There's a lot of pomp, circumstance, and mystery surrounding Epic Mickey.
Previously, we just know it as an ambitious third-person action game
involving painting, choice, and the lost history of Disney animation.
But it's also being made by a guy whose resume focuses more on
first-person RPG (with a dash of shooter) experiences. What the hell
kind of platforming game is he going to make?
Well, as it turns out, he's making a pretty standard platformer. I don't
mean that in a demeaning, "after all the hullaballoo, he's making Just
Another Platformer." I just mean that from my brief play experience, it
so far plays like what would happen if Warren Spector made a
third-person platformer -- that there are solid mechanics that you'd
expect from the genre, but now there's a bit more decision making and
choice in the matter.
What I get to play is a sort of quest/hub area, replete with shops and
NPCs giving me things to do. It's where Smee, from Peter Pan tells me of the recent troubles he and his merry band of pirates (sans
Captain Hook; I'm not sure whether he comes up later, or is no longer
around, or maybe he's a boss character or some-such): their hideout has
been taken over by Blotlings (a sort of "evil inked" versions of Disney
personas) who've constructed a massive machine that converts pirates
into blotlings.
But that's getting ahead of myself. Initially, the pirate ship is
missing a few key components, and it's up to Mickey to retrieve them, by
doing various favors. One pirate who possesses the steering wheel
simply wants an item from the top of a nearby tree -- all it takes is
some simply platforming to retrieve it. Another fellow is madly in love
with Clarabelle the cow, and seeks advice about what to buy for her.
What's a bit interesting is that even in these little quests, there's an
element of choice. Disney doesn't consider Mickey's choices to be ones
of good or evil -- instead, they're considered "heroic" versus
"mischievous." The heroic deed is to find the item or offer a rose as a
gift to Clarabelle; the mischievous deed is to bypass getting the item
and simply pay with cash money, or to offer something that Clarabelle
dislikes -- thus causing the in-love pirate to get depressed and give
you the item anyhow.
The heroic-versus-mischievous dynamic becomes a bit more prominent when,
once the ship is assembled, you actually go to the Blot-possessed
hideout. There, you have two choices when dealing with the massive
machine: either use paint to deactivate it and help turn the converted
pirates back into their normal selves, or use thinner to overflow the
machine -- which will shut it down, but also prevent the pirates from
being "un-blotted."
Running around the island fortress and dealing with the blots gives some
pretty elementary examples of Epic Mickey gameplay. Depending on which
button you use while waving the Wii Remote around, you'll be using
either paint to create objects, or thinner to erase them. Paint is
useful in making platforms where there weren't any before, or for
stunning enemies or even having them temporarily help you by fighting
their former pals. Thinner is used to taking away obstacles in your path
-- or for outright elimination of foes.
Besides using Paint and Thinner to manipulate platforming elements and
foes, Mickey can also use "sketches," which are your basic one-time use
items. The only sketch on display for this demo is the television, which
serves as a great distraction. Plop a television down, and you can
either walk away from all the enemies who are busy watching it, or you
can take them out (it's worth noting that the distraction mechanic
effectively makes televisions a tool for stealth-centric players).
There's still a lot to see. Spector refuses to discuss what actually
happens when Mickey becomes either a Hero or a Scrapper (the formal term
for being overly mischievous). We haven't seen any worlds besides this
isolated pirate town and occupied lair. We haven't even seen any boss
encounters -- even those will have choices and non-violent resolutions
(Spector comments that, "everybody has a want, and if you fulfill that
want, you might not need to fight them"). Though, even with my brief
(about 10 minutes) playthrough, it's safe to say that Epic Mickey looks
like a pretty solid platformer (which is nice, coming from a team that
hasn't really made platformers before) with some intriguing hooks that I
want to see more of later.
