player a better or worse ending.
- The cutscenes have a nice hand-drawn style and splendid animation, making them a decent callback to the old Mickey Mouse cartoons.
- The Blot is a really intimidating, powerful and menacing figure and the game isn't afraid at all to show it, especially in the scene where he holds Gus and Oswald hostage and demands for Mickey's heart.
- "Now I really do see why he liked you."
- The level inside the Blot is by far, the most high-stakes, intense and thrilling of them all.
- Both the good and bad endings do an excellent job at making the player feel accomplished or incompetent, as both of them change depending on what actions that the player had performed earlier in the game.
Rebrushed
- The graphics, which were great in the original has been enhanced here. All thanks to Purple Lamp Gmbh, known for SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated and SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake.
- The camera, which was a problem in the original, has been fixed here.
- You can now sprint, dash, and ground pound.
Bad Qualities
Original
- The Goofy, Donald and Daisy animatronics are a bit scary, especially for younger audiences for the following reasons:
- Goofy not only has torn clothes, but he also has an entire arm missing and a lack of a pair of eyes.
- Donald has a completely opened leg, arm, and torso, and he also lacks one eye.
- Daisy, despite being the least creepy of the three, has a partially broken leg, arm, and bow, has an opened torso, and has completely black eyes.
- Mostly no voice acting. The characters, aside from Yen Sid, only do random noises when they talk, with a text appearing on the bottom of the screen.
- There are a few questionable character choices, such as are Clarabelle, Horace and Pete, since that by the time that this game released, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was already four years old, which had both Clarabelle and Pete in it, and Horace had appeared in other games that had released before this game, such as Kingdom Hearts 2.
- The Bunny Children in Mickeyjunk Mountain and Mean Street are a hassle to deal with. That being said, they are useful for getting rid of Spatters.
- While the camera is perfectly functional for the most part, it can be a bit clunky to move every now and then. Thankfully, this was fixed in the Japanese release of the game.
Rebrushed
- There is still no voice-acting, which is egregious for a 2024 game.
- The Switch version runs at 30fps despite the system being more powerful than the Wii. It's understandable given that the remake was made on Unreal Engine 4.
Reception
Epic Mickey enjoyed high pre-release awareness and received mixed to positive reviews upon release, with a score of 72.57% on GameRankings and 73/100 on Metacritic. In an early preview, GamesRadar praised demos of the game for their gameplay and darker take on classic Disney cartoons, saying that it played like Super Mario Galaxy 2 and had replay value. IGN gave it a score of 8/10, criticizing its camera, control issues and lack of voice acting, but praised its charm, story, art design, and lasting appeal for the players. Video game talk show Good Game's two presenters gave the game a 6 and 7 out of 10. They compared the paintbrush abilities to that of the water jet pack from Super Mario Sunshine and found it frustrating how the levels reset back to their original state after leaving. "isn't as 'dark' or 'adult' as the hype made it out to be... I guess it is a kid's game after all, but at least it's an intelligent one. It doesn't come anywhere near the complexity and fun of something like Super Mario Sunshine, which I think it borrows some ideas from." Shirley Chase from GameZone complimented the game on its usage of Disney history, but added that the game had numerous flaws saying, "For all of its good points, Disney Epic Mickey does have some glaring flaws, which can make the game feel like a chore. The most noticeable problem is the camera, which will lead to more cheap deaths than anything else." In a review for GamesRadar, Chris Antista who began the article as an admitted "diehard Disney dork", praised it as a "thoroughly heartwarming salute to Disney" and that he hasn't "fallen so head over heels with the look, feel, and play of a third-person platformer since the original Banjo-Kazooie". In a list of the top 10 best-looking Wii games, Lifewire put Epic Mickey at second place, praising it for its unique take on Disney animation and noting that it looks "more like a Disney cartoon than most modern Disney cartoons." In its opening weekend, Epic Mickey failed to reach the UK Top 40 and even the Wii Top 10 sales charts after its November 26 UK release. On November 30, 2010, the release date in North America, the game was completely sold out on the Disney Store website by the afternoon. To date, the game has sold over 3 million units worldwide.
Trivia
- Epic Mickey can be compared to games like Shadow the Hedgehog, InFAMOUS, and Spider Man: Web of Shadows, because they are darker representations of the game's franchise and their stories depend on the player's choices.
- In the UK, GAME stores offered a t-shirt as a pre-order bonus. The t-shirt, however, was just regular/current Mickey, with no actual connection to the Epic Mickey game.
- A Dutch release of the game also came packaged with a copy of Fantasia on DVD.
- The idea for Epic Mickey was born during the Epic Mickey Think Tank in 2004, a meeting consisting of several undergraduate interns who were tasked with "making Mickey Mouse cool again."
- According to Warren Spector, he had once pitched a movie set in the Epic Mickey universe to Disney. He claimed to have had a trailer, budget and a team lined up, but Disney was ultimately uninterested.
- In an interview with Chad Moldenhaur (studio art director of Studio MDHR/co-creator of Cuphead) about the game Cuphead, Warren Spector mentions that he wanted to use an "early-30's" look for Epic Mickey.
- Screenshots of an early version of the game suggest the game was originally going to use a lives system.
- According to Warren Spector, Disney may have been the cause of the removal of the "Hero Mickey" and "Scrapper Mickey" gameplay mechanic. In an interview, he stated that Disney gave the development team a lot of creative freedom, but was a bit more touchy with how they handled Mickey Mouse. He stated that Disney had a bit of a hard time swallowing the idea of Mickey's appearance changing depending on the player's actions. They were likely concerned that it would hurt Mickey's image if the player made bad choices.
- According to lead designer, Chase Jones, the team had a concept for minigames that would be playable at the Penny Arcade, and even got as far as experimenting with them in the game engine. They ultimately didn't make it in the final game due to the development schedule.
- There are multiple comma splices in Epic Mickey, notably in NPC dialogue or in quest descriptions.
- Blot's design was inspired by two other Disney villains: Chernabog and Maleficent.
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