The Mouse Can Paint with Epic Mickey

Mickey Mouse is at it again. This time, he manages to mess with Sorcerer Yen Sid's creation, just like in Fantasia, and manages to create an awful mess that he then has to clean up.

Luckily, you as the player, are there to help Mickey. Using a magical paintbrush that can either thin, or paint the world known as 'Wasteland' you have to put right what has been put wrong by the effects of the Shadow Blot. Alogn the way, Mickey mouse encounters characters that had been long buried in the Disney Vaults; characters like Oswald The Lucky Rabbit and The Gremlins, with Gus leading the way as Mickey's guide.

The game has been compared to Super Mario Sunshine, in that the player has to clean up a world using a liquid spray, Mickey's Paint against Mario's Water, and the fact that the game is a 3D platformer with rotating camera views.

As a Disney fan, any game that features the look and feel of the original characters, style or anything to do with the legendary Disney vault caught my interest. when I heard that the game was being designed by Warren Spector, the man behind such games as Deux Ex, and System Shock made me intensely curious to find out everything about Epic Mickey that I could.

During my research I found out that Warren had been given unrestricted access to the Disney Vaults to pull any and everything he needed or wanted to develop the new title. The game also features the return of one of Walt Disney's 'lost' properties, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Oswald has been penned by Walt and Ub Iwerks in 1927 after the Alice Comedies. Walt lost control of Oswald in 1928, although he was consulted when Walter Lantz was given the role of producing Oswald cartoons, which Walt gave his blessing to. Universal retained ownership of the Oswald property until 2006, when Bob Iger became the CEO of Disney. According to Walt's Daughter, Diane Disney Miller, 'Bob said he would bring Oswald back to Disney. He is a man of his word, and I think having Oswald back is going to be a lot of fun.'

Mickey Mouse was the result of a development after the loss of Oswald so that Disney could continue to produce comedy film shorts using a similar styled character.

Gameplay for Epic Mickey is very easy and smooth, a bit frustrating in parts due to the camera controls and the fact that is is very easy to fall into a thinned area of ground and thus restart Mickey at the beginning of the level, with all cleaned up parts reset to their original state.

The retro look is very well done; the fact that this game runs on he admittedly low-powered Wii instead of the powerhouse Xbox360 or Playstation3 does not detract from the visual elements, many of which look like living animation cells, with ink or paint dripping off the main characters as they fly across the screen in battle.

The game is very well done, with an engaging storyline that both adults and children will enjoy. While not as complex or deep as a lot of games out there, epic Mickey is still very engaging and will keep the player's attention for hours. For fans of Disney who enjoy the classics, Epic Mickey is a real treat for the eyes.

Sources
Oswald returns http://corporate.disney.go.com/news/corporate/2006/2006_0209_oswald.html Disney Press Release