EPIC MICKEY

I must say my first impressions of this game were terrible. I was at Best Buy and could hardly hear anything and playing on a small, maladjusted crappy TV. I also didn't get too far since the game has a relatively long introduction and pretty spaced out tutorials.My best impressions came from being at a friend's house who had the game only because his wife is a huge Mickey Mouse fan. I took the opportunity to really sit down and play this game. Despite the nasty reviews this game has received I couldn't help but notice how much I was digging playing it. The further I got into the game the more and more I liked it even though the lag on my friend's LCD TV made the controls lag pretty badly, and the fact that the camera requires more attention than most games.Speaking of the camera lets talk about that. I can't believe people are throwing this game out because the camera is not perfect. Let's put it this way. People who claim that they die over and over again because they couldn't see where they were jumping to are simply moronic. The camera requires more intervention than most games do. You have 3 ways to manipulate the camera. L and R on the D-pad, the C button, and the 1 button. The D-pad camera controls seem to change the most from enabling you to pan completely around Mickey, to panning slightly to the left or right, or no control at all. The C button puts the camera behind Mickey. The 1 button puts you in first person. The D-pad camera controls are the most inconsistent as they change alot on what they allow you to do. The C button works most of the time, but sometimes is not allowed. The first person camera works 100% of the time. Also in first person you are still able to shoot paint and thinner as well as look in any direction as you wish. Despite the relatively complex camera functions, the camera never bothered me once and I never missed a jump because of them. If you like playing 3D platforming games, these camera control quirks should not bother you.This may come as a huge shock since this game is for the Wii, but this game is NOT for KIDS or CASUAL gamers at all. The controls will frustrate them to no end. Also this is sort of a dark game for Mickey, so don't expect any of that light hearted cutesy stuff that you've seen in every other Mickey game in the past. This is a real game. People who want easy and cutesy games need to be looking at Kirby's Epic Yarn. That game is perfect for little kids and casual only gamers.So now that we've established that this is a game for those who like reasonably challenging games, lets talk about the visuals. These are some of the cleanest graphics I've ever seen on the Wii. They're so clean they looked great on my friend's 46 inch LCD from about 6 feet away. This is the first game I've seen where the jagged edges were not very apparent. Even better than Mario Galaxy in alot of ways. With that ofcourse came some compromises. The game runs at 30 frames per second as opposed to 60 frames per second on Mario Galaxy. Also the game drops a few frames frequently as where Mario Galaxy is always smooth as silk. Nonetheless, Epic Mickey still plays great as the somewhat inconsistent frame rate never becomes an issue.So there is the good, the bad, and the ugly. I greatly enjoyed this game in the time I had with it, and plan to enjoy completing it when my very own copy arrives from Amazon.

Reviews for Epic Mickey have been all over the place. Not everyone "gets" this game, and more than a few openly despise Mickey Mouse, calling him a fossil, a relic and saying that anyone that likes Mickey Mouse is childish and unsophisticated.Well, apparently I'm childish and unsophisticated and so is Warren Spector, the creative force behind this game because we both love Mickey Mouse, at least what he used to be, an ultimately good hearted but sometimes mischievous rascal who had a tendency to get in over his head.The story is steeped in Disney lore, as Mickey's older brother, Oswald the lucky rabbit, has his life inadvertently ruined by Mickey's hijinks. Now, years later Mickey has to try to help his brother, fix the cartoon wasteland he resides in, and redeem his own past misdeeds. The game is fairly text heavy and the voice acting is limited to grunts, laughs, etc. This makes enormous sense considering the Oswald/ early Mickey shorts had no vocal acting to speak of.The graphics and sound are very, very good. While it maybe a bit dark and sometimes bleak, remember that this game takes place in a world that Mickey ruined, so it makes perfect sense. If you want to get an idea of the mood of the game, think of a Tim Burton film and you'll be pretty close.Okay, so Mickey is on a quest to fix his past mistakes. Another forgotten group of characters, the Gremlins (co-created with Roald Dahl) guide Mickey through his journey. This sounds like a pretty standard 3-d platformer so far, but a couple of features set it apart, and tie in well with the story.One, Mickey has a magic paintbrush, which can project a stream of paint to create and repair broken parts of the levels, and thinner which can eliminate parts and reveal secrets. These can also be used to befriend or melt enemies, respectively.Two, how Mickey utilizes his paint or thinner and his general behavior will influence how characters treat him or respond. You won't always realize when you've made a radical change, but the game responds to your choices later on.Quite frankly, despite all this game's charm, style, and imagination, there are some flaws. One, the camera isn't great, and takes constant adjustment to jump accurately. Second, this game is probably too hard for kids, which isn't really the target audience. This game is for old school Disney fans, people who like 3-d platforming, and people who have the patience to watch a good story unfold in a charming and touching way. I for one loved this game.