Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

While there have been a lot of people hyped up for Epic Mickey, I have not been one of them.  I should be as I am a huge fan of Warren Spector, but that tends to clash with my hatred for most things Disney.  But I do know that Epic Mickey is a big title for Disney and for the Nintendo Wii, so I decided to take a look at a presentation that Vince Griffen was giving for the title at the Disney Interactive booth.

In Epic Mickey, you play as Mickey Mouse, as he tries to save the world of Wasteland.  Wasteland is a place where old Disney creations go to live our their days, forgotten by the rest of the world as new cartoons and attractions come into play.  Mickey has been causing mischief around the Disney Animation Studios and while he is playing, he caused a evil monster to be created that causes havok in the world of Wasteland.  Instead of leaving and letting the destruction occur, Mickey feels compelled to fix his mistake and enters the world or Wasteland to battle the evil and restore order.

The idea of Wasteland is a novel concept for this game because it has allowed Junction Point Studios to dive into the vaults of Walt Disney and pull out creations and attractions that people may have forgotten about over the years.  The main focus of this vault dwelling is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.  For those that might not be aware, Oswald was the first creation that Walt Disney created, and due to some royalty issues, he lost the rights to the creation, which in turn lead to his creating Mickey Mouse.  Oswald however, did not achieve the fame and fortune that Mickey had and he has become bitter over the years, yet he has become a protector for the world of Wasteland.

In our demonstration for Epic Mickey, we were in what I believe was called Ventureland, a segment of Wasteland.  There are unique areas in Wasteland, and each have a theme.  Walking around this area, it is immediately apparent into how much vault diving has happened at the Disney Studios.  In this area of Wasteland, we got to see the old Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse attraction that was at Disneyland for years until it was remodeled with a Tarzan theme.  Also, was an older version of the old school Tiki House Room before it was remodeled several years ago with a Dole Pineapple sponsorship.  Also, as an old school throwback, you collect tickets as a collectible in Epic Mickey.  For those that are a bit older, you might remember when Disneyland did not have an unlimited pass like it does today.  Instead, you bought staged tickets rated from A-E with the higher tickets going towards the bigger rides.  I loved this trip down nostalgia lane, but I wonder if  these little touches will be lost on a younger audience.

So, after we did a little exploring around, we met a pirate called Damien Salt.  Damian Salt had an item that we needed, but in order for him to help us, we had to help him with finding three masks and finding the way to the heart of Henrietta the Cow, a black and white character from som old school Disney cartoons.  Looking for the masks we found one up in the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse.  So we had to navigate our way to the top which showed off the first mechanic in Epic Mickey, which is paint.  Surfaces and items in the land of Wasteland have been washed out, but Mickey can bring them back into the scene by painting them.  However, it takes a keen eye to find these paintable items, and it will add a reward for those that do find them and use them to navigate to a quest item.  However, you can get to items using multiple paths, so if you just want to get to the location as quick as possible, you can find another route.

The other power that you have at your disposal is Thinner.  With thinner, you can make areas of the world dissolve and disappear from view, allowing Mickey to gain access to new areas.  We got to see this power in action in a rather devious way.  We found the first mask in the top of the treehouse, and we brought it to Damien, and he put them in his treasure chest behind him.  We used the thinner to disolve a wall of the building behind Damien and we were able to get to the treasure chest, steal the mask and give it back to Damien Salt two more times.  This was a great feature to find, as it takes the core elements that Warren Spector is known for in his games.  Giving the players multiple paths and play styles to complete a mission objective.  If you were not creative enough to do this, you could have found the three masks and garnered the same result, but it is that choice that makes Epic Mickey so great.

Epic Mickey is visually striking with the world of Wasteland being a dark and depressing place to inhabit.  Mickey contrasts this with his paintbrush, bringing lost of color and toonish feel back to the world.  While I enjoyed the visuals of the game, I can see that people will either love it or hate it right off the bat.  Sure, we could vent that the platform might be the wrong choice for a game that has a lot dependent on visuals, but the controls fit the gameplay very nicely, making me think that it would be less of a game on the 360 or PS3.

One place that did need a bit more work were the camera controls.  Moving the camera around requires you to use the d-pad on the Wiimote, and this just did not offer a lot in the way of fidelity for moving the camera.  I am not sure if they can find a better way to control it, but I had a lot of issues with getting myself into the right persepctive.  I am sure that with time, I will probably get use to the controls, but they do need to tweak the camera controls.

With my appointment running low on time, I did not get to see the rest of the Epic Mickey demo, but from what I got to play through up to that point, I really feel that there is a lot of care and devotion being put into the game by Junction Point Studios.  I feel that this is a labor of love for Warren Spector, and the more I hear him talk about infusing story and soul into a game, I feel that he is capturing those themes perfectly.  Epic Mickey is suppose to hit as a Holiday 2010 release, and I look forward to seeing the final product at release.