![]() ![]() The addition of two new types of ink – invisible and indelible – mixes the gameplay up somewhat, but rarely do they prove essential in any given objective. The slog of reviving dead machines over the course of 20 hours is exacerbated by audio cues that remind you of your task-at-hand in a never-ending loop (I guarantee you’ll end up wanting to throttle your gremlin compadre.) In a universe as rich as Disney’s, collecting missing pumps and inserting batteries into sockets leaves you yearning for something a little less pedestrian. While simplistic minute-to-minute gameplay is forgivable – this is a kid’s game, after all – Mickey’s central objectives eventually grow repetitive and tiresome. At least to the ear, Epic Mickey 2 does a good job at making you feel like you’re playing something much grander than a passable platformer.īecause for all its ambition, Epic Mickey 2 has failed to get some very basic features right. Although it won’t play at the forefront of your consciousness, the music subtly changes based on your decisions throughout the game. Like its predecessor, Epic Mickey 2’s score is excellent, a haunting mixture of children’s choruses, sweeping orchestra and throwbacks to tunes of yesteryear. ![]() For all the talk of Epic Mickey 2’s Broadway-style ambitions, they’re a nice but inessential touch. Strangely, these songs – all led with goofball gusto by the Mad Doctor - are too sporadic to leave a lasting impression. Characters now have voices, adding refreshing personality to fan favorites, and there’s the occasional musical number. The team has done well to create animations that retain Spector’s mad vision while feeling distinctively old-school.There are a couple of immediately obvious new additions to the formula. These are a stunning visual highlight, Powerhouse capturing a character’s bemusement or glee with just a raise of a squiggle or a slight shift of a black dot. Lightning has struck twice for Powerhouse Studio, the outsourced animation team reunited to create Epic Mickey 2’s retro-flavored 2D cut-scenes. There’s pleasure to be found in Epic Mickey 2’s cut-scenes, too. These transitional sections - Frankenstein's Monster versions of classic Disney shorts - are the most visually arresting of Epic Mickey 2’s playable areas. The aesthetic is most endearing when Mickey and Oswald are traversing across 2D landscapes, which lean heavily towards the abstract. Spector’s peculiar combination of cold mechanics and warm Disney familiarity returns, and when it works, it sings: a door that requires you to pull a wooden Snow White and Prince Charming into an embrace is the sort of touch that lingers, as is a complex mechanical system activated by characters from Disneyland’s Main Street Parade. It’s a particular joy stumbling across a visual nod to a film or dusty old short you forgot the moment you hit puberty. References to Disney properties are everywhere, from old favorites like Pete’s Dragon to modern classics like The Nightmare Before Christmas. The game is again a journey of discovery through a world built from discarded Disney memorabilia and broken down animatronics, a heaving, twitching place that should be a delight to nosy around in for the Disney enthusiast. This time, he’s got a permanent partner in Oswald the Lucky Rabbit the more charming of the two by the width of a detachable arm. The newly-reformed Mad Doctor calls for a hero, a magical television is built, and voila! Mickey Mouse is again on a repair mission, armed with his trusty paintbrush that enables him to paint or thin out parts of his environment. ![]() ![]() Never a place to relax for long, Wasteland is now plagued by earthquakes, returning it to a pile of rubble and sputtering machinery. Play Epic Mickey 2 returns us once again to the Wasteland, the sprawling home to rejected or long forgotten toons from Disney’s considerable back-catalogue. ![]()
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