Company: Disney Studios
Players: 1
Disney = magic. Everyone knows that. It only makes sense that Nintendo capitalize on that magic. Disney piles on the memories, fantasy and good ol' fashion platforming to make a game that falls more in the Epic Fail category.
Mickey Mouse, that crazy minx, has done it again. He went into a magical mirror, played with a wizard's paint kit and created a dark world of destruction. He gets sucked into that world with a magic paintbrush and given the task of saving Disney World.
The story is Epic Mickey's strongest format, showing water colored cutscenes and dialogue progressions. The story has the same gripping fan service as Kingdom Hearts with an old timey soundtrack and a high dose of sentimentality.
The play control, on the other hand, leads something to be desired. Epic Mickey has two main paint controls: painting and thinning. You paint objects to make them visualize and you thin objects to make them disappear. This leads to tons of creative puzzles. You can also fight enemies with the paintbrush using the thinner or the paint. Using thinner kills your baddies and using your paint makes them into your friends. The two different paints lets you make good choices of building or evil choices of destruction (kind of like GTA for kids). Outside of the story you can collect film reels, story art and earn achievements that look like Playstation trophies. While the idea of paint game play is revolutionary this game seems to have borrowed a camera control system from old N64 games. It can barely stay with you when navigating Disney World. This leads to a lot of unfair deaths. As you further through the missions, you will find that half of your missions are fetch quests. It gets tireless having to get "something" for someone.
Graphics are the best I have seen on the Wii. They are very colorful and rich, with great paint illustrations. The music of old Mickey cartoons brings out the magic feelings of walking through Disney World. Presentation is truly a strong point of this game, but controls and camera will dampen that experience
Ultimately, Epic Mickey is the Wii's push for games with substance and style and it fulfills its promise. I just wish there was more polish added to that substance.
What does it mean?
The main theme of Epic Mickey is a Wizard painting the world for glory and Mickey throwing it into darkness. Sounds like the Adam and Eve story. God is the artist of creation and Adam and Eve were the creation that ruined it. Mickey is called to enter the messed up creation, save the world and restore it. Jesus, in the same way, enters into our messed up canvas to repaint it. It's a simple illustration of creation, damnation and redemption, but it shows that in all things we need a hero who can save.
The Breakdown
Pros:
+ Great graphics
+ Wonderful presentation
Cons:
-- Fetch quests
-- Bad camera
-- Lots of death
C-
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