Topic: Epic Mickey Early Review(s)

I beat the game last night and started a new playthrough. I had a good ending, but it could've been better, so I'm going to make a few changes this time. I can feel it in my bones that Epic Mickey's replayability is going to have me play through it several times, but I intend to enjoy it every time. The final struggle with the Shadow Blot was pretty intense, but I'm slightly down that there was no final boss battle. It's not a big disappointment, but I could've imagined a huge battle with the Blot take place. Then again, all the final boss battles in the games I played this year such as Super Mario Galaxy 2, Kirby's Epic Yarn, and Donkey Kong Country Returns were lacking, but still cool.

Possible spoiler here, but did anyone catch the pirate at Tortooga when he said, "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this." That was an obvious Zelda reference right there!

I've been playing the game for over an hour and my initial impressions are mixed. While I like the paint/paint thinner mechanics and the old school feeling of the game, the qualms about the camera are no joke. Seriously, I've never played a game with such a bad camera. Nintendo did a MUCH better job with the camera on their N64 games! Spector can say whatever he wants, but constantly wrestling with the camera is ridiculous in this day and age. It's the kind of camera you would expect from an N64 cash in title where someone took a crap in a box. Other than the camera, I don't like how visually dark the game is. I want to SEE what I'm playing. Hello. I do like the 2D levels though. So far, I'm happy I'm borrowing this game.

Still playing it, very good....

Now I'm playing it a thrid time and still enjoying it. This time I'm using thinner in any way and noticed that Mickey looks very drippy. The music also sounds darker and people are notably more depressed or angry. It's very neat how environments can change based on your actions.

My favorite world right now is Ventureland, but I was very impressed with Dark Beauty Castle.

Camera issues aside, I really am enjoying this game. I like all the choices you can make that affect the game in different ways and it is full of Disney history, which is great.

@ NintyFan, The game must be fairly short if you are already on your third play through and you got it for Christmas. Either that or you've been playing it 24/7.

I'm having winter break from school, so for now I've had all the time in the world. The game's not very long but not very short, and it really depends on what pace you're going. I don't play it 24/7, but I still play it quite a lot, enough to play through two or even three worlds a day. Someone might just want to get through one, so the game's longer for them. How many quests you do heavily impacts that. That said, I do wish the game was a little longer since judging from the model on Yen Sid's table, it looked like there were three more worlds to explore, those being a beanstalk with a factory in the clouds, a giant tea cup, and a white mansion opposite the Lonesome Manor.

The game took me 20 hours to beat it with only some of the quests

Did you know that in Mickeyjunk Mountain that there were old NES and SNES Mickey Mouse games lying around with the other junk? I didn't notice that until I explored there the second time.

Yeah, Ninty, I noticed that the first time (which was earlier today). Pretty cool little easter eggs. The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse on the SNES is my favorite Mickey game. I used to love playing that game.

Grrr. I just played through Tomorrow Town or whatever it's called. A really frustrating time. The camera I can deal with, but not being able to see what I'm doing because the only color Warren Spector knows is black is about to make me quit playing this game for good. I can't tell you how many times I've walked right off a cliff and died because this game is so dark. Or it will take me ten times longer than it should to complete a simple task because I can't see the things I'm supposed to interact with. Combine mediocre platforming with a shoddy camera and worst of all visuals so dark that I can't tell where to jump and you get Epic Mickey.

Every time I play this game I wonder how awesome it would have been if Nintendo made it. I love the concept but the execution is riddled with frustration and tedium.

I just got to Tomorrow City, haven't started up yet so I can't comment on it but I have heard people say they had issues with this part of the game being too dark to see what's going on. And some of my friends had problems with GE and CoD Black Ops as well. I never did but I'm just wondering if maybe that's because I play Wii games on a standard def. tv rather than an HD one.

I just hope I don't have similar problems with Tomorrow City because what I've played of the game so far has been very good. I really enjoyed playing through Mickeyjunk Mountain.

Tomorrow City is pretty dark, especially at the square where I would have to jump onto a little, skinny bar jutting out of a higher platform just right in order to reach one of Animatronic Goofy's parts and the air ride. Ventureland's much brighter compared to other places, and that's one of the reasons why it's my favorite stage.

Well it's good to hear that Ventureland is brighter. I don't know what has been the trend with visually dark games lately. The only way I could get through some parts of GoldenEye were because they had a map and objective marker you can follow. I had serious trouble in certain parts of Metroid: Other M as well. I mean, there are ways to make an area look dark without making everything black.

Yeah NintyFan, I had no idea how to get to air ride. I just wanted to get out of there. On the other hand though, the boss fight against Petetronic was awesome. They really should have used the cool neon bright visuals of that boss battle throughout the whole Tomorrow City.

I have to put my TV brightness on 100% with this game as opposed to 50% with a regular game. Seriously, Spector, expand your horizons!

Man does the camera suck. I've never been so frustrated with broken gameplay mechanics. It never wants to show me the ground, I can't see platforms when I jump, I can't center the camera behind me when a wall is behind me, moving the camera and aiming is a chore.

This would have been a stellar game if they camera wasn't ripped out of a 17 year old PSX game.

And more than half the time I want to look in first person, it won't let me. Thanks Warren.

I got this game just after Christmas with a Best Buy gift card (it was for $40, and the game was on sale for $40, so I paid a whopping 2 bucks for the game!). That aside, this game is GREAT, and I am loving the heck out of it, much more than I thought I would. Sure the camera is a bit troublesome at times, and the paint doesn't always shoot right where I want it, but those are minor gripes. I am a huge fan of old-school Disney, so I love the throwback 2-D levels and the art in the game (especially in those cartoon cutscenes). If you are a Disney fan of any sort, this game needs to be in your collection, platformer fans in general should at least rent it.

I watched the two cartoons in the game today and really enjoyed them. Playing through the side-scrolling levels of cartoons I haven't watched makes me want to go watch them on Youtube. I've heard of Oswald before Epic Mickey, but his silent cartoons are pretty clever with the cartoon physics. Actually, he was the first cartoon to walk out into thin air and fall when he realized it. We've seen that happen in cartoons ever since.

Just a thought, but does anyone think they can make an Epic Mickey 2? I'm left with the same feeling that I got from DKCR in craving a sequel. It can be done.

I played for about an hour and the biggest problem i had was the darkness. It is hard to tell where to go or sometimes even what to do but it's a pretty good game so far

I just looked through the strategy guide at Wal-Mart....All the screens are as bright as can be. Even in tomorrow city everything is bright in their pictures and you can see everything. They probably had to brighten them somehow, because if they showed what the game really looked like, you wouldn't be able to see what was in the pictures. It kind of made me mad, since that's not how the game looks but it should look that way. Maybe if I was playing on a newer TV where I could crank up the brightness to insane levels it would look better. But I'm playing on an old Zenith and I don't have the remote to it so I can't adjust it's brightness. But I shouldn't have to.