Yes this icon again, but it's appropriate
I have at last finished playing Epic Mickey! (Yes, I did get through it quickly, if for no other reason than my time with the Wii is limited.) Since I'm already going to be blabbing teal deer enough about the game with the final thoughts, I'll just sum up what I thought of the rest of it really quick-like:
- Bog Easy was neat!
- Madame Leota was pretty sweet. THANKS FOR KILLING THAT GIANT BLOTLING FOR ME, LEOTA.
- ARRRGH I'm glad I released those two extra gremlins, because that Mad Doctor boss battle was nerve-wracking. I'm terrible with using the sketches, which is what was needed in that area. 8(
- Did whole bunches of sidequests before going on to the rest.
- Arrrgh had to do the battle against the Blot several times over...
- PLATFORMING PLATFORMING GEEZUS THE RIDICULOUS NEVERENDING PLATFORMING
- Even though I didn't get hurt at all, that "skydiver" part was really unsettling in kind of the same way the final area of Keyblade Graveyard was really unsettling.
- ARRRGH WOMB LEVEL. SO MUCH CURSING AND SWEARING I DON'T EVEN. AASDKSAJDLASJKD
- Awwwww, sweet ending! Yay happiness for all! :D
ALRIGHTY and now the final thoughts:
Graphics
Will start with good things first: the graphics and animation were all LOVELY. A terrific, unique look that I think more games should go with. The animation especially felt perfect...great, smooth use of traditional squash-and-stretch and follow-through, great liquid effects, super use of color, and more. As far as I'm concerned, any complaints about the graphics not being as good because it's on the Wii can get right out. The art was highly appropriate for the world and the story. While it isn't quite at the same level as it was in the concept art, it was still pretty decent as a step away from that. (And honestly? Games very rarely look like what the concept art promises.) I also loved how they did the cutscenes...a kind of color-saturated traditional animation. I would totally watch a whole movie or TV show in that sort of style.
So! Not much else to say about it...loved the animation; no complaints on the art front. It's Disney, of course it's going to be pretty high-quality.
Gameplay
Holy flying fuckbuckets on Mars. I am really not even kidding when I say that this was probably the most intensely frustrating game I've ever played, given my rather limited playage of games. This is an idea of my usual reactions while playing:
No seriously, it's probably a good thing I didn't do a blow-by-blow playage, because most of my commentary would've consisted of endless swearing and screaming obscenities, especially there towards the end. While the controls themselves were not all that complicated, this game was seriously punishing. A few missteps could equal instant death, which would make you have to start the entire area over. The camera was often working against you, especially in tightly-closed areas. Certain areas were so swarming with difficult hostiles that there was little you could do except run away, and then the camera would work against you there. If you were pushed up against the wall, the camera would go KH1 on you and swing around over your head, or else force you to suddenly act as if you were side-scrolling.
Speaking of, HOLY FUCKLES there were times I really really really did not like the side-scrolling intermission areas between worlds. Those pretty much proved that I've always been incompetent at side-scroller platforming. Especially the last few Fantasia ones, in which I didn't collect any reels because it was just too damn difficult to get anywhere but the exit. Seriously, it SHOULD NOT BE A HUGE CHORE just to travel from one world to the next! It would be like if someone took the KH1 gummi ship missions and made it so you died in three hits, or put in so many obstacles that it was impossible to get through without multiple tries. And then your gummi ship's (low) final health turned into your own health as soon as you touched down in the next world. And these all had cute representations of shorts and movies! WHY YOU HAVE TO MAKE THEM MISERABLE, EPIC MICKEY.
Through I'd say about 70% of the game, it was platforming hell. And especially the last few levels, it was ninth level of platforming hell. Like seriously, platforming across areas that you have to paint in with the brush, while they're simultaneously being destroyed by massive enemies? And if you miss any one of your jumps, you get instant death and have to start over? Fuuuuk that. While this game is rated E, I honestly have no clue how very young children would be able to handle some of what you have to do in this game. Maybe today's kids are much better at this sort of thing than I am; it wouldn't surprise me at all. But at least for me, I found it really frustrating almost the entire way through.
And, to be perfectly honest, that frustration really hampered my enjoyment of the game. It's really difficult to appreciate the great art and animation in all of the worlds when you're busy cursing obscenities at the fact that you cannot make that jump, AGAIN, or got killed by that one boss, AGAIN.
Characters
I played pretty much constantly as good!Mickey, so all of my interactions with characters were as Mickey as helpful and good. Maybe sometime I'll go back and watch the bad ending, just to see how people react differently there. But as far as I could tell, Mickey was in-character and it was fun having him interact with people.
I actually really appreciated Gus as Mickey's "sidekick". I know most people aren't fond of the Navi-like sidekicks like Navi or Issun having to explain all the stupid little things to you. I think, in this case, they found a pretty good balance with Gus. Pretty much everything he explained was something I needed to know, or to better my understanding of a relatively complex area. And he had some great snark in there, too. I wouldn't mind seeing Gus pop up in something else later.
And awwww poor Oswald! You could totally see why he was so bitter towards Mickey, and I thought it was an interesting parallel arc to have Oswald come to terms with forgiving his half-brother while Mickey comes to terms with the fact that he really screwed things up. I kinda liked the voice they gave him, too (although I wish we could've heard more than just sound effects for their voices.) I thought it was really sweet when Ortensia came back at the very end.(I really want to see Oswald in a KH game now; I'd love to see how they would "update" him for that environment.
As for side characters, for the most part they were all fine. Animatronic Donald was perfect. All of the various Petes were great. The bunny kids were cute, if not sometimes infuriating. I loved the fact that the lonesome ghosts showed up in Bog Easy. The Mad Doctor was kinda give-or-take. I felt like they put a lot of focus on the pirates in Ventureland when I wanted some tiki birds, or any other Adventureland reference, PLEASE... For Horace...I liked him more in BBS than how he was here. :/ THEY'RE RUININ' FRUITBALL
...I am sad that we never saw Pluto. :( I guess there was Plutopia, and the dogtags, but no actual Pluto himself, even Animatronic!Pluto. I'm totally biased because Pluto is my favorite of the "core" Disney characters, but come on, give Pluto some more spotlight! He had a lot of great shorts in the early days, and I think he gets ignored more than the other core characters nowadays.
Story
The story was fun overall, and I loved how Mickey, Gus and Oswald had to work together in the end to defeat the uber!Blot. A pretty decent arc from beginning to end, even though at points there was a whoooole lotta fetch-questing. I'd like to see more of the history of Wasteland expanded upon.
Although ironically, the world seemed to get less threatening as it went on. I really only felt the creepiness of the idea in the not!Fantasyland/Small World. Mean Street, Ventureland, Tomorrow City and Bog Easy were all neat places to explore and looked cool, but didn't veer too far from how friendly they are in real life. I think there were some opportunities there to make them sufficiently creepier, and they were missed. Some places it wouldn't quite work (Lonesome Manor/Haunted Mansion is creepy by nature; it's difficult to make it into a place that seems more threatening than it already is.) Fantasyland, Small World and (in some areas) Dark Beauty Castle were the only places that felt genuinely unsettling to me; that really felt like the sort of abandoned, neglected creepiness that the early concepts promised. And those areas were pretty small and never visited again! Even though these areas were a huge pain to get around in, I think they should've included more of the darkrides...the slow-moving, claustriphobic nature of them really lends itself to that creep factor. A Wasteland version of Pinocchio's Daring Journey or Mr. Toad's Wild Ride would've freaked me the hell out. So, what they had was good, I just wish they had had more of it!
But again, it's back to the gameplay issue...it was difficult to enjoy much of the story because it was so frustrating to get from Point A to Point B. In most media (books, movies, TV) the #1 rule is "Is the story good?" But in games, it's the #2 rule. #1 for games is "is it fun to play?" People will forgive a mediocre story if a game is really fun to play, but a great story can easily be ruined if it's not fun to play. And I think that's sort of what happened here. :/
Overall? If you're a big Disney nerd (especially of the parks and oldschool Disney), if you enjoy platformers or enjoy challenging games in general, then you'd enjoy it. But if you're not much of a Disney nerd or hate platforming, then...yeah, don't bother. It is really not worth it to fight your way through the many frustrating parts if you're not into the nostalgia and nerdery that goes along with the characters and story. And, at least from my perspective, I feel like they didn't go far enough with the forgotten-Disney nostalgia...there were a bunch of things I was expecting to see but missed, or just things they could have elaborated on but didn't. True, I guess they had to keep the focus on Mickey and Oswald, and that leaves plenty of stuff for sequels. But for me personally, I got less on that front than I was expecting. :( I'd say I would pick up a sequel, but only if I was certain that a lot of this playage frustration and camera problems were fixed, and that there was more content I wanted. Just...want to make sure I'm not going to die over it first. 8(
- Bog Easy was neat!
- Madame Leota was pretty sweet. THANKS FOR KILLING THAT GIANT BLOTLING FOR ME, LEOTA.
- ARRRGH I'm glad I released those two extra gremlins, because that Mad Doctor boss battle was nerve-wracking. I'm terrible with using the sketches, which is what was needed in that area. 8(
- Did whole bunches of sidequests before going on to the rest.
- Arrrgh had to do the battle against the Blot several times over...
- PLATFORMING PLATFORMING GEEZUS THE RIDICULOUS NEVERENDING PLATFORMING
- Even though I didn't get hurt at all, that "skydiver" part was really unsettling in kind of the same way the final area of Keyblade Graveyard was really unsettling.
- ARRRGH WOMB LEVEL. SO MUCH CURSING AND SWEARING I DON'T EVEN. AASDKSAJDLASJKD
- Awwwww, sweet ending! Yay happiness for all! :D
ALRIGHTY and now the final thoughts:
Graphics
Will start with good things first: the graphics and animation were all LOVELY. A terrific, unique look that I think more games should go with. The animation especially felt perfect...great, smooth use of traditional squash-and-stretch and follow-through, great liquid effects, super use of color, and more. As far as I'm concerned, any complaints about the graphics not being as good because it's on the Wii can get right out. The art was highly appropriate for the world and the story. While it isn't quite at the same level as it was in the concept art, it was still pretty decent as a step away from that. (And honestly? Games very rarely look like what the concept art promises.) I also loved how they did the cutscenes...a kind of color-saturated traditional animation. I would totally watch a whole movie or TV show in that sort of style.
So! Not much else to say about it...loved the animation; no complaints on the art front. It's Disney, of course it's going to be pretty high-quality.
Gameplay
Holy flying fuckbuckets on Mars. I am really not even kidding when I say that this was probably the most intensely frustrating game I've ever played, given my rather limited playage of games. This is an idea of my usual reactions while playing:
No seriously, it's probably a good thing I didn't do a blow-by-blow playage, because most of my commentary would've consisted of endless swearing and screaming obscenities, especially there towards the end. While the controls themselves were not all that complicated, this game was seriously punishing. A few missteps could equal instant death, which would make you have to start the entire area over. The camera was often working against you, especially in tightly-closed areas. Certain areas were so swarming with difficult hostiles that there was little you could do except run away, and then the camera would work against you there. If you were pushed up against the wall, the camera would go KH1 on you and swing around over your head, or else force you to suddenly act as if you were side-scrolling.
Speaking of, HOLY FUCKLES there were times I really really really did not like the side-scrolling intermission areas between worlds. Those pretty much proved that I've always been incompetent at side-scroller platforming. Especially the last few Fantasia ones, in which I didn't collect any reels because it was just too damn difficult to get anywhere but the exit. Seriously, it SHOULD NOT BE A HUGE CHORE just to travel from one world to the next! It would be like if someone took the KH1 gummi ship missions and made it so you died in three hits, or put in so many obstacles that it was impossible to get through without multiple tries. And then your gummi ship's (low) final health turned into your own health as soon as you touched down in the next world. And these all had cute representations of shorts and movies! WHY YOU HAVE TO MAKE THEM MISERABLE, EPIC MICKEY.
Through I'd say about 70% of the game, it was platforming hell. And especially the last few levels, it was ninth level of platforming hell. Like seriously, platforming across areas that you have to paint in with the brush, while they're simultaneously being destroyed by massive enemies? And if you miss any one of your jumps, you get instant death and have to start over? Fuuuuk that. While this game is rated E, I honestly have no clue how very young children would be able to handle some of what you have to do in this game. Maybe today's kids are much better at this sort of thing than I am; it wouldn't surprise me at all. But at least for me, I found it really frustrating almost the entire way through.
And, to be perfectly honest, that frustration really hampered my enjoyment of the game. It's really difficult to appreciate the great art and animation in all of the worlds when you're busy cursing obscenities at the fact that you cannot make that jump, AGAIN, or got killed by that one boss, AGAIN.
Characters
I played pretty much constantly as good!Mickey, so all of my interactions with characters were as Mickey as helpful and good. Maybe sometime I'll go back and watch the bad ending, just to see how people react differently there. But as far as I could tell, Mickey was in-character and it was fun having him interact with people.
I actually really appreciated Gus as Mickey's "sidekick". I know most people aren't fond of the Navi-like sidekicks like Navi or Issun having to explain all the stupid little things to you. I think, in this case, they found a pretty good balance with Gus. Pretty much everything he explained was something I needed to know, or to better my understanding of a relatively complex area. And he had some great snark in there, too. I wouldn't mind seeing Gus pop up in something else later.
And awwww poor Oswald! You could totally see why he was so bitter towards Mickey, and I thought it was an interesting parallel arc to have Oswald come to terms with forgiving his half-brother while Mickey comes to terms with the fact that he really screwed things up. I kinda liked the voice they gave him, too (although I wish we could've heard more than just sound effects for their voices.) I thought it was really sweet when Ortensia came back at the very end.(I really want to see Oswald in a KH game now; I'd love to see how they would "update" him for that environment.
As for side characters, for the most part they were all fine. Animatronic Donald was perfect. All of the various Petes were great. The bunny kids were cute, if not sometimes infuriating. I loved the fact that the lonesome ghosts showed up in Bog Easy. The Mad Doctor was kinda give-or-take. I felt like they put a lot of focus on the pirates in Ventureland when I wanted some tiki birds, or any other Adventureland reference, PLEASE... For Horace...I liked him more in BBS than how he was here. :/ THEY'RE RUININ' FRUITBALL
...I am sad that we never saw Pluto. :( I guess there was Plutopia, and the dogtags, but no actual Pluto himself, even Animatronic!Pluto. I'm totally biased because Pluto is my favorite of the "core" Disney characters, but come on, give Pluto some more spotlight! He had a lot of great shorts in the early days, and I think he gets ignored more than the other core characters nowadays.
Story
The story was fun overall, and I loved how Mickey, Gus and Oswald had to work together in the end to defeat the uber!Blot. A pretty decent arc from beginning to end, even though at points there was a whoooole lotta fetch-questing. I'd like to see more of the history of Wasteland expanded upon.
Although ironically, the world seemed to get less threatening as it went on. I really only felt the creepiness of the idea in the not!Fantasyland/Small World. Mean Street, Ventureland, Tomorrow City and Bog Easy were all neat places to explore and looked cool, but didn't veer too far from how friendly they are in real life. I think there were some opportunities there to make them sufficiently creepier, and they were missed. Some places it wouldn't quite work (Lonesome Manor/Haunted Mansion is creepy by nature; it's difficult to make it into a place that seems more threatening than it already is.) Fantasyland, Small World and (in some areas) Dark Beauty Castle were the only places that felt genuinely unsettling to me; that really felt like the sort of abandoned, neglected creepiness that the early concepts promised. And those areas were pretty small and never visited again! Even though these areas were a huge pain to get around in, I think they should've included more of the darkrides...the slow-moving, claustriphobic nature of them really lends itself to that creep factor. A Wasteland version of Pinocchio's Daring Journey or Mr. Toad's Wild Ride would've freaked me the hell out. So, what they had was good, I just wish they had had more of it!
But again, it's back to the gameplay issue...it was difficult to enjoy much of the story because it was so frustrating to get from Point A to Point B. In most media (books, movies, TV) the #1 rule is "Is the story good?" But in games, it's the #2 rule. #1 for games is "is it fun to play?" People will forgive a mediocre story if a game is really fun to play, but a great story can easily be ruined if it's not fun to play. And I think that's sort of what happened here. :/
Overall? If you're a big Disney nerd (especially of the parks and oldschool Disney), if you enjoy platformers or enjoy challenging games in general, then you'd enjoy it. But if you're not much of a Disney nerd or hate platforming, then...yeah, don't bother. It is really not worth it to fight your way through the many frustrating parts if you're not into the nostalgia and nerdery that goes along with the characters and story. And, at least from my perspective, I feel like they didn't go far enough with the forgotten-Disney nostalgia...there were a bunch of things I was expecting to see but missed, or just things they could have elaborated on but didn't. True, I guess they had to keep the focus on Mickey and Oswald, and that leaves plenty of stuff for sequels. But for me personally, I got less on that front than I was expecting. :( I'd say I would pick up a sequel, but only if I was certain that a lot of this playage frustration and camera problems were fixed, and that there was more content I wanted. Just...want to make sure I'm not going to die over it first. 8(