Mickey Mouse used to be a very big mascot in video games but he hasn’t seen much action in the past few years. But Disney looks to make a brand new adventure for the Mouse with Epic Mickey. Not only is Mickey back in the spotlight but now he’s in a darker toned adventure that will appeal to both kids and adults who remember the famous mouse from their childhood.
The overall story of Epic Mickey is that Mickey finds himself in a warped version of Disney World called Wasteland, here Mickey’s brother Oswald rules and causes many problems for Mickey. Along with all the problems in Wasteland Mickey has to destroy the Blot a creature that causes a lot of mischief himself. Once Mickey gets into Wasteland he realizes that the place is not only a twisted place but home to forgotten and abandoned characters. Here the story actually gets pretty deep and makes players really think about these characters that they probably never heard of or seen in any cartoon. One of the more interesting aspects of the game is the cutscenes which play usually when showing a new area or character to advance the story. The art style is very unique and fits in well with the overall setting of the story.
The gameplay is where Epic Mickey begins to have some drawbacks, the paint and thinner mechanic that’s been talked about before is interesting but limiting, things can only be painted and thinned in predetermined areas and most times its obvious where the action needs to be done on. There are many choices that players can make in the game that will later make a difference but none of them are that major that the overall story or world will change, most of the differences that are made are fairly small. Also the actual combat is not very exciting, its standard platforming action but there could have been a lot more variety. The bosses are exciting however and add much needed variety and the way you fight them actually has a fairly big impact on how the world gets saved.
The control is also a little loose and doesn’t always work the way you want it to work and can actually hurt the gameplay. This can also be because of the camera, it is one of the main broken parts of Epic Mickey and almost makes a big enough impact to the gameplay that it would hurt it a lot, but thankfully the camera and controls don’t get too bad, but they are noticeable.
The 2D platforming was another main draw to Epic Mickey, players would be able to play through some of the most classic cartoons Mickey had been in. These parts are actually really interesting at first but after a few times they start to lose their interest and eventually becomes just another part of the game. The effort put into them though is apparent however and definitely deserves points for effort.
Overall Epic Mickey is an above average platformer and one of the best games for the Wii this year. There are some technical issues that get in the way sometimes but almost every other aspect of the game is solid. The overall concept of Epic Mickey is really a unique twist, and the graphical style is high up there with some of the best games even outside of the Wii’s library. However it never adds up to being an instant classic which many were hyping the game to be, instead we have a really solid game that many people of all ages can enjoy especially if they are fans of Mickey Mouse.
[starreviewmulti id=2]
Overall = 8.4
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