Most Disney games released for the new consoles have been linked to new movies (e.g. Toy Story 3, Bolt, Up). However, Epic Mickey has been created from an original story and a new chapter to Mickey's story. The first Mickey game I have ever player was Mickey Mania for the Super Nintendo but the creators regurgitated the same game a few years later for the Playstation One only with a slightly different name. Disney obviously needed a new way of making money and without releasing the same game for a third time, they have created a different story and used the Wii controls to their full capacity.

As a fan of games that are based around cartoons and worlds full of colour, I asked for Epic Mickey for Christmas after seeing that is had won gaming awards. I clearly understood from reviews online that I was to expect an adventure game with a very strong storyline - and I was not disappointed.

The story begins where a mischievous Mickey discovers he can go through his mirror and starts painting and thinning a land that a wizard style character has created. Mickey then accidently creates the Shadow Blot Monster which sucks him into the 'Wasteland'. Here, is where game the game is played. The player soon learns about Oswald, the character that has been replaced by Mickey in the early 20th Century. Oswald at the start of the game tries to sabotage Mickey's adventure as revenge for being Walt Disney's favourite. Epic Mickey almost has two storylines running through the game because of both Oswald and the Shadow Blot. This is not to say this does not work since I found the story engaging and leaving me wanting to play it for longer.

The basis of game play in this game is using paint or thinner to determine the outcome of game play. Squirting thinner (green) and paint (blue) is done by aiming the Wii remote at the screen and pressing the appropriate button. Paint is seen as a 'friendly' type of weapon because it lets monsters become your friend and can attack other enemies on your behalf. Thinner however is seen as 'unfriendly as this dissolves enemies so they will not disturb you again. I personally like the idea of this as it gives the player the opportunity to decide how they want to play the game rather than having to do certain things in order to progress.

Epic Mickey also allows players to do mini tasks for other characters in the game. Whether it be proving Small Pete's innocence to the Gremlin's or finding Electronic Goofy/Daisy/Donald's missing body parts around the worlds, many of these tasks are optional. Many even have two paths of either a 'Thinner' (evil) decision or Paint (good). Using Small Pete as an example, the task is to find his log to prove he is not a bad guy. Players have the option of giving the log back to Small Pete (and reap the benefits later in the game) or give it to a Gremlin who will offer you a 'Pin' (which are essentially collectables). Again, this gives one options on how they would like to determine the outcome of the game.

However, one of the downsides of this game is the game designers have not checked out camera angles properly. Sometimes the camera can zoom in or out causing game play to be very difficult especially when you are trying to fight some of the blot monsters. The player has no options on changing the camera angles at times when they most need to. I feel this is one area where the creators should have considered manual camera control.

One thing Epic Mickey has tried to do is combine both old-school platform gaming and the more modern seamless format. The majority of the game is played in the 'seamless' style where you run around splatting paint and thinner everywhere. However, going between worlds you have to go through platformer style levels. These parts are quite fun - for a short while. The levels then become tedious toward the end of game play because you have to go to in and out of several worlds to complete certain tasks you have to go through these levels several times. The creators could have improved this by only having to run though the platformer levels once each stage of the game.

Overall, I feel that the previous review on this game has been a little harsh on it. Epic Mickey is not for the serious gamer, it was made for those who like a good story and like familiar characters. The story running through the game is strong and keeps you hooked and gives players options throughout game play. The only downside to this game is (eventually) tedious platform levels as well as shoddy camera angles. This is a great game for children since the controls are not hard to master and because it's Disney they will know a lot of the characters! This game is not a must buy but it certainly is not a game people should be put off from buying.