Epic Mickey's cool ideas are undermined by some serious design flaws.
Epic Mickey's story begins with the mischievous mouse (in his old-school beady-eyed form) discovering a portal into Yen Sid's workshop, where the wizard is putting the final touches on a magnificent world for all of Disney's forgotten creations to exist in peace. Mickey's curiosity gets the better of him, and he decides to play around with the magic paint brush that Yen Sid left behind. In doing so, Mickey accidentally creates a monstrous blob and spills a bottle of thinner onto the world, turning it into a nightmarish wasteland. Mickey flees the scene, but many years later, the evil blot returns to the surface and drags him into the world he created, thus forcing the mouse to clean up his mess and set things right for the world's inhabitants.
Those who paid attention to the game's development cycle will know that Epic Mickey was originally planned to be much darker and grim than it eventually turned out. This toning-down proves to be a wise decision on developing team Junction Point's part, as the narrative and atmosphere in the game strikes a perfect balance between cIassic Disney whimsy and dark re-imagining. Each world is a brilliant blend of vibrant cartoony colors and twisted architecture reminiscent of Tim Burton's designs. The narrative also recaptures the depth of classic Disney tales: Charming and inoffensive enough on the outside for kids to get into, but filled with tragedy and disturbing elements when further inspected. In essence, Epic Mickey's story and atmosphere perfectly recapture the feeling of what made classic Disney movies and cartoons so enjoyable and memorable (minus the show-stopping musical numbers).
The developers also put a solid amount of attention to detail in showcasing Disney and Mickey's history. Loads of memorabilia, easter eggs, and nods to Disney's iconic legacy are littered all throughout the Wasteland. The levels are a veritable hodge-podge of homage to Disney, ranging from a mountain made out of Mickey Mouse merchandise (there's even a SNES cartridge of a Mickey game among the litter) to levels inspired by key Disney theme park attractions. The game even has a couple watchable Disney cartoons from the early years that still hold up well today. Fans of Disney's works are bound to fall in love with the large amount of tribute to the animation studio's heritage found within the game's digital walls.
Epic Mickey's gameplay also hosts a few interesting ideas of its own. For the most part, the game is a typical 3D platformer consisting of a few hub worlds to take up new quests, action levels that can't be replayed once completed, and 2D platforming segments based on cIassic Mickey cartoons (such as Steamboat Willie and Fantasia) that serve to connect all the 3D levels together. Mickey's weapon of choice is the magic paint brush from Yen Sid's workshop. This brush can shoot two separate liquids: Paint, which is used to fill in cartoony pieces of the world and befriend enemies; and Thinner, which erases parts of the world and dissolves enemies into a goop. In addition to this, Mickey can also perform a spin attack to stun enemies in the vein of Super Mario Galaxy, and can summon giant TVs and Anvils to solve puzzles and further pummel his attackers.
Another unique idea in the gameplay is the morality system. In addition to either redeeming key enemies with the paint or destroying them with the thinner, most main quests and a few side jobs can be solved in more than one way, and the reward for completing them can change depending on which method is used. Generally, taking the quicker and more mischievous route to solving a quest is usually easier, but often results in a smaller reward or even being punished later on. Opting for the more heroic or honorable choice is normally more difficult and time-consuming, but the rewards are greater and can even lead to new quests and fewer obstacles down the line. For example, an early quest tasks you with getting a wrench from the talking telephone inside Mickey's house in Ostown. You can either help reconnect the telephone with the rest of the town's network by finding and painting in power boxes, or you can simply send in a gremlin to wrestle it away from the phone. Both options will allow you to move on, but the former choice will give you a better item as well as open up another quest for an additional reward. The game even goes so far as to autosave after every choice you make, meaning that you're essentially stuck with your choices until the next playthrough.
Sadly, this is where the good portions of Disney Epic Mickey come to an end. As unique as some of the ideas in the gameplay and narrative are, they can't cover up the more glaring design flaws in the mechanics. The most problematic of these issues is the camera. Bad cameras have been a recurring issue ever since platformers made the jump to a third dimension, but that doesn't excuse how frustrating it is to work with the camera in Epic Mickey. It has a very bad tendency to get stuck in up-close shots of Mickey and the floor when in tight spaces, and requires near-constant repositioning when on the move in larger areas, especially during fights with multiple enemies and platforming sequences. Further compounding this is that the camera controls (D-Pad for moving and C button to reset behind Mickey) are sluggish and occasionally don't work if only because they don't feel like working. Other flaws in the game's design do their fair share of damage as well. Aiming the paint brush with the IR pointer is less than ideal, as the cursor's movements are choppy and Mickey will sometimes spray paint in the wrong direction if you aren't completely on-target. Certain levels are so dark and convoluted that it's hard to make out where you're supposed to go next.
Perhaps the biggest injustice is the fact that even during sections where these issues are at a minimum, the core gameplay borders on monotonous. Most side-quests (and a few mandatory quests) usually boil down to little more than fetch quests and finding a set amount of key items, the latter of which is made more tedious by the fact that most of the items are pretty well-hidden. Boss fights either amount to routine patterns or just more platforming segments with one or two minor changes. Even the aforementioned interesting idea of the good/not-so-good dynamic to solving problems sometimes falls into the pitfall of just pushing one button over the other, and the effect it has on the story only shows up near the end, if not only for the moment afterwards. These issues seriously bring down the entire game, which is made all the more painful considering how brilliantly realized the Wasteland is.
Disney Epic Mickey is of reasonable-enough length to justify the full-price tag, but its audience is going to be limited. The world of Wasteland is a marvel to explore, but it's one of the only reasons to keep plowing through the frustrating and often boring gameplay, so anyone without a soft spot for Disney will have little reason to give the game a chance. It's a shame that Epic Mickey's strong points are undermined by some bad design flaws because the developing team showed that they wanted to make something great with a long-running cultural icon, but unfortunately, they've made a gem that only a select few can truly appreciate the greatness within.