Epic Mickey 2 might be the most niche game ever made. It's a digital ode to Walt's helium-swilling rodent, built from the detritus of Disney history. There are levels recreated from 1950s animated shorts, worlds littered with decommissioned Disneyland rides and a co-op partner wrenched from Walt's early sketch books. Trying to hold it all together is Warren Spector, Deus Ex creator and House of Mouse fanboy.
There are more similarities with the cyberpunk classic than you might think. Okay, so you won't be sniffing out a killphrase to off Pluto, but the game does boast a similar freedom of approach. Stages hide multiple routes, NPCs can be engaged or ignored and Mickey can choose to paint or erase the scenery. The latter lends an improvisational edge to otherwise plodding platforming. Oh, and it lets you erase Goofy into a screaming goo pile. Always a good thing.
Man or mouse?
The problem is Epic Mickey's refusal to remove its kid gloves. Spector wants Mickey to engage with light moral conundrums but doesn't want to scare off younger players. Wreck the world in a greedy hunt for currency and collectible doodads and you're only a few paint squirts away from a clean conscience. Not since we farted our way out of a murder charge in Fable 2 has a world seemed so very fickle.
Perhaps it's unfair to judge Epic Mickey by grown-up standards. As a My First Moral Consequences RPG, Epic Mickey is light years ahead of other family fare. It's wrapped in a gorgeous layer of Disney nerdery and accompanied by a soundtrack that reimagines classic Disney tunes as mournful Danny Elfman-ish ditties. It's a triumph of presentation over raw technical heft - the fact that Wii was the lead platform is felt in simple level designs.
It also makes a good fist of co-op play. Unlike your usual 'stand on two separate buttons' guff, Mickey and Oswald have complimentary movesets that demand careful interaction to proceed. Mickey's world-shaping brush is slightly sexier than Oswald's electro-ray, but both cause Goofy an equal amount of pain, so it's hard to complain. Niche then, but nice.
2 comments so far...
nspy131995 on 19 Nov '12 said:
I will always looking forward for Kingdom Hearts for xbox...!
michaelhill2110 on 20 Nov '12 said:
Same, I was a bit iffy with kingdom hearts at first because I approached it wrong, if you think of it as a Square Enix game that got Disneyised then it's crap, but think of it as a Disney game that's been Square Enixed then it works and I like it, it's a shame that the latest ones are all Nintendo DS only.