VIDEO GAME REVIEW – Disney Epic Mickey For Wii

We’re HUGE Disney fans in my family. Of course one of our favorite characters is Mickey. When I first heard about the latest Disney Interactive video game, Disney Epic Mickey, I wanted to play it. The game sounded different than anything I’d played. And after reading the description, I had questions. What would the colors be like? Would it be hard to play? Would it be too easy for adults? Would it be too hard for kids? Would it be challenging? Would it have other Disney characters? And would I like it? When offered the opportunity to review this award winning game, I grabbed it.
ABOUT DISNEY EPIC MICKEY FOR WII

A heroic tale of redemption and discovery, Disney Epic Mickey is an adventure-platforming game with light role-playing elements for the Nintendo Wii, featuring an iconic and retro Mickey Mouse inspired by cartoons of the 1920s and 1930s. 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. With visionary game designer Warren Spector behind the title, players choose their own path to defeat supreme evil, face the consequences of those decisions and ultimately free the Cartoon Wasteland.
Key Features:

• Play as a retro inspired Mickey Mouse, who adapts to the player’s gaming style as a Hero or a Scrapper
• Explore the warped Disney Cartoon Wasteland and along the way change the world using magic paint and paint thinner
• Choose the best path to become an epic hero because ”Playstyle Matters” and choices will change the outcome of the game
• Explore and solve challenges in an alternate Disney world ruled by Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney’s first cartoon star
• Travel between lands in Wasteland through classic platforming levels inspired by animated films and shorts
• Paint, thin, platform and explore The Cartoon Wasteland has many twists, turns, puzzles and platforms. Choose the best way to accomplish missions
• Encounter forgotten cartoon friends – and enemies. Some of Mickey’s old forgotten friends live in the Cartoon Wasteland. Get to know them, and choose to help them or leave them to live in the Cartoon Wasteland
• Collect over 75 virtual Disney pins in the game by completing specific challenges, quests and discovering hidden collectibles

MY THOUGHTS
Disney Epic Mickey uses the Wii controller and a nunchuk. I am one of those people that usually skips introductions and often doesn’t read manuals. I almost skipped this introduction but decided to check it out because it might have an impact on the game at some point. It hasn’t really yet, but you never know. The intro basically explains how Wasteland came to be many years earlier, and how Mickey arrives there now. Movement in the game is pretty simple, it’s all done with the joystick on the nunchuk. The two things you’ll probably do the most of, aside from move around, is use paint and paint thinner. B paints and Z thins. Green is thinner and blue is paint. You use the paint and thinner to create, alter, fight and destroy. I am not a fan of much of the music within video games but the music in Disney Epic Mickey seems to me almost more like background sound effects than music. It isn’t bad and it really sets the tone for the room and what’s going on inside it. In the game you’ll meet different characters. Pay attention to what they say or it will be difficult for you to beat an area. Some of the things they might tell you are how to do something, how to fight a particular enemy and what your goal for the room (area) is. That being said, you should also know there is a decent amount of reading required onscreen to play, and not much in the way of dialogue.
To move from one room of the game to another Mickey jumps into a projector screen.

Here you’ll often find pieces of Disney animation and movies that you’re more familiar with, scenes as those in Steamboat Willie, complete with its characters. I love the way that they’ve incorporated many things Disney into the game, it keeps the game interesting.

The game is colorful but not in the sense you might expect. They’re not pastel and primary colors, they’re dark and yet vivid. You’ll really notice this when you have to paint or thin something, or if you encounter something you’ve seen in real life like the Teacup Ride.

The artistry, shading and scenery is great, you can almost feel the texture of things like the topiaries. Graphics are excellent, far better than typical Wii fare with chunky Wii-miis.

As you move through the games you’ll want to collect everything you can, including pieces to increase your life, paint and e-tickets. There’s lots of climbing and jumping involved.

There are times when you might prefer a different view, when you can activate Mickey’s view. This shows what’s onscreen the way Mickey sees it. Mickey’s view is easy to activate, just the press of one button. I did have some trouble deactivating it at times. In the game you’ll need to find things and other characters. You’re challenged by elements like rivers of acid as well as enemies. One of the things I really like about this game is that even though Mickey fights enemies, the violence doesn’t show blood and guts. Mickey fights with paint and thinner, and the occasional special move.
GAME TRAILER

Disney Epic Mickey is rated Rating E10+. It currently retails for approximately $49.99 and is available for purchase in stores nationwide and online.
I’d say that the age recommendation on this game is pretty accurate, ages 10 and up. It didn’t prove to be too easy or difficult for anyone in our family. It seemed just right to me, probably because the game adapts as you play and the choices you make have a big effect on outcomes. I’m still playing the game, I haven’t beaten it yet. I also haven’t tired of it yet. I don’t say that I love many games but I do love this game and recommend it highly.
MORE INFO
Disney Epic Mickey on Facebook
Disney Epic Mickey YouTube channel
The product featured was provided free of cost to me for the sole purpose of product testing and review. This post has not been monetarily compensated and is based on the views and opinions of my family and/or self. Please note that the opinions reflected in this post have not been influenced by the sponsor in any way.