Epic Mickey

[ZeldaMaster]

spent the night being annoyed more and more with goldeneye.

I share these sentiments to a T. Let us now how you like Epic Mickey!

[JordAnime]

I borrowed this from my friend, and I was actually really pleased by the whole thing.  Being a pretty big Disney fan I loved the attention to detail, the whole thing is a great love letter to classic Disney, Disney Parks, and the Mickey platformers of the 16-bit era.  It'd a lengthy, fun adventure that felt really satisfying and complete, I thought it was going to feel unfinished or chinsey, but it actually really worked.

The visuals are really nice, and the musical score by James Dooley is one of my favorites in recent memory.  Could have used actual voice overs, I mean we all know what the Disney characters sound like.  Mickey has a really well established voice, as do many of the other characters...the animated cutscenes are nice, but they felt a bit static for a Disney production.  Having fully-animated cutscenes from Disney animation would have just been absolutely incredible.  Also, it's a bit frustrating how your paint and thinner choices are "forgotten" by the game.  It's probably a limitation of the Wii, but it'd have been nice if all of your creative or destructive choices were remembered.   

But all in all, if this is part of a new franchise and it manages to fix things up with an HD-sequel, I'd get it day one.  Hats off to Mr. Spector and his team.  I'd say it's one of the best non-Nintendo efforts for the Wii...that said I think the "morality" system was a bit over-blown as they often tend to be.  I think Spector's team could haven taken a few more pages from the Mario playbook and made it a stronger platforming experience.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

A sequel is coming! And this time: It's a musical!

Despite the fact I have yet to finish the original, what I did play I really enjoyed and the thought of the franchise going full-on Disney with song and dance numbers just lifts my heart.

The sequel will not only be coming to Wii (meaning I need not worry about blowing a fortune on Wii U just yet) but PS3 and 360.

Epic Mickey 2 finds Mickey back in Wasteland, the twisted take on Disneyland which is inhabited by forgotten characters and theme park attractions. Whilst somewhat familiar, earthquakes and other disasters have changed the appearance of many locations visited in the first outing.

Not only is the sequel coming to high definition platforms, but the game's characters will also feature full voice acting and take part in musical numbers. Jim Dooley and Mike Himelstein, the composer and lyricist who wrote the music for the upcoming animated film Dorothy of Oz, are crafting original songs for Epic Mickey 2.

Bearing in mind one of my favourite boss battles of all time was the Great Mighty Poo from Conker's Bad Fur Day, I couldn't be much more excited about this.

[hisak]

This sounds like a really cool idea, but I'm a bit wary. Are we going to be stopped multiple times throughout the game and be forced to watch middling musical numbers (I'm sure they'll be adequate, but I'm hardly expecting Beauty and the Beast levels of quality)? If they actually weave the musical numbers into the platforming, sign me up. Otherwise, I might skip out on this series again. Also, let's see it on Wii U.

There was also a 3DS game announced, which is separate from the multiplatform game but still going under the "Epic Mickey 2" title.

Oh, it also looks like this will be on GTTV tomorrow, so we might see more there.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEtWK7nBuns" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEtWK7nBuns</a>

Debut trailer. Emphasises co-op, ignores musical element. :-(

[hisak]

IGN has an interview with Warren Specter up. Game looks like fun, but again I didn't play the first, so I can't really tell if its problems have been fixed. Still not a lot of details on the musical bits, sadly. And there's a Sorcerer's Apprentice level!

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

Finally finished a first run of the original game, acting as a goody goody for the most part and painting at the obvious decision points. Goofed on a few quests which I'll have to play nicely with for my thinner-mad second play. I thought I'd covered a lot of content, but I didn't fix all the animatronic characters, I missed some sidequest items (bit harsh that you can't revisit so many locations, but that's a lesson you learn for not paying attention) and my pin collection is still pretty light. There's a lot of content to dig into as well as the smart paint/thinner mechanic.

If the sequel can address some of the obvious issues that came across in the first game (dumb camera, the repetitive 2D stages, the wonky camera, the relative simplicity, that damn camera!!!!) then it could be another must have. This has a great foundation to build a series around, and it is just these teething problems that stop it short of greatness.

In actual sequel news, the Mad Doctor is said to be the main singer for the game. This just makes me love the idea of a music-heavy game that much more. The villains of Disney films nearly always have the best songs -- Ursula, Gaston, Jafar, Frollo, Scar...