Disney Epic Mickey Rebrushed - Review
I can still recall when I first played Epic Mickey, it was September 2010 and I was at Disneyland and for some reason there were a few Disney videogames that could be played inside of Innoventions, so I played and I was hooked. When the game released that November, I made sure to pick it up and while I did enjoy the game, it had its issues and while the two follow up games were just as delightful, the original held a special place in my heart. Now 14 years later, the Wii original has been given a face lift, but was there more to this release than just a new lick of paint?
As with any Mickey Mouse based adventure, it starts with the mouse interacting with a mirror, as you would expect and once he pops through to the other side, he discovers the workshop of the sorcerer Yen Sid. Of course, Mickey loves getting into mischief and he starts messing around with the magical paintbrush that was left lying next to the map of the wasteland and inadvertently creates life in the form of a giant blob of paint. While attempting to undo his creation, Mickey is not careful and knocks a bottle of thinner onto the table and giving up, he runs back through the mirror before he is discovered. Many months later, Mickey is asleep in bed and then woken up when the giant paint monster drags him back through the mirror and into the wasteland. Once he comes to, he finds himself strapped onto a table about to be dissected by the Mad Doctor, but he gets free and makes his way out of the Dark Castle. Now finding himself in a world where things look familiar, but also not and with the world slowly being overrun by the blot, Mickey decides to help out and for that he needs help from the leader of the world, Oswald.
The story that is on offer here is the exact same that was in the Wii original, funny how that works, so if you have played that version then you know what you are getting here. As the beats were not new to me, some of the story moments did lose their impact a little, but that still didn’t divert from the fun adventure that it takes you on. One of the things that I would have loved to have seen is the story be expanded upon, there are a few moments where it feels like its forced into place, which is again due to how it was in the Wii release, so fixing those up here would have been good. Honestly though, as far as narratives go in a Mickey Mouse themed videogame, it does fall onto the stronger side, mostly due to how much it leverages from the decades of Disney characters and creations.
Speaking of that, if you are a Disney parks fan, then the Epic Mickey series is going to be a dream adventure for you, as they lean into it a lot. Now the main idea behind the wasteland is that it’s a location for characters to go once the world has forgotten about them, like with the lands leader Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the first character created by Walt Disney. That thinking is why you have Horace Horsecollar and Pete, in his various forms, running about the place. The wasteland itself is basically a slightly off version of Disneyland, with Mean Streat replacing Main Street, but all the lands that you visit fit alongside the lands from the actual park. Being able to explore Oztown, which is just Toontown with the first two letters removed and the first n rotated 90 degrees, feels familiar and not at the same time. A lot of the world is darker than you might expect for a Mickey Mouse game and that is by design, on one hand there is the damage that the blot has done, destroying what was meant to be a vibrant place for forgotten characters to live and the other is due to the paint and thinner mechanic.
As the original game was created for the Wii, at any point you could point at the screen and paint or erase parts of the world and it was a unique mechanic for its time. There are a few times when the origins of the Wii control scheme do rear their head and they manage somewhat ok here, but it is not the most flawless interpretation, but it gets the job done. This system of creation and destruction allows for a lot of creativity when it comes to world design, as what you see is not always going to be what you get. One of the first areas that you can truly let loose in is themed to the queue of It’s a Small World and a few other Fantasyland rides, here you can dissolve walls with thinner to access the workings behind the rides. As you explore more of the worlds, you will see outlines of objects that need to be painted back in, some of them will give you access to other areas, some just some more tickets. What is interesting about the game is that you can impact how enemies behave, based on your use of the paint or thinner, if you use paint on an enemy, you will turn them to your side and unlike some games, it works on bosses too. One boss has you returning a thrown item back at them and when stunned you throw one of the two options at them, if you use paint you heal the boss and people will give you cheer for it.
The cheer can lead to help, which can help with the side quests that you can undertake, many of which will reward you with sparks, which are needed to access new worlds. Sometimes though the reward are pins for your collection or just e-tickets which are currency in the world, they are also a Disneyland throwback and the term used to describe a big and thrilling ride. E-tickets are everywhere, defeat an enemy and get some tickets, smash open a trash can and get some tickets, paint in some object and you guessed it get some tickets. For the most part they really don’t have use, unless you want to complete your collection of art or animatronic pieces, but there is one use that is great, you can by pass projectors with them. Obviously I dislike having to spend money to essentially fast travel, but thankfully you can earn the tickets easy enough and while the projectors are fun enough, towards the end they are just annoying. Beyond tickets there are also film reels to collect and sketches to pick up, all of which can be viewed in the menu and just drive home how much nostalgia powers the game.
Speaking of nostalgia, it is a good time to address an issue I have with the game, the lack of voice acting. Ok, so Yen Sid does an introductory speech and one at the end of the game, but apart from grunts, yahoos and the occasional laugh, there is no speech in the game. Now I can kind of understand this for the Wii original, the game was running on a machine that was underpowered and honestly pushing the limits, but adding voice acting in the cutscenes here would have elevated the remaster to greater heights. The visual style of the cutscenes is still wonderful, though it doesn’t match with the rest of the games visuals, but having voices in them would have been fantastic. The rest of the games presentation is just incredible though, its like finally being able to see the original promise from the Wii delivered. Mickey sports an older look now, thankfully they didn’t replace the look with the updated version of the character, but it still holds up. The other characters like Mr Smee, Oswald and the Mad Doctor, all look great and you can see their personalities shine through in their animations.
The world itself is bursting at the seams with Disney love, though slightly twisted Disney love and the result is again a place that has a familiar tone to everything. Seeing Mean Street again, reminded me just how familiar it is to Disneyland’s Main Street, with the main shop in the same place, the ice cream store and Penny Arcade also in the familiar locations as well. The land I honestly had the least memory of was the Haunted Mansion themed land, its one of the later ones in the game, so I just didn’t spend as much time in it. Seeing a lot of familiar faces, albeit with different names, never got old and I often felt like that Leo pointing meme at times when I saw someone. The other aspect of the visuals is within the projectors, which take the gameplay from 3d platformer to side-scroller and while the gameplay is slimmed down, a lot of the familiar elements remain. What is great fun is seeing classic animated cartoons given new life in the games style and while skipping them is going to become standard very quickly, the first time through is just a delight. There are times when there are a few blurry textures that are pushed into your face, but they are not anything to be concerned about.
On the audio side of things, the game shines, well minus the lack of real voice acting. There are a lot of familiar tracks like a Pirates of the Caribbean score, from the ride and not the movie, or a few classic Mickey Mouse tunes. Of course, as the world is slightly askew, so are the songs and while you will understand the melodies behind them, it might take a moment or two. One area that I didn’t enjoy was with the games pause menu, if you go in to look at the art, change outfits or even just check what quests you have, the pause music is always playing and honestly it just annoyed me, as its catchy for all the wrong reasons. There was an odd thing that happened, when you leapt into a projector, any of them, the game would hard cut the music and it always irked me, like someone was hitting skip while your favourite song was playing.
If you are like me and you enjoyed Epic Mickey on the Wii, then you will love this updated release, as the game has the vibe of the original, but almost none of the jank. There are some odd moments with story, but they are carried over from the original so there isn’t a lot to do about that. The game plays much smoother now than it did, which is a welcome upgrade, and it might just be me but I would have loved to have seen some voice acting added to the game as well. Disney Epic Mickey Rebrushed is the result of taking a great game and making it even more wonderful, it is full of charm and a lot of Disney history, but most importantly it is a fun game that should easily paint a place in your heart.
The Score
9.0
Review code provided by THQ Nordic
The Pros
The game feels tighter overall and delivers on what the Wii release was setting out to do
Visually there is a lot of love shown to elements here, which amplify the incredible art style
The Cons
The lack of voice acting in the cutscenes feels like a missed opportunity
The projector stages, while fun, become a chore and paying to skip them feels cheap
