The Epic Mickey Played It Thread (because apparently it doesn't exist yet)

Games
1

So I’m surprised there isn’t a thread for this, as it’s turning out to be an absolutely spectacular game.

I’ve only put about two hours in to it so far, but the first impression is that the controls are really tight. Super responsive in a way that I’m not used to seeing in third person platformers. The aiming mechanic has almost no lag in it, which is a minor miracle for Wii. The jumping gives you full control while in the air, which is great, not that you really need it because most things involving a jump have them perfectly spaced so that you don’t really need to think about it – a jump will get you there, or a double jump, without much frustration or worrying about jumping at the very edge of an object.

Another thing which kicks ass is that you keep moving while doing your basic attack – a genius move if ever there was one.

The camera was frustrating at first, but now that I’m learning its quirks and how it works (for example, if you just walk up to an edge, it looks down for you, when previously I was standing back and forcing the camera down). It can be annoying to want to look around sometimes, but in general the camera is more useful than not, especially when compared to other games where you either can’t control the camera, or the camera is meant to be automatic. For instance, I’m playing AC:B at the same time, and I find that the camera automation in Mickey is far superior.

Now to the game itself… classic Warren Spector. One of the first sections provides you with a moral choice. Only, you can use emergent behavior to not have to make the choice. Interesting. The beginning of the game holds your hand a bit much, but it does open up.

And for all that it’s a kids game (because make no mistake, it certainly is), it’s one of those rare games aimed at kids that isn’t frustratingly puerile or condescending. For instance, you can flip through text really quick, and while the game pops up quest notes and gives you an idea of what to do, there’s often more relevant info in the quest description itself if you go look. I completely missed a particular choice last night because I wasn’t paying attention and the game didn’t blare it out of a loudspeaker at me. That particular choice, was a pin vs letting someone know that a particular guy hadn’t been a big douchebag. There’s no reward for the latter, other than knowing that you helped clear the name of some character you’ve barely met. Pretty sure that pin won’t be available until a second playthrough where I make the opposite choice. A bitch for collectors but interesting in terms of player choice and reward.

Overall, I’m really digging it, and there’s a lot more to it, I expect. So yeah. Surprised there wasn’t a thread for it.

2

I was all excited but got stuck fairly early because of camera problems or something. Now I’m frustrated.

Possible Spoiler but not really:

I’m in the room with a bunch of gears that you have to dissolve to get the platforms to stop rotating and let me out into the second floor of the “It’s a Small World” ride. I’m set up to shoot the last gear and get the last platform placed correctly, but the darn thinner won’t shoot the gear. It seems like there’s an invisible wall between me and the gear and I keep splashing on that. Sometimes when I jump and shoot it’ll go through, but that always leads to the platform not being placed correctly.

Are you playing with Wii Plus? I’m not sure that’s enabled for EM, but I’m finding the aiming just as wonky as it ever was on any Wii game.

Also, the save points aren’t very clear. I ended up leaving my Wii on pause all Tuesday night because I thought I hadn’t found the first save point. I’m still not sure where it saves, but I got frustrated enough with those gears that I just turned it off.

In some ways the game holds your hand too much (I already want to shoot all the gremlins), but in other ways not at all. I had no idea what the E-tickets were until I found the pause screen, and I still don’t know what they’re used for, if anything.

On the other hand, ink and thinner are available in abundance, and recharge slowly even if you can’t find any, so you can experiment with them. This leads to finding all sorts of secret stuff just in the first level.

3

Nope, not playing with Wii plus. It’s worth noting though that you have to be aware of reflections with respect to the wiimote. It will pick up other lights in the room as IR signals if you aren’t careful. I had to reposition from my normal gaming space because my pointer was glitching (even in the wii menus) because my dining room lights were being reflected by the IR bar.

The gears puzzle, you don’t actually have to stop all the gears, you can really just tweak the rotation of the gears relative to each other so that you can jump gear to gear while it’s moving. That’s what I did anyway. A bit of thinner on the first gear, then replace it with paint, and the momentum works for me instead of against me.

4

1.) Wii exclusive
2.) Mickey Mouse
3.) Warren Spector betrayed us all

What’s there to be surprised about?

5

Certainly not posts from the likes of you, I guess.

6

It’s the first time I’m using the Wii after having the TV mounted on the wall, so suddenly the sensor bar is angled down, and I’m a little off to the left, so it gets pretty wonky. If I stand up and go to the center it still seems wonky. Maybe because it’s angled down.

Going to try the Wii here at school today and see if the controls are better.

7

Does this game have Motion+ support?

8

I haven’t played it, but it’s sitting in the cellophane on my desk at home. We’re tossing it in as soon as the move is over beginning of January.

9

Maybe you can use the small plastic holder that comes with the Wii to mount the sensor to the wall so that it’s not crooked.

10

I’m definitely interested but I really need to clear some of my games in my backlog before I buy something new.

I’m glad to hear from reviews that the game did turn out alright.

11

Not that I’ve noticed.

12

How hard did you look?

I’ll be getting it eventually. I’m not much for platformers, so we’ll see.

13

A thread about the game dating from its announcement is not the same as a thread dedicated to discussing it while playing. A thread like this one leaves you a bit more free to discuss specifics in the game without the Spoiler Patrol descending on you like screeching harpies.

14

I see you are new here. So let me lay it out for you: Almost every game has two threads. The one that is started when the game is announced, or has a major PR push, and then bumped accordingly for prerelease, and the thread which is started to talk about actually putting your hands on it.

In fact, some games will have three threads, where the third one is a spoiler free (or alternately, spoiler filled) discussion thread.

Please, enjoy your stay, and next next time you assume I don’t know of a thread that I have posted in recently, I will flay you to death using my mind.

Thank you.

15

A year and over 500 posts means one is still new here? Dayyyumm!

This is one I’m wanting to play but won’t be able to unless I break down and get a shrink-wrap machine so I can stealthily bust into the kids’ Xmas goodies.

16

In comparison to someone who has been here 7 1/2 years with 14,000 posts? Yeah.

17

Newer? Sure. But outright new? No.

But mostly it’s a weak-sauce point usually made by someone who has nothing more than a higher post count to back up their so called argument.

I guess I just tend to give the benefit of the doubt that a post isn’t being snarky unless it’s obvious. And I read Rumpy’s “How hard did you look?” as a genuine question despite a less flattering interpretation being equally as likely.

18

Shut up noob.

19

I’m of two minds on this. I really love the world and the atmosphere. The lack of voice acting does feel weird to me, but it’s a minor gripe. There is a ridiculous amount of detail in the world, and crawling up a mountain of Mickey Mouse-related junk and realizing I just scaled over an old Mickey Mouse’s Magical Quest SNES cart was awesome.

I just… don’t enjoy the gameplay. A big part of that is the camera. I know the tricks, I’ve tried working with it, but the camera is a constant drag on everything else in the game. Considering that what I must want to do is look around the awesome world, it’s more of a problem them I would have expected. It is honestly one of the most game-ruining cameras I’ve seen in some time. I’ve seen worse cameras, but not ones that pull me out of the game this badly. I can’t imagine saying the camera automation in Mickey is better than Assassin’s Creed. Not that AC is great, but I only occasionally ran into a situation where I wanted to scream at the camera. In Epic Mickey, it is almost every moment of the game.

I can see all the things that the game does right and I want to keep playing for them. There’s a lot of genius here. I want to like the game very badly, but when every single movement I take ends up with me fighting the game, I get tired very quickly.

20

Ahh, well, I only mentioned it because there were in fact some impressions in it.