Disney Epic Mickey 2 and Power of Illusion

[Dreamchild]

Whether you loved Disney Epic Mickey or thought it was a very bitter disappointment (I'm in the latter category), Disney Epic Mickey 2 has been confirmed... accidentally.

There was an online newsletter published by Disney that seemed to have accidentally outed Epic Mickey 2 before its official announcement. Here's what the newsletter (which has since pulled down the info) stated:

Disney Epic Mickey 2 is the latest game in the critically acclaimed Disney Epic Mickey videogame series. In this all-new action-platforming game available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii, Mickey embarks on an epic journey and is pulled back into a world filled with Disney’s forgotten characters. Players can choose to play single-player as Mickey or for the first time players can also choose 2-player split screen mode. In the 2 player mode one person can play as Mickey wielding magic paint and paint thinner to dynamically change the world and the second player can play as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit – Walt Disney’s first cartoon star – with the power to fly like a helicopter and use electricity to fight or friend enemies and solve challenges. Team-up and choose your path to save this forgotten world because the choices you make will alter the story and change the end of the game!

While Epic Mickey had one of the greatest concepts of any Wii game, it was also the most disappointing Wii game, for me. This sequel would have to be very, very vastly improved over the original for me to even consider giving it a rental. But that's just my two cents.

What do you think, sirs?

Source: wii.nintendolife.com/news/2011/12/disney_newsletter_accidentally_outs_epic_mickey_2

[Cold Shadow]

Nope. Not getting my money this time. Epic Mickey was garbage. Even as a Disney fan (not to be confused with the former user, Disney Fan, derp) there was no redeeming it from its numerous, numerous flaws. I could rant on and on, but... suffice to say I will be passing on Epic Mickey 2.

[Rapunzel]

...and that's all I have to say. ;D

[The Wastelander]

Well, in Disney's defense, it would only seem natural to make a sequel after selling 1.3 million copies in only the first month. Besides that, there are so many things that Disney has in their vaults that fit Epic Mickey's standards for what exactly is considered forgotten that they simply had to make two games to get it all in there. I end this message with a video showing my own personal excitement.

PRESTO

[Donald Duck]

Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two is confirmed. But you know what's also confirmed? A different Epic Mickey game for the Nintendo 3DS. Details are sparse, but the 3DS game is titled Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion. Credit where it's due: this is an awesome reference to the classic Illusion games starring Mickey Mouse. Actually, I don't know for sure if that's a reference, but it ought to be.

All that's known about the 3DS game is that it is being developed by DreamRift.

As for Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, the trailer is below. Unlike the first game, which is a Wii exclusive, this sequel will be released on the Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.



The next upcoming issue of Nintendo Power will reveal more details about both games, to those interested.



Source: www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/03/epic_mickey_power_of_illusion_confirmed_for_3ds

[Rapunzel]

The Power of Two? That sounds like a bad pokemon movie title. XB

Granted the graphics look pretty but ehhh...I STILL don't know. Graphics alone do NOT a good game make, no matter what anyone says...and plus, I was pretty danged dissapointed with the first one. :/ I may give it a rental...at the very least.

[Cold Shadow]

I hope Mickey and Oswald team up to defeat the atrocious camera and motion controls.

[Donald Duck]

And get rid of the fetch quests, and for the love of Pete, don't make us repeat those cartoon reel stages just to get from Point A to Point B EVERY SINGLE TIME.

[Alice]

Remember in my last post? I said, "Credit where it's due: this is an awesome reference to the classic Illusion games starring Mickey Mouse. Actually, I don't know for sure if that's a reference, but it ought to be." Well, according to the leaked article which will be found in the upcoming Nintendo Power issue (this April), this game is a sequel to Castle of Illusion. Or, at least, a spiritual sequel.

"As a 2D platformer, the game uses hand-drawn sprites instead of 3D models, with parallax scrolling backgrounds a nod back to the game's 16-bit predecessor. Each stage is based on a previous Disney cartoon, from Sleeping Beauty to Tangled." Okay, I have to confess: that sounds pretty badass.

"The painting mechanic survives too, with the stylus and touch screen used to 'paint' items into existence by tracing their outlines: the neater the lines, the better the result. One example is a cannon — paint it perfectly and it'll damage only your enemies, but mess it up and it could backfire."

Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion currently has no release date, but it's expected to hit the Nintendo 3DS around the same time The Power of Two becomes available. For what it's worth, Power of Two is expected to be released this fall.

Admittedly, Power of Illusion has piqued my interest. I'm eager to see screenshots.

Source: www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/03/epic_mickey_on_3ds_is_a_castle_of_illusion_sequel

[Alice]

A screenshot from The Power of Illusion has been leaked, and it definitely looks Castle of Illusion-based. And it features Scrooge McDuck! Too bad this is a low quality magazine scan; I'm sure the actual game will look even better.



Color me giddy.

Source: www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/03/first_epic_mickey_3ds_screen_shows_scrooge_mcduck#comment1110320

[The Wastelander]

I still say people should give Power of Two a chance before saying it had the same problems as the last one.

[Alice]

Mar 29, 2012 6:06:07 GMT -8 The Wastelander said:

I still say people should give Power of Two a chance before saying it had the same problems as the last one.

Fair enough! I'll stop cracking jokes and instead focus on the news. And, boy, do I have a lot of news to share! Let's get started.

For some reason, I received the latest Nintendo Power issue before it was expected to hit stores. I don't know if subscribers get the magazine earlier, but there you have it. I'll see if I can make a new post tonight with magazine scans (no promises), but, in the meantime, I'll just give you the articles in thumbnail.

• As previously stated, Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two will feature co-op. Player one will always be Mickey, but player two can jump in at any time and play Oswald. Mickey has his paint brush, but Oswald has an electric remote control/zapper of some sort that pretty much acts similarly. Also, Oswald can use his ears as a helicopter, and, in a nod to his original animated shorts, he can take off one of his limbs and throw it as a boomerang. Maybe this means player two will have more fun...? Oswald will have a more prominent role than he did in the last game, and, from the Nintendo Power article, it seems like he'll join Mickey, even if there isn't a second player. Meaning, Oswald will be played by an artificial intelligence when not played by a biological intelligence.
  
  
• One of the minor criticisms of the first game was that the cutscenes weren't fully voiced, and instead relied on grunts. Warren Spector himself admitted this was a "mistake," and so every character in every cutscene will be fully voiced. Veteran voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice samples for Oswald in Epic Mickey 2, and it's confirmed he will return, this time completely voicing the character. In my opinion, the most out-of-left-field/surprising news revealed in the article is that Gus Gremlin is not only returning, but he'll be fully voiced by Cary Elwes. As you wish!
  
  
• This game is going to be a musical. It's going to have songs. The first song number appears to be from the Mad Doctor, who returns. He kickstarts the story: he returns to OsTown and begs (through song) for forgiveness. Oswald is won over, but Ortensia and Gus Gremlin are less convinced, and summon Mickey back to find out what's up. That's what was revealed in the article, anyway.
  
  
• James Dooley is once again the composer, but the songs are penned by Mike Himelstein.
  
  
• The Nintendo Power staff has played an extensive demo, and they say the camera is much better. "Indeed, even at this early stage of development, the improvement we saw during our demo was dramatic. The camera does a much better job of following Mickey's brush and framing the action than it did in the first game--so much so that we felt compelled to manually adjust our viewpoint on only a couple of occasions."
  
  
• The animated short reels, which served as a transition between locations, only appear half the time. The other half consists of something called Dahl Engineering Corridors. (Could this be a reference to Roald Dahl, creator of the gremlins?) The DEC are evidently Rube Goldberg-esque machines that you have to complete.
  
  
• Playstyle matters has really been overhauled, and now the decisions and choices are bigger and more important than in the first game. Only the ending was affected. This time, the decisions the player makes seem to be more major.
  
  
• The paint and thinner will affect locations with a finality that was lacking in the first game. Now if you paint a spot, it will stay that way even when you return.
  
  
• Award-winning comic book writer Marv Wolfman has helped pen the story, and contributed to the dialog.
  
  
• Coming to Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

We'll see if all of these facts remain in place when the game is released this fall.

---

Now to talk about Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion. This game has definitely piqued my interest because of its complexity. While it is an installment in the Epic Mickey franchise, it is also a direct sequel to one of my favorite Disney games from my childhood, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. (Though I actually preferred World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, but you can't win 'em all!)

• Power of Illusion is being developed by DreamRift.
  
  
• The game will have a deliberate retro feel, with hand-drawn sprites and backgrounds that reflect the 16-bit era. That said, the game will have stereoscopic 3D (this game will be released on the Nintendo 3DS, after all).
  
  
• Mizrabel, the primary villain from Castle of Illusion, returns as the main villain in Power of Illusion. Despite the original game's ending, she seems to be back to her wicked ways...
  
  
• Like in Castle of Illusion, Minnie Mouse is evidently captured, and Mickey runs full speed in the castle to rescue her. However, Oswald plays an important role: "Oswald is responsible for calling Mickey back to Wasteland and setting him on his way into the Castle of Illusion at the beginning of our story. Oswald will be instrumental throughout the game in helping Mickey to complete his quest within the castle," says DreamRift co-founder and creative director Peter Ong.
  
  
• The entire game takes place in the castle, of course. The castle is now inside the Wasteland, and Mizrabel, having been deemed "forgotten and obscure," is none too happy. She hatches a scheme which somehow involves taking inspiration from many popular and classic animated Disney films, which include Alice in Wonderland (SOLD!), Beauty and the Beast, and Peter Pan. Sleeping Beauty and the very recent Tangled have also been name dropped, but Peter Ong was quick to reveal that they weren't final, and could very well not make the final product.
  
  
• Most of the demo played by the Nintendo Power staff focused on Peter Pan, specifically the Jolly Roger. Mickey helped Peter Pan... or an illusion of him, at least. Once helped, Peter followed Mickey Mouse throughout the level. The screenshots confirmed that Captain Hook is a boss fight. All the bosses in the game will be classic Disney characters... or illusions of them. (The story presented in the article is admittedly a little confusing, and I hope the final game will explain it clearly.)
  
  
• Although the Disney worlds may actually resemble said worlds, the whole thing still takes place in the Castle of Illusion. Therefore, in a very intriguing twist, you'll occasionally see evidence of the castle's interiors in the background. For example, there is a magazine scan of the Peter Pan level that, for the most part, perfectly resembles the Jolly Roger and the Never Land background. However, there is a spot where a large castle archway is blended with the Never Land sky. Details like this will be seen throughout the game.
  
  
• Characters confrimed via screenshots include Peter Pan, the Beast, Scrooge McDuck (Warren Spector's favorite Disney character, by the way), the Beast, and Captain Hook. As you help each good character, they will join Mickey Mouse in his 'fortress,' in what I assume will be the hub. Characters will incrementally join Mickey and spruce up his 'fortress,' which is a self-admitted homage to Suikoden. Peter Ong and Warren Spector are huge fans of Suikoden, and that was of the factors that contributed to their mutual friendship.
  
  
• Because it's also part of Epic Mickey, the paintbrush and thinner will be tools during gameplay. From what I gather, the action can be stopped and you can either use a paint or a thinner technique to do damage to enemies... or to yourself, if you're not careful.

Like The Power of Two, Power of Illusion is expected to hit stores this fall.

For more information, refer to the latest issue of Nintendo Power.

[Dreamchild]

Thanks for uploading a bunch of screenshots, GamesRadar!

Here is what I was talking about, regarding how the Castle of Illusion's interiors can mesh with the Disney world illusions.

[Donald Duck]

Power of Illusion was briefly discussed in the recent webcast in Europe, Nintendo Direct.



Also, here's a much higher quality version of that screencap with Scrooge.

[Donald Duck]

Here's a behind-the-scenes video for The Power of Two. You can also hear some very brief examples of full voice over, specifically from the Mad Doctor and Oswald (voiced by legendary voice actor Frank Welker).

[Alice]

Check out this concept art.

Please let Alice make an appearance in the game. Please, please, please, please let her appear. If a 16 bit-esque sprite of Alice was in stereoscopic 3D, I will seriously die a happy man.

[Dreamchild]

It seems Warren really wants Epic Mickey 2 to be better than the first.

[Dreamchild]

A demo of Power of Illusion is available now. If you have a 3DS, you can connect to the Internet, go to the eShop, and download it right now. It's a little over 800 blocks, if I recall correctly.

Here are my first impressions. This game doesn't actually go all the way to get the retro vibe, but we already knew that from screenshots. The music is very high quality synth (even better than Epic Mickey's, in my opinion), not 16-bit. Similarly, the opening cutscene, in the form of high quality static paintings, are hardly retro. Really, the retro vibe doesn't really start until Mickey enters the Castle of Illusion itself... which kinda makes sense, now that I think about it. Oswald and Jiminy are sidekicks in this game.

Anyway, the music is really cool, I think. And I got very happy actually playing the game at long last, even in demo form. As we've known for a while now, Mizrabel actually takes on the guises of popular Disney villains, so while she's mostly poses as Maleficent, she also dons the sprites of the Old Witch, the Wicked Queen Hades, Scar, Gaston, and even Cruella de Vil. Seeing all of these familiar faces in detailed sprite form brought a grin to my face.

Gameplay wise, it's pretty much Castle of Illusion but with more depth. You still have to press a button to get Mickey to, while in the air, bring his ass down to lay waste on an enemy's head. Time it juuuuust right, and you can launch high into the air. The sound effects are the same, and some of the music, I believe, are recomposed tracks originally from Castle of Illusion, but it's been so long I really can't say for sure. If you love old Disney 16-bit games, and you should, then this game is for you.

Paint and thinner are back, of course. You can use either to shoot at enemies, but more importantly they're used to alter objects, either by taking them away or creating them. For example, with paint you can tap on a silhouette when it appears on the bottom screen (the bottom screen has a map that's on-synch with the top screen), and then have to trace the outline of the object directly onto the bottom screen with your stylus. I thought tracing to get a PERFECT score would've been easy, but to be honest, it's really not as easy as it looks. Then again, it's hard to screw up completely, so get used to seeing GOOD. Thinner is much simpler, because you just wipe the object off the bottom screen until it's empty, but you can't just scrub willy nilly. Scrub too haphazardly and you get scolded. The better you use paint or thinner this way, the more power you get. Unfortunately, the demo was over before I could figure out what this power does.

A huge draw for most of us is rescuing Disney characters, or at least essences of them, from the Castle of Illusion. In my demo, I saved Beast, Uncle Scrooge, Wendy, Peter Pan, and Goofy. That's quite the star-studded cast, and that only happened in about ten minutes! It looks like there's a ton of characters to find and take back to the Fortress. Once in the Fortress, each character takes up a room and they model it to look more like their home. For example, Scrooge's room gradually resembles more and more like his Money Bin's office. Wendy yearns for her bedroom. And Goofy's shack looks like a child killer's home, fittingly enough.

I was terrified that these characters would have no purpose other than to say, "I'm here, too." Once they're in the Fortress, they become useful. Scrooge even starts up a store! How cool is that? And his penny-pinching comments are just as amusing as ever. ("For helping me out, I'll give ye a discount. How does half a penny sound? Wait, no. Too much.") Each character gives out quests. Scrooge can only open his store if he gets his lucky dime, for example, which you find in a level. Same goes for Rapunzel's frying pan. Beast is terrified that his magic rose is gone, but if you paint it back into existence, he gives you a reward. Honestly, people, Power of Illusion is probably the closest we'll get to Fantasmic Kingdom: The Video Game, officially published by Disney.

Mickey's jump and fall are very floaty, which took me some time to get used to. (I'm so used to Mario's physics.) Also, Mickey's constant noises are annoying, and I wish they were restricted to happen only every few jumps, not every jump. No, I don't hate Mickey's voice, but when you hear "HUWH! YAH! HUWH! YAH!" every frickin' time you jump, it really does grate.

Overall, this was a solid demo that sold me. I dunno about you! The demo ended just before I could fight Captain Hook, so that was frustrating. The game is released on November 18 at retail, but also November 17 at around 9 PM PST, and midnight November 18 EST on the Nintendo eShop as a downloadable.

Edit: I forgot to mention the stereoscopic 3D. It looks great. Because it's a 2D game, the background and foreground have several layers, and they're done tactfully, almost like a multipane camera effect. It looks very nice, even on the 3DS XL's blown up screen!

[Alice]

Well, I'm sold.

[The Wastelander]

Well, I got Epic Mickey: Power of Two for Christmas. While I loved the look, the story, the fact Frank Welker gets to actually talk like Oswald, and the better effects the choices have on the ending. I'm afraid it has the one problem I hate most...

The Same Camera of the Last Game.



I hate it when you guys are right about video games.