Gameplay Today - Because You're Always Gaming

Mickey Mouse has been the face of Disney for decades, ranging from cartoons, merchandise and even some video games back in the SNES era. Recently in the video game realm, we have seen Mickey reign as king in the Kingdom Hearts franchise; but haven’t seen him star by himself. We all know him for his cheerfulness, though Disney has attempted to re-brand this lovable character showing us a mischievous, adventurous side with Epic Mickey.

Yen Sid is crafting a model of all things forgotten, a place of lost cartoons and concepts. The curious Mickey comes along and throws some paint onto the model thinking he is helping but ends up creating a creature by the name of the Blot. Trying to erase the new creature by using paint-thinner, he ends up spilling it all over the sculpture and assumes that the Blot is gone. Months go past since the incident and Mickey ends up getting a little visit from the Blot who sucks him into the world of all things forgotten: now called Wasteland.

Upon entering Wasteland, you are thrust right into a battle against a machine who is cooperating with a Mad Doctor who joins sides with the Blot. You meet a resident by the name of Gremlin Gus who helps you on stopping this machine. With the machine destroyed you travel with Gus to find a way out of Wasteland. Along the way you’ll find other Gremlins to save those who have been locked up by the Mad Doctor. They will help you in return by opening pathways or you can chose to not rescue them and unlock the way yourself. Other than saving the gremlins you also search for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the character Walt Disney made prior to Mickey Mouse.

The game brings us characters that you probably haven’t seen in awhile, just forgotten or maybe you don’t even know who they are. Other then Oswald you also see appearances of Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow. We also see Goofy and Donald in different forms created by the Mad Doctor for Oswald, since Oswald wanted a world identical to Mickey's. What’s really lacking from all the characters is full voice overs. We all know what Mickey sounds like but just leaving us with voice effects like “hmm” and “oh” is dull in this day and age. NPCs may also have quests for you to take part in. It’s fully up to you if you wish to do or not. Some of the quests can affect the ending but others merely give you awards.

Mickey’s fighting ability is based on the paint and thinner which Yen Sid has used for this world. The blue paint can recruit enemies into allies to help you fight foes, plus you can also repaint objects and buildings while thinner has the opposite effect. There are two types of enemies that you will encounter: Blotlings and Beetleworxs. The Blotlings come from the Blot and you can use paint or thinner to affect them. If you’re around some pool of thinner, you may also use your spin move to throw them into the pool. There are several types of Blotlings and as you advance you come across the hardest ones. The Beetleworxs are crafted by the Mad Doctor so they are primarily mechanical. Paint will only slow them down while the thinner will remove the armor, making it easier to defeat. You may also use the spin move after their armor is gone into a pool of thinner. You’ll come across several cute little bunny children, but they're not fuzzy. They stick to you like glue, slowing you down. Spinning or turning on a TV will get their attention and that’s when they genuinely become cute.

Epic Mickey is primarily a 3D platformer but there is also a great mix of 2D side-scrolling which is really a good asset to the game. The 2D worlds act as a pathway into the next area of a world. What’s great is instead of making new worlds just for this game you get thrown into the environments of old cartoons like Steamboat Willie, Clock Cleaners and Plutopia. As the pathway you don’t have to worry about enemies even though there are some objects to watch out for. Mainly there are tickets for you to collect that can be used to buy stuff like pins or concept art that can be viewed on the Main Title Extras area.

Epic Mickey shows us another side of this iconic character and has us travel through a different, dark side of Disneyland. This game can seem a little advanced for anyone under the age of 10 but if you are that age and are confident of your gaming abilities then go ahead and try it. It’s another great game to add to your Wii collection for anyone who loves to just play video games or might have a soft spot for Mickey Mouse.