Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two Preview

Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of 2 is the sequel to the Wii exclusive Epic Mickey and is set for release on November 18, on a cavalcade of platforms such as Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and the Wii U. So a person technically has no excuse not to play this game. I recently had hands on time with game, as well as getting the chance to watch both developers and creators discuss changes and innovations to the Epic Mickey landscape.

The game is set some time after the shenanigans of the first Epic Mickey and some old enemies have now supposedly become allies. The Mad Doctor, who Mickey had projected into the stratosphere, has now returned as an ally to save Mickey and Oswald from the new threat of shadow-like enemies, exuding a Kingdom Hearts vibe.

Major changes to the game include, first and foremost, the addition of full voice acting to all of the characters that breathes new life into the game. Warren Spector had said that at first, they thought it best to keep the characters silent as they it would be a challenge to find the right voice and in an effort not to “ruin anyone’s childhood,” which was a driving ethos in development. Now, Mickey, Oswald, Oswald’s bit of strange, Ortensia and all the rest, are fully voice acted. A new and interesting audio addition is the Mad Doctor, who now sings all of his lines in true Disney fashion. Gus, Mickey’s gremlin helper, is fully voiced as well and provides helpful (if at a little redundant at times) help: “Invisible ink will make you… well, invisible!”

Another element that has been fixed since the last game was the camera angle. Devs and gamers alike protested at the sometimes awkward and intrusive camera angle hindered and frustrated gamers. Now while observing the game and playing, your camera levels stayed focused and did not get stuck behind objects or tear into scenery.

As for levels, they’re still as colourful and quirky as before. We’ll revisit old locations such as Wasteland’s town, but there are also new levels such as the vibrant Fantasia Workshop that a person will of course recognize from Disney’s Epic, Fantasia, which I’ll touch on shortly.

Weapons to Mickey’s arsenal include, once again, painter and thinner but their uses and impact have been expanded. The painter allows a player to construct pieces of the broken environment, say, a set of stairs or part of a broken house. Thinner, on the other hand, removes parts of the environments. A player can disintegrate the landscape to forge new paths and this dynamic became particular relevant in the Fantasia stage.

With the introduction of inkwells we have a change in gameplay. My first thought at the inkwells was how reminiscent it was of Mario 64. Inkwells can make you invincible for a period of time and bestow invisibility. The use of the invincibility inkwell allowed us to traverse a hazardous thinner/lava pit to continue on with the game. And the invisibility inkwell made it easy to pass through a camera sentry unscathed. These inkwells are also affected by the way in which the player plays the game. The latter door one could sneak past was the result of a less aggressive form of gameplay. If the player was more destructive, then the opportunity would arise to completely destroy the door. However, while the destructive paths may expedite your journey, they will reap fewer rewards. So, if you’re a keen collector of dollars then you may favour a friendlier route.

At the end of the Fantasia stage, we happened upon a room that had a giant machine which transported paint to a set of doors. The player had a choice to either move the pipes and funnels to make the contraption function properly, or they could take the more destructive route using thinner. This, while receiving protests from an NPC, did not seem to sway any invisible or intangible “good or bad” metre, which was a nice touch. We took the thinner route and by combining Mickey’s thinner ability and Oswald’s electrical ability and opened a new portal for us to take. To complete the puzzle, you have Oswald’s help, and can turn on the split-scren co-op mode that a 2nd player can jump in and out of seamlessly. This makes for quick and fun cooperative play without any messing about.

This portal whisked us to a D.E.C level. These D.E.C stages are 2D side-scrolling environments with the ability to travel further into the background and foreground to complete puzzles like rolling boulders into locations or knocking down targets. These levels were short and sweet, and a nice change to the pace of gameplay.

When we passed the D.E.C level, we found ourselves on the lower levels of a chasm where we had to move curtains of lava to make it through to the end of the level. Here we encountered the new automaton enemies which combined the toons with steampunk designs. You have the choice to either destroy these enemies with your thinner technique or recruit/friend them, to have an ally. And when you have conquered the maze, you find yourself at the end of the level and are able to view the alternate “paint” path you could’ve taken.

With the more the obvious changes behind us, there are also a number of smaller tweaks such as the costume customization and pins that held nothing but a collective value in the last game now altering abilities. The costumes can also affect where you start on the map thus altering the challenges and routes taken to the finish. Costumes and other collectables can be located in game, or they can be bought with the Mickey dollars. This means that if you miss a few things, they are not lost forever. And Spector claimed that it would take a player two to three playthroughs to travel all of the unknown roads.

One more little objective that was hinted at during our walkthrough was the opportunity to take scenic snapshots at various locales, harking back to actual Disneyland where we have specific snapshot points. This, while not confirmed, was plain for us to see.

Epic Mickey 2 is a very easy platformer to pick up and play, which for the broad age range it’s targeted at, was great to experience. Anyone familiar with the genre will be able to slink into familiar mechanics and guided simple gameplay. For fans of the last game and newcomers alike, Epic Mickey 2 seems like a fun-filled ride.