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Epic Mickey Rocks The Old School With Confidence
There’s been a lot of hype around Epic Mickey since we helped announce it to the world back in November. Since then, a lot has been written about its turpentine-and-paint splashing gameplay and the insane amount of Disney fan service on display throughout. That’s all good stuff, and it definitely deserves the attention. At Gamescom, however, I got to do one of my favorite things: checking out new levels in hands-on gameplay.
In addition to the storyline missions, players will have a chance to control Mickey through a series of side-scrolling levels. These are more traditional platforming-type areas, with an emphasis of jumping and gaming fundamentals over puzzles and missions.
The first one we played was called Alpine Climbers, based on the 1937 cartoon short of the same name. Mickey starts at the bottom of a mountain and has to work his way up. Getting to the top requires a mix of hopping onto rocky platforms and hitching rides on a variety of adorable (and era appropriate) animals, such as hopping lambs and short-tempered rams.
Another section was based on a 1950s short where Pluto has a bad dream. Plutopia’s presentation is completely different from Alpine Climbers’ richly detailed green ridges. It’s sparse and bright, with bold line drawings of houses and fire hydrants. The background changes color periodically, too, making some of the platforms disappear. Grabbing all of the collectibles—which include film canisters and tickets—requires some slick timing. Fortunately, Mickey controls as well as he looks. And he looks pretty darn good.
The last section we played was from the story mode. Mickey was in a ruined park, with broken teacup and Dumbo rides. A gremlin named Tim could fix it all up again, but Mickey would have to first find a wrench. It was hidden in one of the teacups, and Mickey snagged it after using turpentine to erase the oversized cup. From there, Tim started fixing up the Dumbo ride. Mickey had to go behind the scenery and hop along some enormous cogs to help Tim with his work. I wasn’t able to complete the task in the time I had, but I’m pretty confident Mickey will sort it all out.
The game is shaping up nicely, with some of the best-looking visuals I’ve seen on the Wii. More importantly, it controls beautifully, too. We were bullish on the game during our cover story, and my enthusiasm for the project continues to grow as I see more and more of it.
Come back to Game Informer online next week for our interview with Warren Spector. He talks about his proudest accomplishments with Epic Mickey, how the 3DS changes everything, and why we might be living in gaming’s golden age.
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