Does Epic Mickey Rebrushed Live Up To Its Name?

This article is part three of an ongoing series where I take 12 games suggested by 12 different friends, play them over the year. And then compile my thoughts and contrast them against why they thought I should give the titles a try. This article contains spoilers, so read with care.

What is Epic Mickey?

Back in 2010, Junction Point Studios released an incredibly ambitious title that would push the conventions of what Mickey Mouse usually followed and take a more sinister twist. Creating a villain out of the beloved Disney creation was not something fans would typically expect from the mouse, but the accidental devastation wreaked from his reckless actions painted a world of intrigue. They also decided to add a layer of complexity to the game by adding a morality system, either paint to save the doomed toons or thin it all away and plunge their world into everlasting darkness. The choice was yours.

You can’t discuss Epic Mickey without talking about the early concepts. There are lots of images flooding the internet of leaked documents and concept art of early designs for enemies and locales. It was clear that the original design philosophy was taking the usually child-friendly and happy Mickey and making his world as grotesque and disturbing as possible. Naturally, these designs were rejected by Disney, and what we have now is an incredibly tame version in comparison, which is a little disappointing. I’d have loved to see more unnerving abominations over the relatively safe inkblot enemies we have now.

The Review

Shockingly, for a 3D platforming fan such as myself, I had never played the original title before the remake. I wasn’t really into Nintendo at that point in my teenage years. I had played the sequel, though, on PS3 and enjoyed what I played, but the co-op elements were a little undercooked for my liking. My expectations going in were a similar experience to that, but without the tacked-on multiplayer, and I don’t believe I was too far off the mark. In terms of “Epicness”, I considered the sequel to be.. okay – safe even, without much bite. So, without further ado, here are my thoughts on Epic Mickey Rebrushed.

With Purple Lamp (of the recent SpongeBob game resurgence fame) running the helm this time around, I was optimistic that this remake would be true to the original, with a little more flair. From as far as I can tell from watching videos of the original post playthrough, they hit the mark excellently. The increased visual fidelity with the improved lighting goes very far to add to the ambience of the eerie worlds you explore.

Visually Impressive

Honestly, the overall visual design and feel of the worlds is very solid; they do a great job at presenting this forgotten world that has a cataclysmic event thrust upon it. The general feeling of hopelessness and decay in the world is very uninviting in the best way possible, with all the rust and broken structures.

The sky boxes have seen a huge upgrade, showing moody skies of blue and green with the moonlight often lighting your way. But, by far the best one is the looming tower of Oswald’s castle in the distance of OsTown, which works as a motivation point and an intimidating structure constantly watching over your journey. The hand-painted look of a lot of structures and backgrounds helps immerse you into the world too and contextualises the painting mechanic in a way the original didn’t quite manage to hit, in my opinion.

Mickey’s movement options are quite varied; he can perform the usual platforming moves but can use his paintbrush to befriend or erase enemies from existence, depending on your mood. Platforming always feels fun; there’s never a time when you feel like your movement options are too limited, and you can find fun ways around obstacles and climb up on structures. Between levels, Mickey must travel through his old cartoons in a 2D side-scrolling fashion to progress, which works as a throwback to his past in these movies and gaming combined (looking at you, Castle of Illusion).

It’s a Disney Story

I found the story to be a little uninspired. Mickey finds himself trapped and has to escape, either helping out the locals and improving their situation or destroying and hindering them. The actual choices you make don’t really matter; all they amount to is a different ending, which is pretty lacklustre and is mostly narrated anyway. Ultimately, while trying to escape and defeat the blot and the evil doctor, Mickey’s heart is stolen, and he must take it down to retrieve it and escape the wasteland. While Oswald’s motivations are interesting and travelling through the levels is visually stunning and investing, sadly, the plot is just there to push you from A to B, and any intrigue is quickly quashed.

Is 100% Worth It?

The completion process for this game is tiring, though. Playing through the same game twice with very few changes beyond some dialogue is pretty boring. The bosses of this game are defeated by either painting or thinning, resulting in a different ending depending on your decisions, but completing this process doesn’t really yield any differences in the immediate story. Instead, everyone acts the same regardless of how much of a cretin you’ve been. It isn’t until the narrator tells you off in the final cutscene that any weight of your actions actually comes to pass.

There are plenty of side quests to do, most are fetch quests that cause you to backtrack and forth through the same side-scrolling levels repeatedly. A few of these have morality decisions, but none matter towards your end result, making them feel pointless. On your good run, you’ll end up with more hearts due to your good-natured behaviour, but if you’re not careful, you’ll miss one or two and may end up needing a third playthrough.

My Conclusion

Epic Mickey Rebrushed is at its best when you’re exploring the levels, looking for pins and collectables, and even completing some tasks for NPCs. Resisting the urge to drop a safe on a character’s head for the sake of goodness, or purposefully screwing over another character just for laughs, can be fun, and I enjoyed these elements. The issue comes from trying to do everything; it’s monotonous, tedious and boring, especially with the tacked-on second playthrough.

The worlds are visual treats; the way they made the wasteland look in particular is what I wanted more of, but it ends so quickly. The other themes are great too, though, the haunted mansion, the pirate ships, all great looking and fleshed out themes that work tremendously. It’s just a shame they are inhabited by these bland, corporate safe ink droplets that all look and act the same and don’t really add any tension to the worlds they inhabit. While some of the original designs are maybe too horrific, maybe they shouldn’t have reeled in their original image as far as they did, but I can’t help but feel like this was due to corporate meddling.

Epic Mickey tries so hard to be dark and cool, but it misses the mark by a square mile. While it’s a fun and enjoyable 3D platformer and of a high quality, it reeks of missed potential and corporate meddling and doesn’t quite hit the highs its name would suggest. I recommend it to fans of Disney and platformers, but maybe don’t try to go for completion, you’ll end up with a sour taste in your mouth of repetition and little consequences to your bad behaviour.

Enjoyed this article? Why not check out the previous entry in this series here?