E3 2010: Preview of Disney Interactive Studios’ Epic Mickey

Disney Interactive Studios gave a lot of booth time to Epic Mickey at E3 2010.

Available Fall 2010 for Wii, Epic Mickey will include more than 60 Disney animated characters and feature a brush-wielding Mickey Mouse.

With the power of paint and paint thinner, a 1920s-to-1930s-era Mikey is able to erase and redraw the game’s environment (*cough* Shaun White Skateboarding *cough*) in this action-platformer-RPG hybrid designed by Warren Spector (and developed by Junction Point Studios).

Disney’s E3 2010 booth for the game features eclectic Mickey renderings, artistic projections on white scrims, a special pin and artists creating live works of Disney art right on the exhibition floor.

OK, so none of that has much to do with the game. What it demonstrates, however, is that Disney is really behind this title. When the Mouse House puts its nearly namesake character in a game, you can bet it invests a lot of time, money and effort into making it an entertaining event.

From what was on display and available to play on the floor, this looks to be one of the best Wii games to date.

Looking a bit darker and creepier than any other Disney game, this game pays plenty of homage to the mouse and includes the many now-retired characters. Harping on the art concept (those on the pro Games As Art side will love this one), Mickey uses his brush to rework the world and, depending on his actions, can either become a hero or something-close-to-but-not-quite a villain. Either way, it effects the game like others with a morality system.

There is plenty of platforming to perform, as most of the playable game levels demonstrated. The Wii is really the perfect device for this game as you target opponents and objects with the WiiMote and splatter paint with the WiiMote trigger button or paint thinner with the Nunchuck’s trigger.

The Nunchuck attachment is used for Mickey’s movement, letting you take an artist attack with your dominant hand. The A button is for jumping to get to higher and unfinished areas which then need to be either painted or thinned. That type of control of the environment along with the morality scale lets you bring Mickey back to his snarkier (and less politically correct) days.

There was also a bit of chatting with villagers, all classic Disney characters or variations thereof, helping to reinforce the role-playing aspect of the game. You can also gather various items to cash in for upgrades.

One of the demo levels was a 2D side-scrolling puzzle-platformer based on Steamboat Willie in black-and-white. You use ye olde controls to get through while enjoying the authentic retro style imagery.

As for the 3D levels, the WiiMote is used both to aim your quick splatter-burst attacks and, by giving it a flick, perform a more powerful move that pushes back opponents and busts open breakable objects.

Everything in the game is a big fat nod to the older years of Disney flicks and shorts, making this a Disney fan’s dream.

While its unclear exactly how dark and into Mickey’s politically incorrect past this will go, the controls and quirky take on the classic character should make this appealing to at least a few anti-saccharine gamers.

I expect Epic Mickey to be one of the big games of the year and cannot wait to play through even more areas.

For those looking for more, here’s a synopsis of the game from Disney’s site:

In the game’s fiction, a sorcerer named Yen Sid creates a beautiful, whimsically-twisted world where Disney’s forgotten and retired creations thrive. Originally, the powerful sorcerer from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in Walt Disney’s 1940 film Fantasia was nicknamed ”Yen Sid” by Disney animators, although never named as such on screen. In Disney Epic Mickey, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit – Walt Disney’s first cartoon star created in 1927 and Mickey’s half-brother – becomes the earliest inhabitant of Yen Sid’s Cartoon Wasteland after Mickey Mouse is created. Oswald makes the Cartoon Wasteland comfortable for other retired characters as they join him in this magical land. Years pass, and as Oswald dwells in the Cartoon Wasteland, he becomes resentful watching Mickey’s popularity swell. When Mickey curiously stumbles upon Yen Sid’s map, he makes an innocent yet terrible mistake and inadvertently devastates Oswald’s comfortable world. Eventually, Mickey’s mistake pulls him deep into the mysterious Cartoon Wasteland to face the destruction he unknowingly created. Mickey must use the very elements of animation, paint and paint thinner, to explore the Cartoon Wasteland, find the source of evil that is destroying the land, and redeem his fellow cartoon characters including Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Photo Gallery [Epic Mickey Photos @ Gamertell] Site [Epic Mickey]