Epic Mickey spoiler-free review!
Dec. 31st, 2010 07:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brendalaI finished Epic Mickey a few days ago and I absolutely LOVED it. The Gameplay was hit-and-miss; but the story was fantastic! Granted, the story is best appreciated if you're an animation buff and/or Disney fan who already knows the history behind Oswald The Lucky Rabbit and how he contributed to Mickey Mouse's creation. But I think the story stands pretty well on it's own and could also be enjoyed by newbies as a regular "long lost brothers reunite and reconcile" story.
BTW, my sister and I couldn't stop ourselves from calling the thinner "dip". I can't be the only one who had that problem. XD
THE PROS:
-The story: The plot was well done and surprisingly emotional (especially the Walt references). And Oswald is a fabulous character. I hope this game manages to help him get back some of his old fame (and I want to see some Oswald plushies next time I go to Disneyland!!)
-The moral choice system: Being good or bad doesn't appear to effect the ending all that much. All it seems to do is change how some of the NPCs treat Mickey and what kind of quests and goodies Mickey can get. That said, it's ridiculously fun to decide weather to help the Pete family or kill most of them off (*cue evil laughter*).
-The Attention to detail: My younger sister spends a LOT of time at Disneyland and she adored spotting familiar sights in "Mean Street". And other little things (like all the merchandise you can spot in the "junkyard" level) makes it clear that the people who made this game did so with love and a ton of nerdyness.
-The Paint &Dip Thinner Controls: The controls are very easy to learn and get the hang of. And Mickey's movements and jumps work just fine, too.
-The difficulty curve: The game did a great job of easing the player into it by amping up the difficultly just a tiny bit in each new level. I never felt like the game suddenly and/or unfairly spiked up the challenge on me.
THE CONS:
-The camera hates you: That camera caused me to cuss out the game in frustration more times than I can count! The "center-camera" button NEVER worked when I needed it to and I gave up on trying to explore certain hidden areas solely because the camera's refusal to co-operate made it too difficult. The camera wasn't bad enough to render the game unplayable; but it does make many sections (and one particular boss battle) MUCH harder than they need to be.
-Auto save: There was nothing "wrong" with the auto-save system per se. I just wish the game had given me the option to turn it off and choose when to save on my own. The auto-save chose odd times to kick in and that rendered me incapable of fixing a few goofs I made (like giving a quest item to the wrong character). It would have also been nice to be able to save my game on a different save file so I could go back to a certain level and just goof around in it.
-Too Many Dull Fetch Quests: I got a little tired of having to constantly travel back and forth via the side scrolling levels in order to complete annoying, repetitive fetch quests. Granted, not all the fetch quests are mandatory to finish the game. But a LOT of them are. At one point in the game, I had to spend over an hour fetching Item-1 for Person-A so he can give me the item that Person-B wants so that Person-C will fall in love with him and reward me with Item-2 and....well, you get the idea. :P
-The pins are worthless: One of the sidequests in this game involves finding hidden bronze, silver, and gold pins hidden in secret spots throughout the game. And some of those secret spots are REALLY hard to get to. So I was a little pissed when I realized that the only thing you get for collecting those pins are bragging rights. I got much better rewards for collecting the film reels hidden in the side-scrolling levels (and those film reels are WAY easier to obtain than those stupid pins!).
Overall, I'd recommend Epic Mickey to anyone who loves Disney and/or enjoys a good platformer. I spent extra cash to get the special edition with the "making of" DVD (which was also awesome!) and the figurine and it was worth every penny!
I shall leave you with this incredible video of a performance artist creating some huge Epic Mickey concept art live on Sunset Boulevard!:
--
*sigh* If I knew the exact address of that painting, I'd totally make the 2 hour drive to Hollywood just to take a picture in front of it! ^_^
BTW, my sister and I couldn't stop ourselves from calling the thinner "dip". I can't be the only one who had that problem. XD
THE PROS:
-The story: The plot was well done and surprisingly emotional (especially the Walt references). And Oswald is a fabulous character. I hope this game manages to help him get back some of his old fame (and I want to see some Oswald plushies next time I go to Disneyland!!)
-The moral choice system: Being good or bad doesn't appear to effect the ending all that much. All it seems to do is change how some of the NPCs treat Mickey and what kind of quests and goodies Mickey can get. That said, it's ridiculously fun to decide weather to help the Pete family or kill most of them off (*cue evil laughter*).
-The Attention to detail: My younger sister spends a LOT of time at Disneyland and she adored spotting familiar sights in "Mean Street". And other little things (like all the merchandise you can spot in the "junkyard" level) makes it clear that the people who made this game did so with love and a ton of nerdyness.
-The Paint &
-The difficulty curve: The game did a great job of easing the player into it by amping up the difficultly just a tiny bit in each new level. I never felt like the game suddenly and/or unfairly spiked up the challenge on me.
THE CONS:
-The camera hates you: That camera caused me to cuss out the game in frustration more times than I can count! The "center-camera" button NEVER worked when I needed it to and I gave up on trying to explore certain hidden areas solely because the camera's refusal to co-operate made it too difficult. The camera wasn't bad enough to render the game unplayable; but it does make many sections (and one particular boss battle) MUCH harder than they need to be.
-Auto save: There was nothing "wrong" with the auto-save system per se. I just wish the game had given me the option to turn it off and choose when to save on my own. The auto-save chose odd times to kick in and that rendered me incapable of fixing a few goofs I made (like giving a quest item to the wrong character). It would have also been nice to be able to save my game on a different save file so I could go back to a certain level and just goof around in it.
-Too Many Dull Fetch Quests: I got a little tired of having to constantly travel back and forth via the side scrolling levels in order to complete annoying, repetitive fetch quests. Granted, not all the fetch quests are mandatory to finish the game. But a LOT of them are. At one point in the game, I had to spend over an hour fetching Item-1 for Person-A so he can give me the item that Person-B wants so that Person-C will fall in love with him and reward me with Item-2 and....well, you get the idea. :P
-The pins are worthless: One of the sidequests in this game involves finding hidden bronze, silver, and gold pins hidden in secret spots throughout the game. And some of those secret spots are REALLY hard to get to. So I was a little pissed when I realized that the only thing you get for collecting those pins are bragging rights. I got much better rewards for collecting the film reels hidden in the side-scrolling levels (and those film reels are WAY easier to obtain than those stupid pins!).
Overall, I'd recommend Epic Mickey to anyone who loves Disney and/or enjoys a good platformer. I spent extra cash to get the special edition with the "making of" DVD (which was also awesome!) and the figurine and it was worth every penny!
I shall leave you with this incredible video of a performance artist creating some huge Epic Mickey concept art live on Sunset Boulevard!:
--
*sigh* If I knew the exact address of that painting, I'd totally make the 2 hour drive to Hollywood just to take a picture in front of it! ^_^
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no subject
Date: 2010-12-31 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-31 07:22 pm (UTC)I was a bit amused by the pins, probably because I got to take part in the pin trading at Walt Disney World. They're just as useless there, but people love to collect them! I had fun collecting them in the game, and one of these days I'm sure I'll try to collect every one. Same with the reels. There was one I couldn't get, and it drove me crazy!
Lastly, I didn't find the camera that frustrating. It was certainly far from perfect, but it didn't ruin the game for me. That first battle with Small Pete is pretty brutal though!
Hey, did your sister finish her game yet?
no subject
Date: 2010-12-31 10:39 pm (UTC)You have to play through twice to get all the reels because there are two different exit projectors in the Gremlin village (I learned this by accident).
Jenn hasn't finished the game yet (she's still in Adventure Land). It's very hard to talk to her about it without spoiling her.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-01 05:36 pm (UTC)