![]() ![]() It’s full of the same frustrating platforming and puzzles, but the level is fully constructed of old Mickey Mouse memorabilia. Without question, the level ‘Mickeyjunk Mountain’ is amazing in design if not in execution. There’s a lot to dislike about the game, but it isn’t without those little moments of greatness. There’s a system that allows you to lock the camera to your target of choice, but it still doesn’t help the targeting. It’s difficult to accurately target an enemy, which led me into a few incredibly frustrating mechanics. The other big control problem that I ran into is with the paint mechanic, which just isn’t that reliable. It would be acceptable if the game’s camera was good, but it isn’t More often than not, I found myself in a precarious position without the ability to see where I was going. I don’t mind the style, but the implementation makes the game difficult to play.Īs a 3D game with a single analog stick, ‘Epic Mickey’ offers absolutely no control over your camera. While you’ve got some basic combat abilities, for the majority of the game you’ll be leaping from platform to platform. ‘Epic Mickey’ is a 3D platformer at heart. Unfortunately, that’s not very good either. ![]() At the end of the day, no matter how disappointing the music, characters and set pieces of ‘Epic Mickey’ may be, it’s the gameplay that really matters. I’ve said many times that games aren’t about the setting or the atmosphere or the story. Anything besides the “good” choice just feels wrong. ‘Epic Mickey’ also incorporates moral choice into gameplay, which is a neat add-on for most games, but just feels out of place in this one. I didn’t get to explore the areas I completed, and I never got the sense of accomplishment that’s supposed to come at the conclusion of each chapter of the game. Whenever I beat a level, I was immediately thrust into the next one. That’s one of the biggest problems with ‘Epic Mickey’. (I knew the future family script by heart by the end of it.) ‘Epic Mickey’ creates these great set-pieces that absolutely fail to pay off. I was ecstatic when I reached The Carousel of Progress, which my parents and I once got stuck on one part of for an hour straight. The same goes, sadly, for the rest of the attractions featured in the game. It would have been such a great reward to ride the normal ride after I fixed it, but there’s nothing of that sort. That wouldn’t have mattered at all if, when I finished the level, I had restored the ride to its past glory. The soundtrack could have been so much more than it is. Throughout the level, there isn’t even a hint of the music that made the ride famous, though the boss fight does include a touch of the theme. What makes it interesting is that you’re trekking though the “It’s a Small World” ride, going from country to country defeating foes and rebuilding structures. In the first stage, you’re tasked with finding some folks that are trapped, after which you must defeat a boss. In fact, “missed opportunities” seems to be the name of the game for ‘Epic Mickey’, because they’re abundant. Adding some voices to the cut-scenes would have made for a much better experience. This just seems like a missed opportunity, especially for characters with a larger role to play. It would be significantly better if any of the characters had voices, but they don’t. If interacting with ‘Clarabelle Cow’ or ‘Horace Horsecollar’ is a big deal for you, then you’re the audience this game is searching for. I’m a pretty big Disney fan, but there are some here that I don’t recognize at all, and most of the characters in the game don’t mean anything to me. Setting the stage in a world full of forgotten Disney characters just seems like a flawed premise. The first problem comes right at the concept. ![]() Mickey gets sucked into this world, a place set aside for forgotten cartoon characters, and must quest through untold dangers to get back home. It tells the basic story, which is that Mickey accidentally destroys a world by spilling some paint thinner. ‘Epic Mickey’ starts out with a nice animation that takes pieces from a few different Mickey cartoons and combines them into one. It may work for some people, but the majority of folks will just find it unsatisfying. Unfortunately, it’s more like peanut butter and hamburgers. It should have gone together like peanut butter and chocolate. It seems like a no-brainer – put two great things together for one even greater thing. It’s a combination between the movie studio responsible for some of my all-time favorite films and the man behind ‘Deus Ex’, which is still one of the most impressive games I’ve had the pleasure to play. I was excited about the launch of ‘Epic Mickey’ since it was first announced. If you’ve got ‘Epic Mickey’ on your Christmas list, you may want to do a little bit of reading first. ![]()
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