Evidence has emerged that Warren Spector’s Junction Point Studios is working on a game codenamed “Epic Mickey” for the Wii, offering a dark, steampunk-style take on Mickey Mouse and the Magic Kingdom.
Warren speculated that people would accuse him of selling out when they found out what he was working on, but I don’t see why they’d do that. What matters here is what kind of game this will be, not what IP he’s working with necessarily. I have no qualms with playing a Mickey Mouse game that’s well done.
What I am concerned by is that it’s for the Wii. I can only hope that if it turns out to be some kind of action rpg like Kingdom Hearts, that they let you control it with the Classic controller or the Gamecube controller. I’m not a fan of the wiimote+nunchuck for old-style games that are horned into that control scheme.
I hadn’t thought about that possiblity. That would suck. I don’t think that is too likely. At the moment, if it comes for the 360, it is still a must buy.
I don’t care about selling out, but making a game with a theme that’s actively uninteresting for a platform I don’t like is a waste of a great designer, from my perspective.
Plus I’ll be curious to see how well the concept art holds up to in-game art on the Wii. If there’s one thing I’ve really gotten used to in the 360/PS3 era, it’s that concept art now translates really really well into in-game art in games like the latest Prince of Persia, for example, where the in-game world almost looks exactly like what the concept artists first drew. The Xbox/PS2/GC/Wii don’t have quite the same translation from one media to the other.
I’m more concerned about the controls on the Wii than the graphics. I was watching a video about Marvel Super Hero squad on the Wii and it reminds me why platformers are almost always a bad idea on the Wii (except when Mario is involved)
I don’t care about selling out, but making a game with a theme that’s super interesting for a platform I own and am always looking to get great new games for seems like an unbelievably good use of a great designer, from my perspective.
Given that Square managed a relatively decent game (before their level design completely destroyed it) with Disney IP, hopefully Warren Spector can too. I’ll buy it and play it just because it is Warren Spector.
edit: Though I have to mention, it’s going to have to be better than DX for me to suffer the controls.
(Smarmy, I know.)
People seemed to overlook it, dunno why.
I was worried this was canceled, and it thankfully appears is not the case.
Didn’t expect this to ever leak, though.
This is about fifty times more interesting than whatever first person shooter/epic RPG he’d be working on in a world where he didn’t cross paths with Disney. If it is properly executed, I really think this will be his best game ever (guessing no one here, bar Whitta, is ready to make that leap of faith). Maybe TomChick will like this one. Maybe.
Well, it’ll be a solid test of the idea that a great designer can make a great game in any scenario. Who knows, maybe he’ll actually make the game that makes people care about the Wii.
