Epic Mickey (sometimes marketed as Disney Epic Mickey) is a Mickey Mouse video game designed by Warren Spector, with 2D cinemas by Powerhouse Animation Studios, Inc. and developed by Junction Point Studios for the Wii console, using Emergent Game Technologies' Gamebryo Engine. Epic Mickey is part of an effort by The Walt Disney Company to re-brand the Mickey Mouse character by moving away from his current pleasant, cheerful image and reintroducing the more devious side of his personality. Spector has collaborated with Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios in conjunction with the project. The game was officially announced on October 28, 2009 in London. The game was released on November 25, 2010 in Europe (November 26 in the UK) and on November 30 in North America.
The game focuses on Mickey Mouse damaging a world created by Yen Sid for forgotten characters and concepts, and he is forced to fix the world while combating antagonists with a magic paintbrush. The game features the return of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit as a secondary protagonist. Oswald was one of Walt Disney's first successful cartoon characters before the character was licensed under the ownership of Universal Studios. Oswald was regained by The Walt Disney Company in 2006 under the guidance of Robert Iger.
Table of Contents
Gameplay
Epic Mickey is primarily an open-ended platform game with some RPG elements, and allows players to use their own solutions for getting through the levels. Epic Mickey features a morality system similar to games like inFAMOUS and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. Different alliances, side-quests and power-ups are made available depending on the actions of the player. It is also possible to avoid boss battles if specific actions are taken.
The key feature of the game is the magic paint brush, which Mickey wields, that has the ability to draw or erase objects, using paint and thinner respectively. For example, obstacles can be erased from physical existence using the thinner and then restored using the paint, or enemies can be befriended by revitalizing them with the paint or destroyed completely using the thinner. Mickey is also able to materialize objects from sketches, which have various effects. Two of the three sketches, the clock and the television, slow down time and distract enemies, respectively. Both fluids have limited reserves, adding a strategic element to gameplay: players must compromise between making various tasks harder or easier to accomplish. However, the fluids automatically but slowly refill and power-ups that quickly replenish the fluids are available in certain areas.
To travel between sections of the Wasteland, Mickey traverses 2D side-scrolling levels based on his classic cartoon shorts (with three being based on Oswald shorts and two being based on Sleeping Beauty and Fantasia), such as Steamboat Willie and Clock Cleaners.
Synopsis
Setting
The game is set in a pen-and-paper world created by the sorcerer Yen Sid for "things that have been forgotten," appearing as an intricate model in his workshop. This world is heavily based on various Disneyland theme parks, home to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Gremlin Gus, and other obscure or scrapped Disney characters, rides, or areas.
Story
Mickey Mouse, out of curiosity, enters Yen Sid's workshop through a mirror in his house and discovers the model of the land Yen Sid created and the tool used to create it, the magic paintbrush. Fiddling with the brush, Mickey accidentally creates the Shadow Blot. Panicking, Mickey quickly tries to erase the Blot by throwing paint thinner onto it, but destroys the model in the process. Mickey flees back to his house, while the Blot enters and takes control of the ruined world from its first resident, Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit.