Epic Mickey is a fun romp through the forgotten locations of ye olde Disney episodes replete with the characters that were dropped from once popular cartoons. I am a massive Disney fan and know a lot about the history of Disney and their older cartoons, so for me this game was an awesome nostalgia trip, but I'm sure that any fans of Disney unfamiliar with the characters and setting would find it just as amusing.

=Plot=
A young Mickey Mouse, before he finds fame, stumbles into Yen Sid's (the sorcerer from 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice') workshop. There he finds a model of the world Yen Sid has created and the magical paintbrush he used. While playing with the paintbrush Mickey accidentally creates a paint blob monster, he tries to use paint thinner to undo what he has done but in doing so he drops both paint and thinner onto the world model. Seeing Yen Sid approach Mickey runs, leaving the model in ruin and the Shadow Blot disappears into it.

Decades pass and Mickey becomes more and more famous until the Blot returns and pulls him into the model now dubbed 'the wasteland'. The world's original ruler Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (Disney's first main protagonist) has lost his kingdom to the Blot and companion; a mad doctor. They have a plan to kidnap Mickey and steal his heart (echoes of Kingdom Hearts). As forgotten characters they have no hearts and hope that by stealing Mickey's they can leave their wasteland and take over the real world. Despite Oswald's insane jealousy of Mickey's fame he helps him escape and Mickey, paintbrush in hand, goes to try and rectify the damage he did by introducing the Blot into the kingdom.

=Setting=
The game features three types of worlds; hub worlds, action worlds and travel worlds. Hub worlds act as your rest period where you gather information, interact with Disney characters from the old cartoons and buy items. The six hub worlds are based on parallels of Disney locations and rides from Disneyland. Action worlds allow you to progress the storyline, complete the game's quests and fight the bosses. Action worlds take their inspiration from popular Disney films. Finally travel worlds do exactly what it says on the tin, gets you from hub worlds to action worlds. Personally travel worlds are my favourite. They're short, 2D, side scrolling levels that take you through very early black and white Disney cartoons.

=Gameplay=
Epic Mickey is a platform game combining 3D elements for the main segments and the 2D side scrolling for the mini travel levels. The camera angles leave a lot to be desired and many times it is incredibly frustrating to perform a very simple task just because you can't alter the camera angles. Enemies range from the very easy to the downright nigh impossible to kill without losing a great deal of life in the process and there's nothing worse than being beaten to death because of a rubbish camera angle.

Mickey's only weapon/tool is a paintbrush and you can alternate between using paint and/or thinner. You can use paint to restore canvas and parts of the setting (it's great fun) which aside from making your surroundings all pretty again also allow you to progress (no bridge? Paint a bridge!). Paint can also be used to make some enemies friendly, friendly enough to attack your other enemies! Thinner is used in the same way but to the opposite effect. Where paint restores your surroundings thinner dissolves it (can't pass a wall? Get rid of it!) and you can thin out your enemies. Your choices between using paint or thinner offer you different story choices and quests as well as providing a series of moral choices which affect the way in which the game progresses and how characters relate to you.

=Graphics & Soundtrack=
The game was released on the Wii so while the graphics are not up to the exceptional standard of the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 they're still pretty decent. The little cut scenes between levels are done in a kind of scratchy film reel effect which sits quite nicely in the general feel of the game. One thing that I thought really did do the graphics justice was the way in which paint drips off Mickey throughout the game and rise in the air.

The soundtrack is excellent and has won many awards in its own right. It's very obviously Disney despite being original for the game and the music for the 2D travel worlds is just brilliant.

=Conclusions=
The game is a throwback to Mickey's early days taking him away from the modern portrayal of the cheerful character full of goodness and back to his mischevious days in Steamboat Willy.
I really enjoyed this game, but my enjoyment did come from being able to recognise all the old school Disney characters, most of whom my housemates had no idea had ever existed (the point of the game). But I think any fan of Disney would be able to enjoy this game.
The storyline is surprisingly in depth and the fact that you can make moral choices is quite deep for a game aimed at children. What impressed me most though is that there is simply so much to do and the game can appeal to all ages. Too often you see games that are supposedly suitable for all ages but then present gameplay so complex you have to have been born with a controller in your hand to figure it out.

This game is easy to pick up (even with the ridiculous camera angles) and completely suitable for children as the age rating suggests. That is not to say that there isn't much to do for older games and adults. In fact there are simply so many side quests to discover and pins (the game's version of the Xbox 360's achievements) to find it would keep even the most avid completionist busy!

For me though, the absolute best part, was being able to find film reels of actual old Disney cartoons including an early Oswald the Lucky Rabbit segment aired in 1928. (What can I say? The historian part of me loved it.)