Mickey Mouse is an iconic figure. He’s known the world over, along with his friends Donald Duck and Goofy, and his girlfriend Minnie. Disney is known the world over, as a brand that produces quality cartoons, movies, and products. One thing that Disney hasn’t been known for, for a long time, is producing products that bring in the boy demographic. They have a few things that boys dig, but nothing that’s near the way the Disney Princesses line brings in girls. Epic Mickey is probably one of the closest things they have, aside from purchased properties (Marvel Comics, LucasArts) that could catch a little boy’s attention and make them want to play the game. Epic Mickey in 2010 did a well enough job of bringing in attention from all people who were fans of Disney related products, by re-introducing Walt Disney’s creation Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and by showcasing a lot of nostalgia within the first Epic Mickey game.
Epic Mickey 2 takes place sometime after the first game. The story is that an earthquake has ravaged Wasteland, and the Mad Doctor comes to Oswald, singing (literally singing) about how he’s reformed and wishes to help all the toons in Wasteland, and help rebuild the damage from the earthquake. Oswald is unsure of the Mad Doctor, but Ortensia (Oswald’s girlfriend) and Gus the Gremlin definitely don’t trust the doctor, so they go off the bring Mickey into Wasteland to help figure out if the Mad Doctor is really on the straight and narrow, and to help with rebuilding Wasteland.
The gameplay of this sequel is very similar to the first game’s mechanics. You use paint and thinner to either take away walls, doors, whatever, to find hidden stuff. Or you use the paint and thinner to fight enemies, with paint turning your enemy good, or thinner making them vanish. Again, the way you play the game determines how things go later on in the game, and which guardians will be surrounding you during gameplay. A new game mechanic added to Epic Mickey 2, is the inclusion of Oswald. Whether playing solo, or co-op with a friend, Oswald is always by your side. A 2nd, local, player can just join in at any time and take control of Oswald and help you out. This is an interesting mechanic, but sometimes Oswald hurts more than helps. For the most part, however, Oswald just stays out of your way as you move Mickey along his journey through Wasteland. There are certain places where you need Oswald to active things with his remote, and there’s also double team moves that can be done with between Mickey and Oswald.
A big problem with the gameplay, must like the last time, is the camera, at least for me. My problem with it was, you can control the camera with the d-pad on the 360 controller, and reset it so it’s behind Mickey, by hitting LB, but the camera also moves with the left analog stick, when you’re trying to aim to spray paint or thinner. Maybe I had the sensitivity at a bad spot and need to configure it better for my play style, but it was just moving so much with my movements, then the camera would end up in a crazy position before I’d hit the reset camera button. This isn’t a deal breaker by any means, but in boss battles this gets very bothersome.
The sound in this game is far superior to the previous game. There’s songs sung, like a musical, along with an awesome score running in the background of the levels. The music adds a lot to this game, and really enhances the way you look at the levels. And the look of the levels is amazing. They really kept the graphics in this game in line with the previous game, and the previous game had really good graphics. It looks like an interactive Disney movie. It almost seems a lot more lively this time around. The transition levels are back also, and look a lot more detailed than the previous game. The transition levels, if you dealt with Epic Mickey 1, at all, were the levels in between levels, after you traveled through the projector. While you’re not traveling through projectors in Epic Mickey 2, the transition levels are still there with the new way to travel around.
Overall, Epic Mickey 2 is a great continuation of the Epic Mickey story, and is a nice upgrade to the original. While the gameplay sometimes gets repetitive, it reminds me very much of old school platformers. I really dislike the camera, and right now I can’t even think of a way they could fix it, because I dislike that camera so much. Maybe if it stayed stationary behind Mickey until you actually moved it into position.
Gameplay
Graphics
Sound
Overall
Screenshots:
I’m getting into the Epic mickey series, I hope they make more of these games. I agree that the camera is bad, but at least you can control it yourself finally!