Epic Mickey
Encyclopedia
Epic Mickey is a 2010 Mickey Mouse
action-adventure
platforming
video game designed by Warren Spector
and developed by Junction Point Studios
for the Wii
console. The game focuses on Mickey Mouse, who accidentally damages a world created by Yen Sid for forgotten characters and concepts, and is forced to fix the world while combating antagonists with a magic paintbrush. Epic Mickey notably features the first appearance of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
since 1928 as a major character, who was one of Walt Disney
's first successful cartoon characters before the character was licensed under the ownership of Universal Studios
. The character was regained by The Walt Disney Company
in 2006 under the guidance of Robert Iger. The game is much darker and more complex than previous Mickey Mouse games.
Epic Mickey is part of an effort by Disney to re-brand the Mickey Mouse character by placing less emphasis on his pleasant, cheerful side and reintroducing the more mischievous and adventurous sides of his personality. Spector collaborated with both Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios
in conjunction with the project. The game was officially announced on October 28, 2009 in London
and released in November 2010 in both Europe
and North America
. Nintendo
published the game in Japan
on August 4, 2011 under the name .
While Epic Mickey enjoyed high pre-release awareness, the game received generally mixed to positive reviews, accumulating aggregate scores of 71.83% and 73% on GameRankings and MetaCritic
respectively. As of June 2011, the game sold 2 million copies in North America and Europe combined.
On August 27, 2011, Destructoid posted an article that speculated that a sequel, Epic Mickey 2, is in development and showed possible box art for the game.
with some RPG
elements, and allows players to use their own solutions for getting through the levels. Epic Mickey features a morality system similar to games like inFAMOUS, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
, and Shadow the Hedgehog
. Different alliances, side-quests and power-up
s are made available depending on the actions of the player. It is also possible to avoid boss battles if specific actions are taken.
The key feature of the game is the magic paint brush, which Mickey wields, that has the ability to draw or erase objects, using paint
and thinner
respectively. For example, obstacles can be erased from physical existence using the thinner and then restored using the paint, or enemies can be befriended by revitalizing them with the paint or destroyed completely using the thinner. Mickey is also able to materialize objects from sketches, which have various effects. Two of the three sketches, the clock and the television, slow down time and distract enemies, respectively. Both fluids have limited reserves, adding a strategic element to gameplay: players must compromise between making various tasks harder or easier to accomplish. However, the fluids automatically but slowly refill and power-ups that quickly replenish.The fluids are available in certain areas.
To travel between sections of the Wasteland, Mickey traverses 2D side-scrolling levels based on his classic cartoon shorts (with three being based on Oswald shorts and two being based on Sleeping Beauty
and Fantasia
), such as Steamboat Willie
and Clock Cleaners
.
, Gremlin Gus, and other obscure or scrapped Disney characters, Disneyland rides, or areas.
. Panicking, Mickey quickly tries to erase the Blot by throwing paint thinner
onto it, but spills more paint on the model in the process. Upon seeing Yen Sid approaching, Mickey quickly tries to clean up the mess, but in his haste, spills thinner onto the paint spillage as he flees back to his house, while the Blot, having survived Mickey's attempt to destroy it, enters through a portal created by the paint/thinner mixture (taking the Jug -the bottle of thinner- with him) and takes control of the ruined world from its first resident, Oswald ("The world I had created was ravaged - a wasteland").
After many decades of fame following the accident, Mickey had forgotten the incident until the Shadow Blot enters his home through the mirror and abducts him into the ruined forgotten world, now named by this time as the Wasteland. Oswald soon had his will and his mind twisted from years of hiding and his jealousy of Mickey's rise to fame, unaware the enigmatic Mad Doctor and the Blot formulate a plan to destroy Mickey and steal his heart, which they plan to use to escape the ruined world, as all Wasteland inhabitants are forgotten and thus no longer have hearts of their own. During his journey through the Wasteland, Mickey is guided by Gremlin Gus and becomes armed with Yen Sid's brush. Mickey uses the brush to restore the Wasteland in order to atone for his destruction and win Oswald's trust.
After defeating a fake Blot (Oswald revealed the Shadow Blot Mickey fought along with all the Blotlings he encountered were drippings of the real Blot), Mickey eventually comes to terms with his actions and reveals all to Oswald, who loses his temper. While jumping angrily on the cork sealing the Jug, Oswald accidentally causes the cork to break, allowing the true form of the Shadow Blot- a giant specter constructed from paint thinner- to escape his prison into the world. Oswald soon reveals that he and his girlfriend, Ortensia, attempted to seal the Blot away, but Ortensia was blighted by the Blot in the process and entered a catatonic state. The Blot takes Oswald and Gus, threatening to kill them if Mickey does not allow the Blot to take his heart. Mickey yields his heart to the Blot, who then proceeds to destroy the Wasteland before moving on to the Disney universe to wreak havoc there, but Mickey, Oswald and Gus successfully manage to destroy the Blot, eliminating his exterior with paint-laden fireworks, and rescue Mickey's heart from the inside. Oswald reunites with Ortensia and befriends Mickey, the two now becoming more like brothers. With the Wasteland now slowly regenerating, Mickey escapes back to Yen Sid's workshop and returns home through the mirror, which becomes sealed by Yen Sid to prevent Mickey from entering again and cause anymore mischief.
Regardless of what choices Mickey made in the Wasteland, the ending after the credits is the same: Not long after the mirror is sealed, Mickey discovers that he still has some of the Shadow Blot's ink in him, leaving the possibility he may still be able to reach the Wasteland.
, PlayStation 3
, and Xbox 360
and its name was its working title. Development on the Wii started in 2008. When the idea of addressing a Wii port of the game was raised, Spector replied that a straight Wii port would not be viable, remarking that many of the "design ideas just won't work on the Wii, we need to give the Wii its dues". Graham Hopper of Disney Interactive then suggested dropping the development of the aforementioned platforms completely, and instead releasing it solely on the Wii.
Concept art
for the game by Fred Gambino and Gary Glover depicted a surrealistically bizarre look at Disney characters and locations in a steampunk
environment (this art has been categorized as very preliminary concept art and it is not the style of the final game). Featured in the concept art are post-apocalyptic renditions of Goofy
, Daisy Duck
, Donald Duck
, Captain Hook
, Disneyland's Dumbo the Flying Elephant (ride)
, Mad Tea Party
, Main street
, Tomorrowland
, Mickey's Toontown
, Donald Duck
's boat, Astro Orbitor
, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
, Splash Mountain
, It's a Small World, the Haunted Mansion
, Epcot's Spaceship Earth, Disney's Hollywood Studios' "Earful Tower
", The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
, and Hong Kong Disneyland
's Sleeping Beauty Castle
.
Compared to the Kingdom Hearts
series, a similar video game franchise created by Japanese video game company Square Enix
, which combined modern-day Disney characters with their own Final Fantasy
characters, Disney Epic Mickey emphasizes retro-vintage and long-lost Disney characters that were created much earlier, and draws more plot elements from the classic movie Fantasia
, rather than Final Fantasy; in Kingdom Hearts II
, a location in the game was based on the 1920s Steamboat Willie
cartoon, but other than that, the rest of the game took its cast from more recently-created characters.
Mickey receives a character redesign in this game, which attempts to give him a "retro" look, and the game uses an animation engine to replicate the stretchy athleticism of the classic cartoons. The 2D cinematics were created by Powerhouse Animation Studios, Inc, and the game utilizes Emergent Game Technologies' Gamebryo
Engine. Warren Spector has stated that Epic Mickey was planned as a trilogy. An early idea for the game was for Mickey to adopt an angrier look when he was played in the "scrapper" manner; this idea was dropped after Spector decided it changed Mickey too much from people's perceptions of the character. Mickey looks more smudged instead.
Marvel Comics
has confirmed that there will be a comic for Epic Mickey, titled: Disney's Epic Mickey: Tales of the Wasteland. It will serve as a prequel to the game, focusing on Mickey's half-brother Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and give some insight on what the Wasteland was like before Mickey's appearance and the thinner disaster. Initially distributed on Disney's Digicomics platform for iOS products, a print version is to be released in late-August 2011. An Art book, The Art of Epic Mickey, is also to be released in September 2011. A US-exclusive Epic Mickey Collector's Edition was announced that includes special packaging, special behind-the-scenes DVD, Mickey vinyl figure, a Wii Remote skin, and Wii console skins.
The game was leaked by warez
groups weeks before its official release date. Epic Mickey marks Oswald's second appearance in video games after Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau
(released in Brazil only). Some promotional images rate the game E10+ instead of E, hinting the game might have been originally rated E10+.
. In addition to the original works by Dooley, arranged versions of classic Disney music appears throughout the game in the side-scrolling platforming sections, which in turn are recreations of older Disney cartoons. X-Play
later named it "Best Soundtrack of 2010". Dooley's score was released digitally via iTunes
on December 21, 2010.
, who in 2010 was an exclusive writer for Disney-owned Marvel Comics
, wrote a graphic novel adaptation of Epic Mickey, and a prequel digicomic, Disney’s Epic Mickey: Tales of Wasteland. Disney also promoted the release of the game with a launch party at the Times Square
Disney Store
in Manhattan
on November 30, 2010, the day the game was released. Present at the party was designer Warren Spector
, Peter David, and actors Jennifer Grey
and Kyle Massey
, who had recently completed the eleventh season
of the U.S. Dancing with the Stars, which is broadcast on the Disney-owned ABC
.
PAL Gaming Network was much more critical, giving the game a score of 6.5, commenting on its clumsy and disappointing gameplay, and its "unpolished and unrefined design". Jonathan Holmes of Destructoid gave it a 7 out of 10, saying that "Epic Mickey falls short of brilliance, but because it stands on such a strong concept it doesn't need brilliance to remain compelling". He backed up his claim by stating later that parts of the game score as low as 4, with other parts a 10, "And a whole lot of stuff in-between."
Video game talk show Good Game
s two presenters gave the game a 6 and 7 out of 10. They compared the paintbrush abilities to that of the water jet pack from Super Mario Sunshine
as well saying it's mean how after painting all the nasty bits out you return to the level to find that everything has been reset. But on a positive note they said "isn't as 'dark' or 'adult' as the hype made it out to be... I guess it is a kid's game after all, but at least it's an intelligent one. It doesn't come anywhere near the complexity and fun of something like Super Mario Sunshine, which I think it borrows some ideas from." Shirley Chase from GameZone
complimented the game on its usage of Disney history, but added that the game had numerous flaws saying, "For all of its good points, Disney Epic Mickey does have some glaring flaws, which can make the game feel like a chore. The most noticeable problem is the camera, which will lead to more cheap deaths than anything else." The reviewer on gaming blog GameKiq noted, "Epic Mickey may never rank among Mickey Mouse’s classic depictions and it may not even be among the Wii’s best platformers, but its reverence for the iconic character’s past combined with some really enjoyable platforming and adventuring make for a wonderful and unique experience."
In Epic Mickey's opening weekend, it was excluded from the UK Top 40 and even Wii Top 10 sales charts after its November 26 UK release, although it was only available to buy for one day in the chart. On November 30, 2010, the release date in North America, the game was completely sold out on the Disney Store website by the afternoon. The game has also sold 1.3 million copies its first month.
At the Nintendo Power Awards, it was nominated for 7 Awards and winner of 4:
Wins: Best New Character-Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
, Best Adventure Game (along with Cave Story), Best Story/Writing (along with 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors), and Best New Idea-Using paint & thinner to manipulate your surroundings (along with WarioWare: D.I.Y.-Create your own minigames)
Nominees: Best Sound/Voice Acting (lost to Goldeneye 007 and Prof. Layton & the Unwound Future), Best Original Score (lost to Super Mario Galaxy 2
), and Best Overall Game (lost to Super Mario Galaxy 2)
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
action-adventure
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
platforming
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
video game designed by Warren Spector
Warren Spector
Warren Spector is a role-playing game designer and a video game designer. He is known for having worked to merge elements of role-playing games and first-person shooters. He currently resides in Austin, Texas with his wife, fantasy writer Caroline L. Spector...
and developed by Junction Point Studios
Junction Point Studios
Junction Point Studios is a video game developer based in Austin, Texas. The studio was established in 2005 by Warren Spector and Art Min, prominent figures in the game development industry...
for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
console. The game focuses on Mickey Mouse, who accidentally damages a world created by Yen Sid for forgotten characters and concepts, and is forced to fix the world while combating antagonists with a magic paintbrush. Epic Mickey notably features the first appearance of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is an anthropomorphic rabbit and animated cartoon character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney for films distributed by Universal Pictures in the 1920s and 1930s...
since 1928 as a major character, who was one of Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
's first successful cartoon characters before the character was licensed under the ownership of Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
. The character was regained by The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
in 2006 under the guidance of Robert Iger. The game is much darker and more complex than previous Mickey Mouse games.
Epic Mickey is part of an effort by Disney to re-brand the Mickey Mouse character by placing less emphasis on his pleasant, cheerful side and reintroducing the more mischievous and adventurous sides of his personality. Spector collaborated with both Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
in conjunction with the project. The game was officially announced on October 28, 2009 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and released in November 2010 in both Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
published the game in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
on August 4, 2011 under the name .
While Epic Mickey enjoyed high pre-release awareness, the game received generally mixed to positive reviews, accumulating aggregate scores of 71.83% and 73% on GameRankings and MetaCritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
respectively. As of June 2011, the game sold 2 million copies in North America and Europe combined.
On August 27, 2011, Destructoid posted an article that speculated that a sequel, Epic Mickey 2, is in development and showed possible box art for the game.
Gameplay
Epic Mickey is primarily an open-ended platform gamePlatform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
with some RPG
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
elements, and allows players to use their own solutions for getting through the levels. Epic Mickey features a morality system similar to games like inFAMOUS, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is a video game title encompassing three versions: a full-3D action game for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360; a 2.5D sidescrolling beat em up action game for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2 , and a 2.5D side-scrolling brawler/platformer for...
, and Shadow the Hedgehog
Shadow the Hedgehog (video game)
Shadow the Hedgehog is a 2005 video game developed by Sega Studio USA, the former United States division of Sega's Sonic Team. Featuring the titular fictional character Shadow the Hedgehog from Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series, the game was revealed at the March 2005 Walk of Game inauguration of...
. Different alliances, side-quests and power-up
Power-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...
s are made available depending on the actions of the player. It is also possible to avoid boss battles if specific actions are taken.
The key feature of the game is the magic paint brush, which Mickey wields, that has the ability to draw or erase objects, using paint
Paint
Paint is any liquid, liquefiable, or mastic composition which after application to a substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque solid film. One may also consider the digital mimicry thereof...
and thinner
Paint thinner
A paint thinner is a solvent used to thin oil-based paints or clean up after their use, although all such solvents have other uses. Commercially, "paint thinner" is usually a name for mineral spirits.Products used as paint thinners include:*Mineral spirits...
respectively. For example, obstacles can be erased from physical existence using the thinner and then restored using the paint, or enemies can be befriended by revitalizing them with the paint or destroyed completely using the thinner. Mickey is also able to materialize objects from sketches, which have various effects. Two of the three sketches, the clock and the television, slow down time and distract enemies, respectively. Both fluids have limited reserves, adding a strategic element to gameplay: players must compromise between making various tasks harder or easier to accomplish. However, the fluids automatically but slowly refill and power-ups that quickly replenish.The fluids are available in certain areas.
To travel between sections of the Wasteland, Mickey traverses 2D side-scrolling levels based on his classic cartoon shorts (with three being based on Oswald shorts and two being based on Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault...
and Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
), such as Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black-and-white by The Walt Disney Studio and released by Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the debut of Mickey Mouse, and as his girlfriend Minnie, but the characters...
and Clock Cleaners
Clock Cleaners
Clock Cleaners is a 1937 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon follows Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy working as janitors in a tall clock tower. The film was directed by Ben Sharpsteen and features original music by...
.
Setting
The game is set in a pen-and-paper stylized world called the Cartoon Wasteland (commonly abbreviated as the Wasteland). It was created by the sorcerer Yen Sid for "things that have been forgotten," appearing as an intricate model of Disneyland in his workshop. This world is heavily based on the Disneyland theme parks, home to Oswald the Lucky RabbitOswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is an anthropomorphic rabbit and animated cartoon character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney for films distributed by Universal Pictures in the 1920s and 1930s...
, Gremlin Gus, and other obscure or scrapped Disney characters, Disneyland rides, or areas.
Story
A virtually unknown Mickey Mouse, out of curiosity, enters Yen Sid's workshop through a mirror in his house and discovers the model of the land Yen Sid created and the tool used to create it, the magic paintbrush. Fiddling with the brush and some paint to make a self-portrait, Mickey accidentally creates the Shadow BlotPhantom Blot
The Phantom Blot is a fictional character featured in various media by The Walt Disney Company. He is an enemy of Mickey Mouse. He first appeared in the Mickey Mouse comic strip adventure Mickey Mouse Outwits The Phantom Blot by Floyd Gottfredson, which was published in the form of daily strips...
. Panicking, Mickey quickly tries to erase the Blot by throwing paint thinner
Paint thinner
A paint thinner is a solvent used to thin oil-based paints or clean up after their use, although all such solvents have other uses. Commercially, "paint thinner" is usually a name for mineral spirits.Products used as paint thinners include:*Mineral spirits...
onto it, but spills more paint on the model in the process. Upon seeing Yen Sid approaching, Mickey quickly tries to clean up the mess, but in his haste, spills thinner onto the paint spillage as he flees back to his house, while the Blot, having survived Mickey's attempt to destroy it, enters through a portal created by the paint/thinner mixture (taking the Jug -the bottle of thinner- with him) and takes control of the ruined world from its first resident, Oswald ("The world I had created was ravaged - a wasteland").
After many decades of fame following the accident, Mickey had forgotten the incident until the Shadow Blot enters his home through the mirror and abducts him into the ruined forgotten world, now named by this time as the Wasteland. Oswald soon had his will and his mind twisted from years of hiding and his jealousy of Mickey's rise to fame, unaware the enigmatic Mad Doctor and the Blot formulate a plan to destroy Mickey and steal his heart, which they plan to use to escape the ruined world, as all Wasteland inhabitants are forgotten and thus no longer have hearts of their own. During his journey through the Wasteland, Mickey is guided by Gremlin Gus and becomes armed with Yen Sid's brush. Mickey uses the brush to restore the Wasteland in order to atone for his destruction and win Oswald's trust.
After defeating a fake Blot (Oswald revealed the Shadow Blot Mickey fought along with all the Blotlings he encountered were drippings of the real Blot), Mickey eventually comes to terms with his actions and reveals all to Oswald, who loses his temper. While jumping angrily on the cork sealing the Jug, Oswald accidentally causes the cork to break, allowing the true form of the Shadow Blot- a giant specter constructed from paint thinner- to escape his prison into the world. Oswald soon reveals that he and his girlfriend, Ortensia, attempted to seal the Blot away, but Ortensia was blighted by the Blot in the process and entered a catatonic state. The Blot takes Oswald and Gus, threatening to kill them if Mickey does not allow the Blot to take his heart. Mickey yields his heart to the Blot, who then proceeds to destroy the Wasteland before moving on to the Disney universe to wreak havoc there, but Mickey, Oswald and Gus successfully manage to destroy the Blot, eliminating his exterior with paint-laden fireworks, and rescue Mickey's heart from the inside. Oswald reunites with Ortensia and befriends Mickey, the two now becoming more like brothers. With the Wasteland now slowly regenerating, Mickey escapes back to Yen Sid's workshop and returns home through the mirror, which becomes sealed by Yen Sid to prevent Mickey from entering again and cause anymore mischief.
Regardless of what choices Mickey made in the Wasteland, the ending after the credits is the same: Not long after the mirror is sealed, Mickey discovers that he still has some of the Shadow Blot's ink in him, leaving the possibility he may still be able to reach the Wasteland.
Development
The game was originally in development for Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and its name was its working title. Development on the Wii started in 2008. When the idea of addressing a Wii port of the game was raised, Spector replied that a straight Wii port would not be viable, remarking that many of the "design ideas just won't work on the Wii, we need to give the Wii its dues". Graham Hopper of Disney Interactive then suggested dropping the development of the aforementioned platforms completely, and instead releasing it solely on the Wii.
Concept art
Concept art
Concept art is a form of illustration where the main goal is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, and/or mood for use in films, video games, animation, or comic books before it is put into the final product. Concept art is also referred to as visual development and/or concept design...
for the game by Fred Gambino and Gary Glover depicted a surrealistically bizarre look at Disney characters and locations in a steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
environment (this art has been categorized as very preliminary concept art and it is not the style of the final game). Featured in the concept art are post-apocalyptic renditions of Goofy
Goofy
Goofy is a cartoon character created in 1932 at Walt Disney Productions. Goofy is a tall, anthropomorphic dog, and typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled fedora. Goofy is a close friend of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck...
, Daisy Duck
Daisy Duck
Daisy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1940 by Walt Disney Productions as the girlfriend of Donald Duck. Like Donald, Daisy is an anthropomorphic white duck, but has large eyelashes and ruffled tail feathers to suggest a skirt. She is often seen wearing a hair bow, blouse, and shoes...
, Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
, Captain Hook
Captain Hook
Captain James Hook is the main antagonist of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations. The character is a villainous pirate captain of the Jolly Roger brig, and lord of the pirate village/harbour in Neverland, where he is widely feared. Most...
, Disneyland's Dumbo the Flying Elephant (ride)
Dumbo the Flying Elephant (ride)
Dumbo the Flying Elephant is a carousel-style ride located in Fantasyland at five Disney parks around the world. The original attraction opened at Disneyland in October of 1955, three months after the park opened...
, Mad Tea Party
Mad Tea Party
Mad Tea Party is a spinning tea cup ride at all five Disneyland-style theme parks around the world. The ride theme is inspired by the Unbirthday Party scene in Disney's Alice In Wonderland...
, Main street
Main Street
Main Street is the metonym for a generic street name of the primary retail street of a village, town, or small city in many parts of the world...
, Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland
- Tomorrowland 1955–1967 :The first Tomorrowland opened at Disneyland on July 18, 1955, with only several of its planned attractions open, due to budget cuts. The construction of the park was rushed, so Tomorrowland was the last land to be finished. It became something of a corporate showcase,...
, Mickey's Toontown
Mickey's Toontown
At the Magic Kingdom, Mickey's Toontown Fair initially opened as Mickey's Birthdayland on June 18, 1988. It became Mickey's Starland on May 26, 1990, and Mickey's Toontown Fair on October 1, 1996...
, Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
's boat, Astro Orbitor
Astro Orbitor
The Astro Orbitor is a rocket-spinner attraction featured at all five Magic Kingdom-style parks at Walt Disney Resorts around the world. Although each ride may have a different name, all share the same premise of rockets spinning around a central monument...
, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is an indoor/outdoor mine train roller coaster located in Frontierland at several Disneyland-style Disney Parks worldwide...
, Splash Mountain
Splash Mountain
Splash Mountain is a themed log flume attraction at Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort, based on the characters, stories and songs from the 1946 Disney film Song of the South...
, It's a Small World, the Haunted Mansion
Haunted Mansion
The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride located at Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland. A significantly re-imagined incarnation of the ride, known as Phantom Manor, is located in Disneyland Paris...
, Epcot's Spaceship Earth, Disney's Hollywood Studios' "Earful Tower
Earful Tower
The Earful Tower is an icon used in Disney theme parks. The tower is based on water towers commonly found on Hollywood studio backlots of the first half of the 1900s, originally a safety measure to douse any fires on the film sets. The tower resembles the water tower found at the Walt Disney...
", The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, more commonly known as Tower of Terror, is a drop tower thrill ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios , Disney California Adventure Park, Tokyo DisneySea and Walt Disney Studios Park . It is based upon the television show The Twilight Zone...
, and Hong Kong Disneyland
Hong Kong Disneyland
Hong Kong Disneyland is located on reclaimed land in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island. It is the first theme park located inside the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and is owned and managed by the Hong Kong International Theme Parks. The park opened to visitors on 12 September 2005...
's Sleeping Beauty Castle
Sleeping Beauty Castle
Sleeping Beauty Castle is the fairy tale structure castle at the center of Disneyland Park and Hong Kong Disneyland. It is based on the late-19th century Neuschwanstein Castle,with some French inspirations .-Disneyland version:Opened July 17, 1955, the castle is the oldest of all Disney castles...
.
Compared to the Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts
is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square in 2002 for the PlayStation 2 video game console. The first game in the Kingdom Hearts series, it is the result of a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company. The game combines characters and settings from Disney...
series, a similar video game franchise created by Japanese video game company Square Enix
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
, which combined modern-day Disney characters with their own Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy
is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
characters, Disney Epic Mickey emphasizes retro-vintage and long-lost Disney characters that were created much earlier, and draws more plot elements from the classic movie Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
, rather than Final Fantasy; in Kingdom Hearts II
Kingdom Hearts II
is an action role-playing game developed by Square Enix and published by Buena Vista Games and Square Enix in 2005 for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console...
, a location in the game was based on the 1920s Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black-and-white by The Walt Disney Studio and released by Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the debut of Mickey Mouse, and as his girlfriend Minnie, but the characters...
cartoon, but other than that, the rest of the game took its cast from more recently-created characters.
Mickey receives a character redesign in this game, which attempts to give him a "retro" look, and the game uses an animation engine to replicate the stretchy athleticism of the classic cartoons. The 2D cinematics were created by Powerhouse Animation Studios, Inc, and the game utilizes Emergent Game Technologies' Gamebryo
Gamebryo
Gamebryo is a game engine, originally from Numerical Design Limited , and the successor to NDL's NetImmerse engine.Since the creation of Gamebryo, NDL merged into Emergent Game Technologies...
Engine. Warren Spector has stated that Epic Mickey was planned as a trilogy. An early idea for the game was for Mickey to adopt an angrier look when he was played in the "scrapper" manner; this idea was dropped after Spector decided it changed Mickey too much from people's perceptions of the character. Mickey looks more smudged instead.
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
has confirmed that there will be a comic for Epic Mickey, titled: Disney's Epic Mickey: Tales of the Wasteland. It will serve as a prequel to the game, focusing on Mickey's half-brother Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and give some insight on what the Wasteland was like before Mickey's appearance and the thinner disaster. Initially distributed on Disney's Digicomics platform for iOS products, a print version is to be released in late-August 2011. An Art book, The Art of Epic Mickey, is also to be released in September 2011. A US-exclusive Epic Mickey Collector's Edition was announced that includes special packaging, special behind-the-scenes DVD, Mickey vinyl figure, a Wii Remote skin, and Wii console skins.
The game was leaked by warez
Warez
Warez refers primarily to copyrighted works distributed without fees or royalties, and may be traded, in general violation of copyright law. The term generally refers to unauthorized releases by organized groups, as opposed to file sharing between friends or large groups of people with similar...
groups weeks before its official release date. Epic Mickey marks Oswald's second appearance in video games after Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau
Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau
Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau is a platform game developed and published by Tectoy for the Sega Mega Drive and the Sega Master System.-Gameplay:...
(released in Brazil only). Some promotional images rate the game E10+ instead of E, hinting the game might have been originally rated E10+.
Music
Epic Mickey's music was composed by James DooleyJames Dooley (composer)
James Michael Dooley is a film score composer. Dooley studied music at New York University, majoring in music composition. After finishing the university he moved to Los Angeles, where he studied music with prolific film score composers Christopher Young, Elmer Bernstein and Leonard Rosenman...
. In addition to the original works by Dooley, arranged versions of classic Disney music appears throughout the game in the side-scrolling platforming sections, which in turn are recreations of older Disney cartoons. X-Play
X-Play
X-Play is a TV program about video games, known for its reviews and comedy skits...
later named it "Best Soundtrack of 2010". Dooley's score was released digitally via iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
on December 21, 2010.
Track listing
Promotion
Writer Peter DavidPeter David
Peter Allen David , often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, movies and video games...
, who in 2010 was an exclusive writer for Disney-owned Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
, wrote a graphic novel adaptation of Epic Mickey, and a prequel digicomic, Disney’s Epic Mickey: Tales of Wasteland. Disney also promoted the release of the game with a launch party at the Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
Disney Store
Disney Store
Disney Store is an international chain of specialty stores selling only Disney related items, many of them exclusive. Disney Store is a business unit of Disney Consumer Products. James Fielding serves as the President....
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
on November 30, 2010, the day the game was released. Present at the party was designer Warren Spector
Warren Spector
Warren Spector is a role-playing game designer and a video game designer. He is known for having worked to merge elements of role-playing games and first-person shooters. He currently resides in Austin, Texas with his wife, fantasy writer Caroline L. Spector...
, Peter David, and actors Jennifer Grey
Jennifer Grey
Jennifer Elise Grey is an American actress. Her first major roles came in the 1984 war film Red Dawn and the 1986 comedy Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In 1987 she starred as Frances "Baby" Houseman in the hit film Dirty Dancing for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe. In the early 1990s, Grey...
and Kyle Massey
Kyle Massey
Kyle Massey , is an American actor, dancer, singer, comedian and rapper from Atlanta, Georgia. He is perhaps best known for starring in the Disney Channel sitcom That's So Raven, in which he played Cory Baxter, and in the Disney show Cory in the House, a spin-off of That's So Raven...
, who had recently completed the eleventh season
Dancing with the Stars (U.S. season 11)
Dancing with the Stars returned for an 11th season on September 20, 2010. The cast was announced during the August 30 episode of Bachelor Pad during a live press conference that included a Q&A session with host Tom Bergeron and co-host Brooke Burke and the new cast. There are twelve celebrity cast...
of the U.S. Dancing with the Stars, which is broadcast on the Disney-owned ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
.
Reception
Epic Mickey's release was met with generally favorable reviews. IGN gave it a score of 8, criticizing its camera, control issues and lack of voice acting, but praised its charm, story, art design, and lasting appeal for the players. X-Play gave it a score of 5/5, praising the excellent level design and the paint/thinner mechanic, however criticizing it for its poor camera.PAL Gaming Network was much more critical, giving the game a score of 6.5, commenting on its clumsy and disappointing gameplay, and its "unpolished and unrefined design". Jonathan Holmes of Destructoid gave it a 7 out of 10, saying that "Epic Mickey falls short of brilliance, but because it stands on such a strong concept it doesn't need brilliance to remain compelling". He backed up his claim by stating later that parts of the game score as low as 4, with other parts a 10, "And a whole lot of stuff in-between."
Video game talk show Good Game
Good Game
Good Game is an Australian video gaming talk show television programme created by Janet Carr and Jeremy Ray currently on ABC2. It premiered on ABC on 19 September 2006...
s two presenters gave the game a 6 and 7 out of 10. They compared the paintbrush abilities to that of the water jet pack from Super Mario Sunshine
Super Mario Sunshine
is a platforming video game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube. It was released in Japan in July 2002, in North America in August 2002, and in Europe and Australia in October 2002...
as well saying it's mean how after painting all the nasty bits out you return to the level to find that everything has been reset. But on a positive note they said "isn't as 'dark' or 'adult' as the hype made it out to be... I guess it is a kid's game after all, but at least it's an intelligent one. It doesn't come anywhere near the complexity and fun of something like Super Mario Sunshine, which I think it borrows some ideas from." Shirley Chase from GameZone
GameZone
GameZone is an American multiplatform video game website. GameZone's daily coverage includes reviews, previews, news, hints & cheats, and editorials. Additionally, GameZone offers downloads, a child-targeted website and in association with GameStop, hosts GZGameShop, an online retailer...
complimented the game on its usage of Disney history, but added that the game had numerous flaws saying, "For all of its good points, Disney Epic Mickey does have some glaring flaws, which can make the game feel like a chore. The most noticeable problem is the camera, which will lead to more cheap deaths than anything else." The reviewer on gaming blog GameKiq noted, "Epic Mickey may never rank among Mickey Mouse’s classic depictions and it may not even be among the Wii’s best platformers, but its reverence for the iconic character’s past combined with some really enjoyable platforming and adventuring make for a wonderful and unique experience."
In Epic Mickey's opening weekend, it was excluded from the UK Top 40 and even Wii Top 10 sales charts after its November 26 UK release, although it was only available to buy for one day in the chart. On November 30, 2010, the release date in North America, the game was completely sold out on the Disney Store website by the afternoon. The game has also sold 1.3 million copies its first month.
Awards and nominations
Epic Mickey won 2 IGN awards including best Story in the Wii category.At the Nintendo Power Awards, it was nominated for 7 Awards and winner of 4:
Wins: Best New Character-Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is an anthropomorphic rabbit and animated cartoon character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney for films distributed by Universal Pictures in the 1920s and 1930s...
, Best Adventure Game (along with Cave Story), Best Story/Writing (along with 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors), and Best New Idea-Using paint & thinner to manipulate your surroundings (along with WarioWare: D.I.Y.-Create your own minigames)
Nominees: Best Sound/Voice Acting (lost to Goldeneye 007 and Prof. Layton & the Unwound Future), Best Original Score (lost to Super Mario Galaxy 2
Super Mario Galaxy 2
is a platforming video game developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It was first announced at E3 2009 and is the sequel to Super Mario Galaxy. It was released in North America on May 23, 2010, in Japan on May 27, 2010, in Europe on June 11, 2010, and in Australia on July 1,...
), and Best Overall Game (lost to Super Mario Galaxy 2)