Does their redesign include actual Wii coverage this time around?

Epic Mickey coverage at least. And that's only on Wii, so does that count?

Ah Damnit, I just made my own topic and was about to post it.  Then I refreshed my browser and see that you posted this while I was making mine.  >:(

Oh well, I'll just post what I had in mine.



Well even though it has been rumored for months now, GameInformer has now confirmed it.  Epic Mickey is an exclusive Wii platformer that seems to take a twisted take on Disney.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=374094

Oh and I should mention that the reason everyone is excited about the game is because Warren Spector is in charge of the project.  In case anyone doesn't know who Warren Spector is, read his Wiki page and then you'll see there's good reason to be excited for this game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Spector

Wasn't there some info on Computer and Videogames.
Something about using the Wii remote to draw and erase the level. Also that the story was about old characters getting revenge on Mickey.

Everything we know about this game as I've documented in the Official Wii Rumor Thread

It appears that the next Game Informer is gonna have more info on this game, and hopefully reveal a platform for it.

Wii sucks, it gets no 3rd party support.

http://i37.tinypic.com/2a9y9up.jpg

So it does exist. It could be interesting if it is done right.

We still don't even know what genre the game will be!

A lot of people are speculating that the main villain could be Oswald the Rabbit.  For anyone that doesn't know, Oswald was Walt Disneys original creation that he made before Mickey Mouse.  Since he made it while working for Universal Studios, Universal owned the rights to the character.  It wasn't until 2006, that Disney would get the right to Oswald the Rabbit back from Universal.  They traded sportscaster Al Michaels to NBC, in order to get the rights to Oswald back. 

So considering how Disney really wanted Oswald back and he was Walt Disney's original creation before Mickey, I'd put good money on him being the final boss.  Hey maybe he'll merge together with Walt Disney's frozen head and become Giga Oswald the Walt Rabbit.  :o

Seriously I am really excited for this game, Warren is a tremendous designer IMO, and the art style looks great.

guided fps

D=

Just checked the Wikipedia page that LuigiDude posted and I haven't played any of his games. I heard of all of them though.

He seems to have been working on this steampunk style for a while.

*3 responses were posted while you were typing.*

Vudu I heard it was a platformer.
Interesting LuigiDude. I'll have to look into that further.

GP yes it is a nice take on the Mickey World.

I thought it was confirmed that it was a platformer...?

It's going to be an on-rails shooter.

One thing I feel that has hurt my Wii experience has been the lack of something to look forward to, something to follow the development of.  Part of the fun of being a videogame nut is the waiting.  It's fun to have that "can't wait" feeling and it's fun to soak in little bits of new information as its released.

I'm not saying the Wii has no games to look forward to.  The problem is that the third party support sucks and Nintendo themselves are super secretive about everything now.  So yeah there are games that I'm looking forward to but Nintendo ain't going to reveal jack shit about them until the game is pretty much out.  There's no sneak previews or concept art or demos or anything like that.  They reveal the game and then they release it at some indeterminate point after that.  You can argue that the vast majority of the Wii userbase doesn't give a shit so why should Nintendo waste their time with it.  You can also argue that pre-release hype for some games is taken too far to the point where the player can know the entire plot including ending before the game is even out.  Still it's part of being a gamer and it is noticably absent on the Wii.  If you question the amount of Wii coverage out there I think it's worth noting there is usually nothing to cover.  Nintendo showed something at E3 - you'll next see it when it comes out.  What's to cover with that?

But here is something that is doing that traditional pre-release reveal and hype building.  It's nice.  I miss it.  Hell as a videogames forum we NEED this sort of info to have anything to discuss about.  You think it's a coincidence that this gen some of the biggest discussion for upcoming games is in the General Gaming folder?

I've never played a Warren Spector game (as a Nintendo console goal how could I?) but the list of games he's worked on has the critical acclaim to ensure that I'm interested.  Plus this style for Disney is just so unheard-of.  I initially assumed this whole thing was a hoax or something that had snuck under Disney's radar and surely would be set "right" but now it clearly isn't.  It stands out.

A couple of those games were released on the Super NES but I don't think they sold very well.

more info I forgot to include from the rumor thread

If all they're discussing is Disney this, Mickey that, cool art wahoo, and no actual Wii game details, no, that's not Wii coverage.  That's just a massive brand advertisement scheme between the game publisher and the magazine publisher.

I was going to say that.


Ian as far as news goes. There is news but I have been busy doing other things and have been playing games.Hard to juggle things around. I like to try and focus on the game and complete it. So I shun other things.

Thanks to Black N Mild for keeping up with the News though.


And with that I am very interested in trying out one of Warren Spector's games.

Another thing, if this project is special, why wasn't it shown at E3?  (why wasn't Cod4 Acid Reflux shown at E3?)

Are the devs really that far behind to not have a working game presentable?

Who cares, it isn't due out until Fall of 2010. They didn't show actually footage of CoD: MW2 until this year.

This whole industry is in shambles.

I would buy this game 20x if this story is the intro to the game.

Game starts of with Walt Disney drawing Oswald and things are ok for a while then Walt leaves and Oswalt goes forgotten for decades locked in a vault over at "The Congolomerate"(NBC/Universal). After decades of stewing in hate from the success that Mickey has seen and vowing to exact his revenge to take back what should rightfully be his. Not  by chance Disney finally came looking for Oswalt (thanks to a clever scheme that he had been planning for years) which resulted in the first ever Toon for Human swap. Now that Oswald was free from "The Conglomerate" it was time for him to exact his revenge on Mickey Mouse and the Disney empire in which he felt he was the sole heir to the throne and the back on which the empire should have been built.

All of this goes down while Mickey was on a business trip/vacation and he returns to Disney to find it in the state that it's currently in and begins his quest to reclaim the Disney that we all know and love.

I have a feeling this game has potential to be a pretty big 3rd party success with the license.

Wow nice story.

srsly. And this game is one giant false advertisement; this game CAN'T be "epic" cuz:

a. It's not HD
b. It won't have blood.

pfft.

And it won't even match the perfect Uncharted 2 coming out soon that is the most amazing game EVER in the universe.

Nu uhh, not better than MGS4/GTA4 or Bioshock

I am so utterly flummoxed by this game.  On one hand Warren Spector is one of the game developers I respect the most, but I associate his name with Deus Ex.  Never in my life have I been so utterly confounded on how to feel about a game.  File me under "Intrigued"?

Assuming your PC can run it--and if your rig was built within the past 10 years it probably can--you can get Deus Ex on Steam for $10.  Totally worth it.

Added to the OP

GameInformer Updates: http://gameinformer.com/mag/mickey.aspx
October 5th
Warren Spector and the Disney Collection - Feature
Warren Spector and the Disney Collection - HD Video Interview

October 9th
Coming Soon

October 12th
Coming Soon

October 15th
Coming Soon

October 19th
Coming Soon

October 23rd
Coming Soon

October 26th
Coming Soon

October 28th
Coming Soon

Hmm nice interview. He has a nice personality.

Added to the OP

Wallpaper:
http://i35.tinypic.com/2j2f284.jpg
http://i33.tinypic.com/2zfmmqa.png

EPIC!

Whut the 'ell, this really is some marketing gimmick between Disney Game Publisher and soon-to-be Disney Gaming Magazine.

Oswald the Rabbit spotted

Did you see him?
http://i35.tinypic.com/20kp4xe.jpghttp://i35.tinypic.com/dbshdw.jpg

i thought it was roger.. oh well.

Wow, that does look like him.

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k302/shyguy70/oswald.jpg

Who is
http://i35.tinypic.com/10mlisg.jpg




The pic is a link. click it to know more

Thanks for the link Black N Mild.
I do remember seeing him in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Hmm I am gonna have to see if I can find some of Oswald's cartoons.

You've never played Deus Ex? :|

Hmm...I'm cautiously optimistic for this game.  I'm a longtime Disney nut, as Walt Disney himself has been a personal idol of mine since childhood (guy who came from nothing and built an empire through sheer determination, blood, and sweat).  The artwork also looks pretty awesome, though I get the feeling I'm going to miss this stuff not being in HD.  Where I am a little miffed about the game (and I know I'm going to be in a minority on this one) is that you play as Mickey Mouse, on of the most thoroughly bland characters ever created.  Yeah, I'm a Donald Duck person (I even own all his Disney Treasures tins).  ;)

And yes, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit being the main villain would be awesome.  You guys do know that Mickey was created in a moment of desperation after Universal bought Walt's animators in secret and took the Oswald characters away from him, right?

When I saw the thread title all I could think was "How and why are they making a game about some date rape drug in your drink?"

The game looks great though.  The idea of a this game is intriguing and I keep thinking of all the great Disney games that were made on the 16 bit systems.

If this was Ubisoft I'd suspect BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Pretty excited about this, however I'm saddened because I feel this will bring my Kingdom Hearts 3 on Wii with Nintendo worlds dream into question.

I don't necessarily think Disney will throw two big video games at one platform.

However, Wii does have the massive user base now, so maybe I can still hope.


The only Warren Spector games I've played are the Wing Commanders and I love them.  Admittedly, I didn't even know they were Spector games until I read that wikipedia article.


Also, can we please cut out the canned troll responses that are essentially just their own version of trolling.  Nothing warranted those responses in this thread and I don't think they are funny anymore.

Well now it's been confirmed.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/first-epic-mickey-details-spilled

This is it.

Killur ahpp.

I hope he's more than just a "shadow Mickey"...

Now if they would combine that story with my suggested intro  based on real events

Then I will buy this game 20x over (not really, but I would get friends to buy it too)

Is that a Sunshine reference? Like Miyamoto's worse nightmare finally came true and someone finally kinda copied that game(only I'm sure we will all like this one much much better).

Interest for this game is building for me, as long as Disney Interactive doesn't tout this game as the "Hardcore game to end all hardcore" games.

Pretty much a nail in the coffin right there. If the development studio just focuses on making the game good and not what the audience will like, we will have a clear winner.

Anyone besides me notice that this game is Kingdom Hearts without the Tetsuya Nomura zipper clad protagonists? I'm already exicted.

For what it's worth, Chris Kohler points out that Game Informer's site no longer claims this is a Wii-exclusive game.

Epic Fail - for Next Generation systems.  Also coming to Wii at a later date.

Exactly. If This rabbit shows up periodically thru levels to cause mischeif but in the end is just mickey mouse with some sorta super power or magic wand.. well, that'll just be super lame. The fact that Mickey is just Oswald turned into a mouse because the rabbit design was owned by Universal, well it doesn't give me much hope that he'll be anything special.

I just have this feeling that by the end of the game, you'll all feel dissapointed that this "epic" game with an "epic" boss turned out mighty bland. Like how the mysterious Shadow Mario turned out to be a dud... *sigh*

*taps nose*

I don't think there should be a such thing as a multiplatform game.  Make it a law or something... You have to commit to a platform and develop directly for that :)

I don't really care what system its on in the end.  If developers have to pick, they will pick the system they think best fits their game....

...ok, so they'll probalby just pick the system that will result in the most sales, but I'm an idealist today.

It's been speculated that GI might have taken that bit of info down(that they had posted in several places) just so that they can later reveal it again in more detail.

But it could be that the game is also being considered for naggle and swand should either of those see any success in the future.

I love that idea of Oswald being the lord of a realm of forgotten rides and cartoons.  I'm especially looking forward to seeing what "forgotten rides" end up in the game.

Man... Figment needs to be in it...

He can be the guy that joined Oswald's crew and then was invited back into the main fold later... but it never felt quite the same for him so he swings between allegiances throughout the game!

Figment?

Does anybody have a list of old Disney characters pre-Mickey?

The Carousel of Progress should also been one of those (incredibly under-appreciated) "forgotten" Disney rides they use in the game for similar reasons.

The talking purple dragon Figment, Maxi, comes from the Journey Into Imagination ride at EPCOT in Disney World.  His ride was replaced by an incredibly bad ride called "Journey Into Your Imagination" after several years.  People complained about him being gone so he was put back into the existing ride, which still sucks.  He's basically just "there" and serves no other purpose.

As for other pre-Mickey Disney characters, they mostly just consist of throw-away generic characters from the Alice shorts and Disney's really early cartoon work.  Nothing anyone would really recognize outside of Oswald.

A lot of old tomorrow land stuff would work.  The people mover, mission to mars or whatever its called... man I feel like I should be able to think of more old disney rides right now but I can't.

Mr Toad's Wild Ride is one... 20,000 leagues under the sea could be cool... have the bad crew ride in a ship that looks just like the submarine.

I've never heard of any of these rides.  I've never been to Disney World or Disney Land.  My parents hated me.  :(

How about the "communist people" that were excluded from the Small World attraction?  Do their little doll souls begin to attack you once they catch Mickey's capitalist pig-dog scent?

Oh hell yes, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride needs to be there, preferably in a sequence where he runs over a (robotic) bear to show his displeasure at what replaced him.  ;)  I actually really like the Winnie the Pooh ride, but I was a big fan of Mr. Toad.  And yeah, the various incarnations of the submarine ride should be there as well.

My parents took me (once ever, my sisters been like 18 times) and I still don't know half of this stuff.

Places of childhood misery and deceit.  And all the princess characters are never as HAWT as they are in cartoon form.  Valleys of uncannies.

I live in Orlando, FL so it's kind of my business to know this stuff.  Being a Disney nut and a season ticket holder helps as well.  ^_-

I love disneyland, been there 3 times. It utilizes the limited space well, and is pretty easy to get from one land to another. Still haven't been to Disneyworld though.

I've been to both as well as Disneyland Paris, and all 3 do different things well.  Disneyland has by far the best version of the Haunted Mansion and the incredibly awesome Indiana Jones ride; Disneyland Paris has by far the best version of Pirates of the Caribbean, Thunder Mountain, and Space Mountain (not to mention the awesome Nemo ride); and Disney World has pretty much something from everyone and by far the most to do period. I loved all 3 parks.  I especially liked how intimate Disneyland is, whereas Disney World feels very corporate and detached in some ways.  Disney World's also aged badly lately, since it's gotten a lot of new rides but the older rides haven't been updated as they should outside of the Haunted Mansion.

Disneyland has the nemo ride. Unfortunately when I've been to Disneyland the haunted mansion has been closed or retooled for Christmas. Then again that gives me something to look forward to! The Indy Ride is amazing. I know when I went I probably spent a couple hours just taking in the sights and sounds, it is like being in a different world.

Disney World was fun, but as previous posted, has not aged that well. I like Disneyland having everything close together, and they have been keeping it up.

Last I was there, they were renovating Disneyland Hotel.

Yeah they are constantly doing something to up keep it, they have done an amazing job of utilizing their space. California Adventure isn't a bad diversion from the park either.

I had the misfortune of visiting California Adventure in its first few years when it was really a pretty tacky theme park that was pretty much the exact opposite of what Walt Disney sought out to build when he built Disneyland (a tacky, generic amusement park complete with midway rides).  I thought the park was alright (and I loved the White Water Rafting ride at what I believe was called Grizzly Peaks and the Golden Dream show), but nothing special.  We did have an absolutely incredible view of the park from our room in the Grand Californian, though.  Yeah, we stayed there since at the time the Disneyland Hotel was still a total dive from all accounts.  The GC also had a great back-entrance to Californian Adventure, and more importantly Grizzly Peaks.

By the way, GP, you should give me a ring the next time you're thinking about coming down to Disney World.  :)

Oh I agree it is going against what Disney would have wanted, but it has some fun rides like the Grizzily Peak and the Twilight Zone ride which has some great atmosphere inside the hotel (not to mention an exciting ride).

I LOVE the story so far and I hope they don't cop out at the end and have Oswald be a good guy posing as a bad guy or something to that effect. The way they're presenting the "forgotten" characters angle is intriguing and I'd be positively pissed if I was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. He's like Luigi except overshadowed times 1000000000000000. Talk about being totally fame/appreciation cock-blocked.

This game has a ton of potential and it should stay Wii exclusive. If everyone is going to pigeon hole Wii as quintessential the family friendly console, then it should get the mother of all family friendly franchises.

Well, not quite.  Oswald wasn't "forgotten" because Disney didn't give a crap about him, like Nintendo is with Luigi.  Disney literally didn't own Oswald again until a few years ago since Universal literally (legally) not only took Oswald from Walt but also bought out nearly all his animators out from under him.  Then after doing that (still without his knowing), they then called Walt out to their offices across the country and informed him that either he was with them or he had nothing.  Walt chose the latter, and on his way back home he sketched a soon-to-be iconic character on the train and named him Mortimer.  His wife told him that name was silly and renamed him Mickey, and from there it's history.

If Oswald's story in the game is anything like that, I could see him eventually becoming a good guy and teaming up with Mickey to get revenge at the company that held him captive for so long and wouldn't let him return home to his family for over 70 years.

The Conglomerate!!!!! :shakes fist:

Does anybody else think that the use of "epic" has gone too far?  I see "epic fail" showing up in a lot of TV shows; even House's most recent episode is titled that.  Despite the amazing art shown for this game, the name just sounds dumb to me.  Epic is no longer epic.

I agree MegaByte. "Epic" is a term which has been used all too often on the Internet and has kind of lost meaning. But the title could just be tentative... at least I hope so.

Epic Mickey doesn't even sound cool....

Well, I don't need the history lesson since I read Oswald the Lucky Rabbit's wikipedia page too.... :P I was just saying that I like what they have planned so far and I'd still rather have Oswald be this crazy, jealous forgotten character that wants to f up Mickey Mouse and his world. It's edgy yet still works. Having Oswald ultimately be a good guy is predictable and lame though I suppose this is a Disney game and there's always a happy ending so either Oswald has a change of heart and becomes good by the end of the game or the bad Oswald is a phony and the real Oswald will come out of no where and save Mickey.

Alright, this is petty but I was something of a Disney history buff when I was much younger.  I even dressed up as Disney once as a child for Halloween.  I didn't need wikipedia to know who Oswald was.  :P

As for the story, if Kingdom Hearts is any indication Oswald will get a change of heart.  I've never seen a truly misguided "evil" character ever die in a Disney production, especially one in this case who's basically suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Maybe not Wii exclusive?

http://video.ign.com/dor/articles/965543/ign-daily-fix-/videos/thefix_spc_100609.html

If it's not Wii exclusive that likely means there'll be a shoddy inferior version on the DS, it's supposed to be heavily based on painting.

Or he'll get thrown into the soup and molten.

Prediction:

360/PS3 versions will be largely ignored. Wii version will be shoddy and made with no effort, pissing off Nintendo fans.

HAPPY TIME FOR ALL.

I could see that happening, but it is interesting that GI said it was Wii exclusive at first. Perhaps that speaks to primary development focus?

So does this game really use Wii mechanics or not?

I thought that maybe we should make a list of "Forgotten" Disney Characters that are likely to make some sort of appearance in Epic Mickey.

I found a list of 11 or so characters to get things started: 11 semi-forgotten Disney Characters <-videos at the link

1: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
http://i34.tinypic.com/2qlvr81.jpg

2 & 3: Clarabelle Cow & Horace Horse Collar
http://i37.tinypic.com/10zr2ol.jpg

4: Alice - Walt Disney's first "cartoon" work - Live action/cartoon blend

5: Perri - Live action

6: José Carioca
http://i33.tinypic.com/5doynk.jpg

7: Panchito Pistoles
http://i38.tinypic.com/2en0syb.jpg

8: Peter Pig
http://i33.tinypic.com/2dhbl8z.jpg

9: Foxy Loxy - from Chicken Little

10: Alexander de Seversky

11: Robert Benchley

12: Goldie
http://i35.tinypic.com/2w31f8k.jpg

13: Professor Owl
http://i38.tinypic.com/fjl3j8.jpg

How many characters am I missing and how many of these do you think we might see in the game?

If you look at the studio pics (rumor post) they have nothing but Wii controllers everywhere.
I'm pretty sure they took out the "Wii Exclusive" part so that people will buy the magazine to see whats up and then do a proper reveal when the magazine is released.

Warren Spector is the only person in gaming who could credibly use that word. He's worked on nothing BUT "epic" games.

The game seems to utilize drawing quite a bit, I don't see that happening on a 360 or PS3 controller unless it used the ice cream cone of doom or Natal, even then it is unlikely because it may not pay to develop the game for those control methods which will likely be a small market.

Don't be stupid, GoldenPhoenix. Sony created motion controls just like they created shoulder buttons and analog sticks. They take more risks than Nintendo.

I bet they just wanted to leave the door open for other console versions if it makes sense to port it down the road.

Even though it may end up being exclusive for Wii, they don't want to say that and then change their mind.  If they do that all the silly fanboys will do ridiculous things like boycott the game because they lied to them.

Mentioning Wii was probably a goof by the magazine in the first place, a fumble in their strategy.  Keep the platform spec ambiguous so that the Mickey news invites "all readers/gamers" instead of shunning PS3/360 from the get-go, getting more people to checkout the magazine.  Maybe later they'll spring "exclusive to casuals," but only after they got the attention they wanted.

The exclusivity on info/content only benefits GI way more than Disney.

It has been reconfirmed by GI as a Wii Exclusive, it was just that it leaked out prematurely.


http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2009/10/08/epic-mickey-coming-exclusively-to-wii.aspx

We were trying to save this nugget for when the magazine hits this coming Monday, but it seems the rumor mill has gotten out of control and it is time to put it in its place. Disney Epic Mickey is indeed a Wii Exclusive. If there is another version in the works out there for another system, we certainly aren't aware of it.

People panic too easily.

Well we've been bitten so many times.  Do your really blame us?

This being exclusive is good news because it means that chances are the paint brush won't be gimped, that it can be developed fully around the Wii's strengths.

Well, to me it's a shame that so far there aren't plans for an HD version, especially since by the time this game is out all 3 companies will have motion control out in the market.  Just based on that concept art, it's a shame to have to settle with SD on this one.  Here's hoping they make the most of it being on Wii then.

This game has been in development for the Wii for quite a while now, since early-mid 2008 at least and dev kits for Natal & Swand probably went out to developers back in maybe June or so. I'd rather they focus on making the best Wii game they can utilizing the wii for all it's worth, than worry about splitting attention to go back and figure out different motion controls and create HD assets which would only lower the quality all around at this point if they still want to make deadline.

Besides, I'm perfectly content with the graphical capabilities of Wii, but I also don't have a PS360 to compare it against, so it's kinda like I don't know what I'm missing, but that's fine with me.

Not to sound like a dink but... why would the it being multiplatform be panic inducing?  It's pretty obvious it was developed with Wii in mind... if they wanted to try and port it to another platform, who the heck cares?

Are Nintendo gamers really that spiteful that they would _hope_ they can brag to non Wii owners about a game they can't play?  And then, be genuinely upset or panicked if that bragging possibility goes away?

Yes, they are.  Probably has something to do with all the games on the PS2/PS3 and Xbox/Xbox 360 that have never been on a Nintendo console.

Oh give me a break, Microsoft and Sony fanboys are just as bad.  Do I need to bring up the meltdown that happened when Final Fantasy 13 was announced to no longer be PS3 exclusive?

Completely agree with Luigi Dude. The melt down was just over the top whining, typical of a Final Fantasy fan boy who has only played the games after VI.

It's good to see that we're setting our standards so high that Nintendo fans are "just as bad" as Microsoft and Sony fanboys.

ntards are actually worse.  They seem to band together with positive energy and community to create Gigantic Voltrons of Stupid.

I'm almost afraid to ask what the Blazing Sword would be made of.  ;)

I concur.  There are vast swaths of Sony and Microsoft fanboys, some of whom are very influential Video games journalists and heads of third parties, who actually want to see Nintendo run out of business.  In mid-2006, Midway held a meeting where they basically complained that the Wii had the very audacity to be popular at E3 and even be part of the next generation.

As for the exclusivity, I think it has more to do that it was announced as a Wii exclusive and like, HOURS later we hear crap about it being multiplatform.  Even if it's bull****, I, as a Wii owner and a Nintendo fan, would rather not be jerked around like that.  It's like when Megaman 9 was a Wiiware exclusive for about a day.  It seriously kills enthusiasm and can cause already bitter Wii owners who harbor hostility for third parties to just start raging.

Is Midway still around?

I think ACCLAIM is still around in some form or another.  It takes a long time for some companies to die.

Pale all I was saying that different systems have pros and cons. Some systems work best for the game.

I didn't really want it to take this conversation in this direction.

I was concerned because it could be gimped if it utilized the 360 or PS3 controller. Also I would be worried if it was being made for Natal or PS3 Ice Cream Cone, because with Natal I'm still not sold on how well it will work with more traditional style games and PS3 because the control method with a dual shock in one hand seems extremely clunky. It seemed like it COULD have been either:

A) Dumbed down in order to work on a traditional controller

B) Resources utilized to make it on two motion control systems that aren't really proven yet, that will be niche for quite awhile.

Because in their mind, they will somehow equate this to being a space-faring meteorite flu, fear the concept of life itself and live inside Scarlett Johanssen's forehead.

They cannot make it magically look better on the HD systems, it'd still look like a Wii game on those. Unless you expect them to make a whole new version of the game that costs 2.5x as much to develop for a niche peripherial for consoles that combined merely match the userbase of the current lead platform.

Besides, I'd trust them to get that art to look good without needing HDR rendering.

Sorry to derail... I don't think it read right but what I was trying to get across is that I feel Nintendo gamers should be above that mindset... not that they are the only ones who act like that.  I fully realize that fanboys of other consoles can be just as bad.

To try and get it back on topic, since we were talking about Disney World stuff, this tilt shift video is pretty freaking amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyZfIlxwsfI

Nice Video. Disneyland at night is great. Going on Splash Mountain at night is great!

I last went to Disney World during Thanksgiving in 2006.  Seeing everything decorated for the holidays was incredible, especially at night.  Plus, it wasn't so humid and hot in November.

So the latest speculation is that my old namesake, Chernabog, will appear in the game.  Color me excited.  ;D

Actually, if the game was truly being developed as a multiplatform title they could always use Hi-Def textures; sound samples; and particle effects for the HD versions.

After many years of seeing ****ty-looking 3rd party Wii games, I don't trust anyone (outside of Retro Studios, Nintendo themselves, and some divisions of Capcom and EA) to make their art look good without HDR rendering.

Graphics> Gameplay

I think you jumped a few steps getting to that point, GP.  If the gameplay's the same across all 3 platforms (assuming the game was multiplatform, of course), then hell yes I'd want to buy the best-looking one.

But the thing is that from what we know this game could not be done on 360 or PS3 with the brush mechanic unless it was built for the Natal and PS3's Ice Cream Cone. Both of which are going to be niche and will require spreading out of resources, not to mention we still aren't sure how well either will work with this type of game (or in PS3's case if you would even want to play it with the Dual Shock in one hand and the wand in the other).

Well, we'll see.  There's speculation right now that the "Ice cream cone in one hand + dualshock 3 in another" method on the PS3 could just be a placeholder for some sort of wireless nunchuck-ripoff, which would make the game control exactly the same as the Wii version if coded properly.

Hopefully we'll be seeing some gameplay footage in the near-future, so we can see how ambitious the game truly is.  We could all be hanging our hopes on what inevitably could be a generic cookie-cutter platformer with Okami elements.

If you look at the panic it is people worried that the Wii controls will be gimped and another worried that the Wii will get another shoddy downgraded port.  Wii is all about its controls so these are all legitimate worries.  There are no super Wii fanboy posts there, only legitimate worries even if Plugabugz calls them insane, apparently without reading any of the posts.


How will the game play?  We have a lot of rumors/info about the story but this is what I want to know.  So far all I see is that the world will be painted somehow.  Is it going to to be a platformer or more of a Kingdom Hearts action game?
I hope the painting allows you to actually change the world, such as choosing your own colors and designs instead of all predone ones.

It's Wii exclusive, so I don't know what all this "what-if" talk about multi-platform is about. It's NOT period.

You have to remember that even Epic, one of MS biggest supporters, hasn't even really checked out Natal from a programming stance yet, so I doubt many 3rd parties are really indepth with Natal development. Same goes for Swand/Disco Stick/IceCream Cone too.

My guess is the same is for PS3s motion wand, it is way too early to be putting heavy resources into developing games for something that could be like the eye toy in regards to who owns it.

Disney to Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Phantom Blot Summer 2010
http://i34.tinypic.com/25teo0m.jpg

Coincidence? I don't think so.

Some pretty awesome fan art
http://i37.tinypic.com/2b8tat.jpghttp://i36.tinypic.com/fcm07.jpg
http://i35.tinypic.com/250p107.jpghttp://i36.tinypic.com/vsgdv6.jpg
http://i37.tinypic.com/2eg8yok.jpg

BTW, I call dibs on all 5 for avatar purposes ;)

Heh, this is the Phantom Blot I'm familiar with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPFiz9hVgec (warning: contains extremely infectious theme song)

Game Informer Special

October 9th
Rise of an Icon: A Pictorial History of Mickey Mouse

http://i33.tinypic.com/e5k8xg.jpg

Well I remember this from Capcom

Capcom's Takeuchi on Sony's wands:

Developers who already had experience with the Wii Remote technology will probably have a much easier time to transition to Sony's motion controller. Natal effectively being an advanced Eyetoy some developers will have issues with how to map gestures into commands and how to use the proper gestures in order to appeal to a mass market, since you can't release a game with gestures that require weird or arcane movements.

The Wii proved that games with motion controls needs gestures or movements that are easy to understand and explain or else the end user will be frustrated with the game since they will think that the motion won't work or they won't know how to properly do it.

Swand:
Having ideas and putting them into practice are two different things. Up ports of Wii games however will be an obvious way alienate both systems.

Natal:
They gave up on eye toy even though it sold enough to take it seriously, Natal is not much different, just a more advanced reboot of the same idea. So why should they think that if they haven't come up with anything worthwhile after all this time, that just because MS has a new version of it, that things will be different this time?

But that's enough of that talk, we can continue this convo in the appropriate section and threads ;)

So the game is now Wii exclusive. Let's hope they don't fling around hype.

Here are some Oswald the Lucky Rabbit shorts films for people to watch.

Trolley Troubles
Oh Teacher
Great Guns!
The Mechanical Cow

The classic mountain climbing episode with old Donald, Mickey, and Goofy is probably the greatest piece Disney ever produced.

I liked the clock tower episode, along with the old short about them being firefighters.

Such great cartoons.

Oh I don't know about that.  I'm rather partial to the Donald; Mickey; and Goofy "Ghostbusting" short, as well as most of the Donald and Chip 'n Dale shorts ("Donald Applecore" is a personal favorite, where Donald eventually resorts to trying to nuke Chip and Dale to kingdom come with an atomic bomb.  How's that for "family-friendly entertainment"?  ;) ).

As for the Oswald shorts posted, meh.  It's the same sort of humor done in the Mickey shorts, and it's just not interesting enough for me.  Like I've noted several times now, I'm a Donald fan and he has his own special blend of humor.

The mountain climbing piece shows Donald's transformation into Top Duck Badass, kicking that goat's ass.  It was serious, surprising, and demonstrated the fire in his heart.  Disney has yet to top this.

It's almost up there with Popeye for its time.

I almost wonder if Oswald will be more of a puppet manipulated by the Phantom Blot. The imprisoned Blot comes to neglected Oswald and tempts him into unleashing him to 'get what he deserves'. So Oswald at first seems to be the main enemy, but then you free Oswald from the control of the Blot and then he helps you to defeat the Blot for good.

I command everyone to check out the Three Musketeers on DVD. Despite it being a direct to DVD release by Disney, it's hilarious. Donald and Goofy make the movie (and surprisingly, Mickey is a bit humorous).

You know, I've heard that too.  I've just never gotten around to actually watching it (mostly from an ingrained predisposition to assume that anything direct-to-video made by Disney will be crap).

I thought it did have a theatrical release. Maybe it was a limited run?

I'll have to watch it some time.

I thought everyone's predisposed about Disney movies sucking, is when they are direct-to-video sequels, not just direct-to-video movies.

Aren't Disney movies "teh kiddie" and therefore inherently terrible and you all should be ashamed to watch them?

Yeah, so glad that Toy Story 3 got moved from being a D2V to a full theatrical release.

All D2V Disney sequels are pretty lame. Though Cinderella 3 was almost good. At least it had a bolder and more interesting plot twist than most Disney sequels.

No. Many of them are awesome.

I think they're more "teh kiddie" now than they used to be.  The Lion King is still my favorite animated movie of all time (and when you get down to it, it's a dark movie), and Beauty & the Beast is up there as well alongside Great Mouse Detective; Oliver & Company; and the Rescuers Down Under.

Dumbo warned me of the dangers of alcohol consumption as a child.

Pink elephant hallucinations?  Holy shit, that's edgy stuff.

I'm secure enough in my maturity (or lack there of :P ) to watch Disney movies that fit my interest.
Did you know that they are entertaining the idea of resurrecting the Roger Rabbit Sequel "Who Discovered Roger Rabbit"?

Besides, it wasn't even until about a year ago that I was even aware that there was a Cinderella 2 & 3 among many other sequels that I had never heard of. I haven't watched any of them, since they don't interest me, but I was sort of blown away that they even existed and I had no idea.

You should be ashamed of yourself for saying that.

The songs sucked, but the voice acting was amazing.  Also, Anastasia was voiced by BABS BUNNY. BABS BUNNY. (her VA, forgot her name)

Also, Cinderella might strike you with FoxDie (Jennifer Hale)

I can say with all confidence that that will never, ever happen.  Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, because we will never see Warner Bros. and Disney cooperating again like we did back then.  And a Roger Rabbit sequel with only the Disney characters is an empty shell.

It's not Warner that they need to cooperate. It's Steven Speilberg and Amblin Ent.
The movie is about Roger before he was famous and was on Broadway looking for fame, how he met Jessica Rabbit, and all the things that went along with that adventure. I'm not sure it would even involve all the WB characters to begin with.

My comment was sarcasm. Or satire. I'm still not sure what the difference is there. But that's the same thing that people say about Nintendo games so I was just curious what the reaction would be.

The Disney nerds will jump on you like Black Friday Walmart.

Game Informer Update

October 12th
Sketching Mickey: The Time Lapse Video

http://i34.tinypic.com/1z2ljba.jpg

Bonus: MP3 of the music
http://www.sendspace.com/file/v42sv0

Eh. I think they're worried so you have to dig a little bit more to get at the darker stuff. And anytime anybody mentions Disney going downhill in any capacity, I just have to bring up Wall-E.

Complete catalog of Oswald cartoons from the Walt Disney Treasures: Adventures of Oswald DVD

Trolley Troubles
Oh Teacher
Great Guns!
The Mechanical Cow
The Ocean Hop
All Wet
Rival Romeos
Bright Lights
Ozzie of the Mounted
Oh What a Night
Sky Scrappers
The Fox Chase
Tall Timber

And for added bonus: Steamboat Willie.

And anytime you bring up Wall-E, I have to bring up that that was not only a Pixar project but I believe one that was completed prior to their acquisition by Disney.

But that's like saying Retro isn't Nintendo.

Exactly.

In regards to the comparison with Nintendo and Retro, that is a whole different situation, Nintendo took Retro under their wing and helped craft the first Metroid game with them. Nintendo still had their talent and insight, which helped Retro craft a brilliant game. Pixar on the other hand never needed Disney's insight, they were crafting movies far better then any animation Disney released for quite some time. Even now they are still quite independent from Disney in regards to the creative process.

Let it also be known that one of the former head honchos' of Pixar is the head of animation at Walt Disney Studios. He shoehorned them into making "The Princess and the Frog" and halting production on the DTV sequals, I can't thank him enough for it.

Seriously, who in their fucked up mind would think Cinderella would make a good TV series?

You mean she powers up like POWER RANGER whenever she puts on her shoes?  Catch it every Sunday.

No, it's more possible she would power up like a Sailor Scout.

NAKED!

I forgot to mention that as well. If anything Pixar is making Disney a better company, not the other way around.

Cinderella 3 was interesting because it involved time travel where the evil step mother gets a hold of the fairy godmother's wand and turns back time and magically makes the glass slipper fit the evil stepsister. It's like an alternate reality. Rather bold material for a D2V Disney sequel in my opinion.

And, yes, Pixar saved Disney. If not for someone from Pixar coming over and scratching the Bolt movie and rebuilding it from the ground up, that would have been a disaster.

It is ironic that someone from a company that specializes in CG animation is helping to bring Disney back to its 2D animation roots with Princess and the Frog.

I am freaking pumped for Frog Princess. I missed the old Disney movies and I hope this is the start of a second Disney Golden Age.

For sure...It looks to have one of the coolest enemies yet.

I guess the Disney womens were sexier in 2D.

That reality for it was that it had a higher budget then the other DTV sequels. The animators were given extensive model sheets and live-action references. The guy who directed it also did the Tinkerbell movie, which I heard was pretty good for a DTV release.

Go Tink Go!

I read somewhere, when the movie was still in pre-production phase, that the Pixar President asked the directors from the Little Mermaid and Aladdin to help direct the movie. From what I've seen in the trailers, it looks great. They basically take the original fairy tale and flip it on it's head, which isn't new.

BTW, Maleficent is the best Disney villain, ever.

"BTW, Maleficent is the best Disney villain, ever."

Pssh...Says YOU!

Scar would literally rip her head off.

From the Junction Point Facebook Page

http://i35.tinypic.com/124iufo.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/25zi9u9.jpg

http://i37.tinypic.com/2q8u1rs.jpg

I'd agree, except that Scar becomes a total loser (to use a forum-allowed term) once he gains power.  Maleficent has the honor of being I think the only Disney villain to summon the power of Hell itself (excluding Hades, of course).

Ursula would so beat Maleficent.

Maleficent would turn into a giant dragon and make calamari cuisine out of Ursula. Remember Ursual only gets truly dangerous when she has the trident.

WRONG!

Please support with facts, Ms. Phoenix.

The only time in the movie you see Ursula become a serious danger is when she takes the trident. That is also the only time she becomes huge as well. Please explain how she could combat a woman who has the power of multiple transformations, lightning and is able to call upon all of the powers of Hell to get her way? I'd like to see how Ursula stands any sort of chance.

She would drown her.

So we are assuming that this battle takes place with water nearby? What if there was no water. That is an outside element. Plus Maleficent's lightning attacks could cook Ursula in any water she hid in.

Wrong, Ursula would not be damaged by lightning. Also she wouldn't be caught outside of water unless she was impersonating someone.

Lightning doesn't kill fish in the ocean.

Just saying.

Considering that Ursula dies through electrocution from the Trident after being stabbed by Eric, I find that unlikely.

How does she not get damaged by lightning? By Pokemon rules lightning is 'super effective' against water types.

Good thought on the disguise though. A sneak attack might be Ursula's only way to get an edge on Maleficent. Though Maleficent strikes me as someone who would be suspicious of anyone she saw so it might not work well.

The Trident being key.

It's the trident that electrocutes her. Maleficent's magical lightning attack could do the same thing.

Ya and I'm saying if the lightning hit the ocean first, it would be a different story.

But that is assuming that this fight was happening in the ocean. Plus, any wet part of her out of the water would suffer severe damage. Maleficent has proven to have pinpoint accuracy with her lightning when attacking incompetent cronies, so it should also be effective against enemies in combat.

Nope. She needs to be impaled first. And I bet Maleficent would DIE if the same thing happened to her that happened to Ursula. Having the sharp point of a ship pierced through you while holding a powerful trident.

Again with the assumptions of terrain or objects being involved. We can't go throwing items into our hypothetical battle that help out chosen character to win. Just one versus the other without outside forces.

Ursula would win easily then. End of discussion!

Naw, Ursula would get her ass fried.

Jaffar would pose a bigger threat.

Doesn't Ursula have about a thousand little scummy former-people as slaves/souls she's taken control over?  Like what she did to King Triton for a little while?

Pretty sure Madam Mim would beat all of them.

Yes she does.

Also, she can disguise herself into hot women who give priests erections. IT'S TRUE.

On a side note, the three good fairies from Sleeping Beauty make the entire movie, along with Maleficent. Magic makes EVERYTHING better.

Which form of Jaffar? Regular vizier Jaffar, "Most Powerful Sorcerer in the World" Jaffar (includes Cobra Jaffar) or Genie Jaffar?

Horned King would mutilate normal Jaffar just by looking at him.

I love this thread ;D

And regardless of any of that it's still a Disney movie, so...

"Most powerful sorcerer" Jaffar

ELEPHANTS ON PARADE

PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!!!!!!

Itty bitty living space...

I recall a show on TV experimenting whether lightning can hurt you underwater. The answer was that the lightning's power dissipates over distance so the further you are away from the impact site the less energy you are exposed to. It does penetrate into the water and several meters away you still get hit with enough energy to plasmatize the air. Plus a part of the water surface evaporates instantly.

Released by Disney.

It's tough having to rationalize hating disney and loving pixar isn't it? =P Maybe you should just give up.

Not really, considering I have no problem hating Activision and loving Blizzard (and the Pixar/Disney relationship isn't much different).  :P

I don't even hate Disney anyway, obviously.  I just find their modern animation division lacking in anything approaching quality or entertainment.  The upcoming The Princess and the Frog may change that, but I'm not holding out hope.  Even if it is good, it took a Pixar person to make that happen.  ;)

lol blizzard. they only ever made one good game.

Star/Warcraft series, Diablo, and Lost Vikings are all one game?


In the Disney battle how is everybody forgetting about Hades.  Is it cheating because he really is a god?

Wasn't he voiced by James Wood?

JAMES WOOD?

epic.

Yep he did the voice for Hades.

Yeah, Hades is immortal so it is unfair to include him. Plus he strikes me as more of a wheeling and dealing type of schemer. I find it hard for him to be in direct combat with anyone for any reason. He gets others to do his bidding.

Game Informer Update

October 15th
The Art of Epic Mickey
In His Own Words: A Profile of Game Creator Warren Spector
Junction Point: A Studio Profile

http://i37.tinypic.com/1zbdkky.jpg

http://i33.tinypic.com/34jafyc.jpg

Taken from GoNintendo, a summary of announced thigns in the game.

- Mickey's appearance is much, much closer to his original debut style

- Disney was the one to approach Spector

- Spector originally was against the idea of creating a Mickey game, because he said that he didn't do kids games

- Spector changed his mind when Disney said that they were looking for someone to 'reinvigorate' Mickey

- Disney had to get back the rights to Oswald before he could be used in this game

- the sorcerer Yensid creates a pen-and-paper world for his forgotten creations, which is where Oswald lives

- this world is similar to Walt Disney World

- Mickey enters this world through a magic mirror, and accidentally spills paint and paint thinner on the drawing of this world. Mickey escapes before Yensid finds out.

- The spill that Mickey caused ends up turning the drawing into a twisted version of what was originally created.

- the Phantom Blot ends up taking over this world

- many years later, after Mickey becomes successful, he re-enters the mirror and sees what has happened to the world.
The Phantom Blot drags Mickey into the world, which is where your adventure begins

- use the Wiimote to paint in buildings, platforms and more

- swipe away enemies with the Wiimote when using paint thinner

- create/destroy the world as you go along

- Junction Point took hundreds of photos while at Disney World in order to capture the essence of the park, and translate ideas into the game

- play the game as you like, either destroying everything in sight, or taking the hero's route. It's completely up to you, and you can mix-and-match play styles

- Gremlin Village is reminiscent of 'It's a Small World'

- Mickey's appearance and stance will change based on the way you play the game

- trade some items for health

- Pete returns, and at one point attacks you with a huge zepplin

- Donald Duck animatronic pieces are scattered throughout one portion of the game. Collect them to put him back together.

- Spector wants this game to scare kids, in some ways

- the game will also have funny parts

- Spector calls the game world's visuals 'the bastard child of Tim Burton and Disney'

- elements of platforming, exploration and role-playing

- go into the inner-workings of some levels and rides

- visit the gears and mechanics underneath the 'It's a Small World' ride, complete with an eerie re-imagining of the music

- enter movie screens to move from in-game island to island

- movie screen transitions put you into a 2d world, where you'll revisit some of Mickey's old cartoons

- find sketches, and bring them to life with your paintbrush

- sketches can be activated to give you new powers (clock sketch to slow time, TV sketch to distract enemies, and more)

- collect 'E-Tickets' to enter rides, and use as a form of currency to buy power-ups

- Jim Dooley 'Pushing Daises' is doing the soundtrack

Sounds good. and here are 7 Horrifying moments from Classic Kids Movies

Disney Movies make up 4 of the 7 on the list. Maybe you'll enter those scenes in some form or another in the game.

edit:
the rest of the GoNintendo summary

I just seen the GI scans online, and even though the game doesn't quite fit what I pictured based on the concept art, I still think it looks pretty good. The atmosphere is dark, the environments look nice but a little more colorful than what I expected. Mickey looks a little weird, closer to his original debut style, but Oswald & the Bunny Kids looks great in 3D.

if you want to know where you can see the scans too... LMGT4U

all of those are overrated trash, lost vikings is an okay game, but not great.

rock n roll racing is the true jewel in the blizzard crown.

also colour me underwhelmed with those scans.

*looks at the scans*

And reality comes crashing down, as those screenshots look like...just about any cartoon platformer I've ever seen.  It particularly reminds me of Psychonauts, and that's not a good thing.  Some of the artwork is very nice, some not.  I guess we'll just have to hope that the screenshots don't really tell the full story.

What the hell? Any comparison to Psychonauts can only be a good thing at this point in time. Psychonauts is awesome.

As covered in another topic, I found Psychonauts to be spectacularly average, with particularly awful platforming.

oh okay, i get it. you're a loon.

I think it looks really good. Almost like a really dark galaxy.

As good as Mario Galaxy? I highly doubt it, but it does have quality to it. Color me interested.

I still wish they went with a storyline mroe like the one I posted earlier.

http://i38.tinypic.com/28gxule.png

Don't ignore the "almost" qualifier.

Looks good to me. It's obvious from the scans it looks way better in motion.

It looks pretty awesome to me.  The screens are small and the focus of each is obviously on Mickey who looks pretty cool with his new look.
The picture where he looks right at the camera is freaking me out though.

I really am anticipating this game big time. What we have to remember about the screens is that the game is about a year away so it is a bit unfair to judge it based upon 5 small screens with a focus on mickey.

Not quite where I expected it to be, but I still like it. Gives me a Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie vibe. Almost if Banjo was done by the Mario Galaxy team.

I can't wait to see it in motion.

I don't want collect-a-thons. >:/

I meant with the graphics.

I don't mind that.

Looking like Psychonauts is a good thing IMO, the setting and ideas in that game were great. Where Psychonauts failed was the gameplay department, especially with the level designs towards the end and Warren Spector is famous for his gameplay.

I hope the game gets a big budget, is a quality title (I really think it will be close to AAA material when it is released), and actually SELLS.

I'm sure this game has the budget it needs and with Warren Spector putting his all into it with free reign of conceptual design (within the limits of Disney IP & Image Protection), I'm sure it will be(and already is) a AAA game.

This is one game I really think could benefit Nintendo to help promote. It has potential to be massive.

I hope they not only help promote, but get in on the technical design, level design & programming side of things too. Let Spector get some down to the metal coding going on, and make this one of the most visually stunning and and technically advanced games to grace the Wii before the Wii hits it's final stretch.

The best part is the IP alone guarantees this game will sell well. Mickey + Wii = Good seller, yes?

I believe in Warren Spector, even if he failed me with Deus Ex: Invisible War.

AFAIK the failures of IW were actually the cases where the rest of the dev team overruled Spector.

I just wanted to pass by and say that I'm excited for this game, but the looks so far are underwhelming. I thought stylized graphics would be enough for the not-so-cutting-edge graphics of the wii, but I guess that is not enough. Maybe is the colors, adding black to pastels doesn't make the happy world of Disney to go "dark" or "twisted", just painful to the eyes.

Still, the gameplay seems awesome and Spector is not exactly a bad developer. Let's hope things go well with the game.

And I forgot, the soundtrack so far is also amazing.

You know, I hear fans of the original Deus Ex constantly say that, but I played Invisible War a while back and found it pretty ok.  I guess it's the same sort of snobbery that has fans of System Shock "disappointed" with Bioshock.

You really think we're needed? :reggie:

I don't think anyone said anything about being needed.

I don't need a shopping cart everytime I go grocery shopping, but it sure helps make my shopping experience as easy and pleasurable as possible.

That shopping cart is called "Disney" and "Mickey" and "being on Wii."

No point in spending any extra on a game that is already destined for success. :reggie:

If Nintendo's involvement can take the game from just "great" to a "system selling must-have", then the extra spent is more than worth it. especially if that locks it up for exclusive and dibs on future sequels. Just imagine the cross promotion at the Disney Theme Parks and marketing push on Disney owned networks (Disney Channels, ABC, ESPN).

You know, I'd like to think that and it's probably true.  I wonder, though, if Mickey's popularity hasn't waned to the point where he could use a little extra boost.  For instance, I remember Mickey's Philarmagic at Disney World, which is actually a 3D movie that revolves entirely around Donald with the Mouse only making a brief cameo at the end.  Same thing at Disneyland Paris with the stage show Animagic (I'm too lazy to spell it the correct French way right now), which is also a stage show dedicated entirely to Donald with Mickey only making a brief appearance to bookend the show.  I also can't remember the last time Mickey was featured prominently in a non-Direct to Video animation project.  In any case, it certainly wouldn't be a bad thing for Nintendo to step in and make sure that such a potentially huge project got a little assistance for the sake of the greater good overall.

Mickey's House of Mouse had a lot of shorts focused on the mouse (and Minnie), The Three Musketeers featured Mickey almost drowning. Seriously.

Because disliking the utter dumbing down of the sequel, both in terms of gameplay AND storytelling, is snobbery.

Bioshock is allegedly a "dumbed down" version of System Shock, and yet Bioshock is an awesome game on its own merits.  So why should I give a damn if it's "dumbed down" when I still had a lot of fun with it (and fun is what's ultimately important in the end)?  Ditto for Invisible War.

Bioshock wasn't dumbed down, it was more streamlined. System Shock was almost too wide open. Bioshock IMO balanced being more open then other FPS games but at the same time not being too open. There were usually multiple ways of getting through a level, but you seldom got lost either. I'm not really a bit fan of getting lost in a massive level so that is fine with me.

I hope High Voltage gets that memo for their next Wii project.

I never said you should. I said you shouldn't be so ignorant as to act like you know what's going through the heads of people who have actually bothered to play both games. Yeah, sure, Invisible War was, as you put it, "okay" for a console shooter. As a PC shooter and sequel to a game that WASN'T primarily a shooter, and was much more interesting, complex, and thought-provoking than all the ham-handed devices and "features" in Invisible War, it was utterly disappointing.

I don't see why we should argue over FPS games when Epic Mickey is a platformer.

Except its NWR, the land of derailment.

Also stop whining about Deus Ex Invisible War, any shortcomings that had were because Spector had a less dominant role on it.

That's why "I love PlanetGamecube!" ;D

Back on topic, I want to go back to guessing what lesser know Disney characters will appear in the game.

These two guys starred with Donald Duck in the movie "Three Caballeros" I want to see them return.

Check out the the animation in the game! It is great.

http://gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2009/10/19/Inside-the-Game_3A00_-An-In_2D00_Depth-Look-at-Epic-Mickey_1920_s-Art-and-Animation.aspx

Whatever shortcomings that MAY be in the visuals I think this animation will bring it to life.

Game Informer Updates:

October 19th
Inside the Game: An In-Depth Look at Epic Mickey's Art and Animation

http://i34.tinypic.com/125kkfb.jpg

Animation looks great, but I can't wait for a gameplay video.

p.s. Sorry to repost what you already posted, I forget to check for the update earlier, but I needed a formatted post to link to from the OP.

In general I agree with you, but judging by those videos they need to put a lot more working into the swinging animation.  Observe how Mickey just seems to float backwards when swinging off that vine.  There needs to be more "snap" in that transition.

That looks promising.

The Mad Doctor is also shown there as a character in the game. I remember that guy.

I also like the focus on clock work. The classic Mickey, Donald and Goofey short about them being clock cleaners was quite enjoyable.

Also the Mickey, Donald & Goofey Firefighter short was funny as well.

My anticipation for this game is on a level close to Brawl's when we started getting the daily updates and reveals. It's kinda nice to have that excitement and joy return again.

More Disney Toons

Mickey Mouse in The Mad Doctor

Mickey, Donald & Goofy in Clock Cleaners

Mickey, Donald & Goofy in Fire Brigade

I loved this one as well

Tugboat Mickey

And I know this one is Goofy only, but I also loved The Art of Skiing when I was young.

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http://i35.tinypic.com/29vxstx.gif

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galaxy indeed

Animation looks great, I honestly always expected it too.

I am excited for those sidescrolling levels.  They look really cool.

I see the effort, but I'm still skeptical. Third parties have been saying their efforts would please us, but so far they have fallen short.

"we" are hard to please.

80% of their games can't please us.

95% of us won't buy it because bitching is a distraction.

We're worse then Final Fantasy fans sometimes. And MGS fans as well.

Nintediots™?

(nin-tid-e-uhts)

That is amazing.

At least we PLAY our games.

This is true.

Our games aren't bogged with melodramatic cutscenes.

Or often any attempt at storytelling or epic scope.

"Epic" scope can sometimes lead to "epic stupidity".

Thank you, HD generation.

Pokemon is pretty epic.  Look at that expansive universe and endless poke-mastering drama and insanely huge monsters that are too big for pockets.

It's amazing how many threads flirt with devolving into more console wars crap. Keep it on topic!

Considering the (tentative) title is "Epic Mickey", the talk of what "epic" in gaming really means is valid. I say we're on point. After all, the game could end up being the most "epic" 3d adventure to grace any console this generation, yet you'd still have people saying its not "epic" just cuz its not HD. Or, the budget for this game could go so out of whack trying to achieve a maximum level up "epic" that the disney backs out of the project to an extend and the developers end up cutting back on actual game content and all we're left with is a "pretty, for the wii" looking game with some 3d, some side scrolling levels that feel like mini games and a giant but empty hubworld that lets us restore ONE Disney monument at a time (once completing the appropriate mini-game level of course) until everythings bright and pretty and you go off to conquest that one last dark fortress FTW. The game gets slammed in reviews, people will say it shoulda never been on wii and that it woulda been a "true epic" game on the HD consoles (though not realizing that my fictional over-budget issue woulda been 10x worse with HD development) and we'd be back to square one. Basically, you can't win this one Pale. Sorry.

Oh and then we'd be discussing how "epic scope" never turns out as epic as develepors wish.

I was perfectly content to just focus on this as a Wii game and enjoy it as one, but some people just can't let a day go by without knocking one of the other consoles (usually for fanboy-ish and suitably idiotic reasons).  So long as people keep their swords sheathed around here, I'm content with keeping mine in its sheath as well.  So shall we get back to looking forward to this game, then?

EDIT: That said, I do think actual discussion on the term "epic" in this context is valid conversation.  Let's just keep it there.

I just want "Third Party" Mickey to be good. Is that too much to ask?

Yeah, it kind of is.

Capcom's Mickey game for GameCube had some promising animation for its time, when I saw it at E3 2001.  What a failure that turned out to be.

This new game has hopes to deliver proper Mickey personality along with a proper game.

You'd better hope for more than "proper Mickey personality".  Mickey is so historically bland that he has no personality, which is why for a lengthy period of time in the 30s and 40s Donald was pretty much the company's mascot.  I'll settle for "an incredibly well-made game that celebrates Disney's history and characters with tight gameplay, good storytelling, and a wonderful sense of style as could only be conveyed with the Wii Remote".

No, I'm not hoping for more.  That'd mean spending development energy on an area that's not needed.  The personality will be defined by the player inside the game.

And we can't have 3rd parties working too hard on Wii.  It wouldn't be like them.

I'm sorry, but I will accept nothing less from Disney on this.  They have the resources, from the looks of it they may have the talent, they have the characters, and they have the audience to make this worthy of a AAA-quality title.  There is no excuse for this game being mediocre, especially one that tries so hard to appeal to old Disney fans instead of Disney's usual toddler-to-preteen audience.

You don't have to accept anything, it'll fit in the same pile with the rest of the 3rd party and licensed movie games out there just fine without you.

Disney and Rare made Mickey's Speedway, and the rest is history and video gaming business.

Glad to know the future is ever so bright with the Wii.  And people say I'm cynical.

Pro is just grumpy that people didn't buy his game of the year, Cursed Mountain.

I might still get it, but not for more than $30 since it would immediately join my backlog.

Secondededededed.

EasyCure, is that my game of the year?

That vampy's been sucking the wrong kool aid.

I would venture a guess that Rune Factory is Pro's GOTY contender.

I'm wondering how this game will fare. If estimations to it's release date are true (Fall 2010) then won't it be going head to head with Mario Galaxy 2 at retail?

Now that may be an 'epic' showdown ;)

Isn't Mario Galaxy slated to be released early next year?

Well, right now I don't see anything listed for a release date (not even a Quarter number), but that would be unusual if it was.  That would mean it was released without ever actually showing at E3 in playable form, something I doubt will happen.  I'm guessing we'll probably see a Summer/Fall release.

Game Informer Updates

October 23rd
An Interview with Warren Spector

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A very nice interview. I enjoyed it and I appreciate Warren Spector a whole lot more now.

I really hope he gets to make a DuckTales game. Maybe I could convince him to make a Darkwing Duck one as well?

I think "epic" is a fuzzy term anyway. Epics are just a kind of story originally AFAIK, people just use the term on something different when they feel like it, just like "immersion", the bullshit buzzword of the generation.

Also Steamboat Willie made sound film an art form? I thought that was generally attributed to Fritz Lang's M?

Oh god, someone please give this guy a huge blank check... please

Some great quotes by Spector.

On Wii motionPlus support:

If only more developers, not just Wii developers, had his philosophy in regards to game design.

Not many Wii developers have that philosophy anyway.

Casual this, waggle that, on-rails here, kiddeh there.

Hmm...that bit about the Wii being "gameplay over graphics" (paraphrased) sounds like Specter's drinking the Nintendo Kool-Aid a bit, but we'll see.  I'll take a good game on the Wii however we get it.

Yeah dang him for speaking the truth, what a kool-aid drinking freak.

Sorry, but he sounds like a Nintendo PR rep and I doubt that's a coincidence.  It's not so much that he's praising gameplay over graphics (which is always fine), but that he's dinging the other consoles as being polar opposites.  I call that "drinking the Kool-Aid", but like I said: let's see if he can back up his words with quality product.

He sounds like a fan of Nintendo's games? So what? Guess what I think Nintendo's top games are the best too. Oh noes. opinions that don't agree with Brood. It is obvious he respects the gameplay style and design of Nintendo's best franchise games and that makes me even more curious and yes excited for this game. Not to mention the fact that this game would NOT do well on the next-generation systems which have a whole different userbase who tend to find games like this childish.

He meant that in an entirely positive way, so there's no problem.

but $60 games and $600 launches does make them oppposites

Well, you know...we've been agreeing so much recently, I thought I'd better change it up once in a while or it would lose all meaning.  ;)

``Mickey Mouse's birthday being announced on the television news as if it were an actual event! I don't give a shit! If I cared about Mickey Mouse's birthday I would have memorized it years ago! And I'd send him a card, 'Dear Mickey, Happy Birthday, Love George'. I don't do that, why, don't give a shit! Fuck Mickey Mouse! Fuck him in the ass with a big rubber dick! Then break it off and beat him with it! I hope Mickey dies. I do, I hope he goddamn dies. I hope he gets a hold of some tainted cheese, and dies lonely and forgotten in the bathroom of some bad building in a poor neighborhood, with his hand in Goofy's pants. Mickey Mouse- no wonder no one takes our country seriously, we waste valuable news time informing our citizens of the age of an imaginary rodent!`` -- George Carlin, 1996

We love you, George.

/thread

Game Informer Update

October 28th
Audio Tour With Warren Spector

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Screen Shots

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I have over 20 games for my Wii, but honestly I usually wait until Wii games are onsale or available used before I buy them. The interviews with Warren Spector and the screenshots for "Epic Mickey" have me really excited.  It may be the first Wii game that I pre-order.

Let's not forget the hype boat that sinks.

Some HQ Captures

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When did Hades become a "forgotten" Disney character?  He's been in 3 Kingdom Hearts games and his movie wasn't that long ago, yet there's an enemy in one of those screens with his head right on it.

Forgotten ever since the Hercules cartoon got canceled.

After 3 KH games, he's just not himself anymore.

A pro-wrestler past his prime.

I don't think he is meant to be a 'forgotten character'. Remember this wasteland world is made up of random junk from other Disney worlds. So having random parts of Disney characters past and present, forgotten and beloved, makes sense. Goofy isn't a forgotten character yet mechanical versions of him are in the game too.

Trippy.

Nothing wrong with familiar characters, in fact I hope there are some.

Like LAUNCHPAD McQUACK

One could hope.  I've never understood how Disney's largely just chosen to ignore their 90s TV franchises, releasing crappy bare-bones DVD releases over the span of several years that in the end they never finish.  While we're on that subject, this game needs a major infusion of Gargoyles.  That's a franchise forgotten by Disney if there ever was one.

Darkwing Duck, Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers and Duck Tales before Gargoyles!

Lets compromise and say "same time".

"Mickey is an adventurous and rambunctious mouse. I want to bring his personality to the forefront, place him in a daunting world and connect his spirited character with video game players worldwide. Ultimately, each player decides for him or herself what makes Mickey cool." - Warren Spector

BUH, DEJA BU

I've actually rewatched all 4 of those in recent years and as much as I love Chip & Dale, Rescue Rangers is not the great show I remembered it as.  Duck Tales is still awesome, though, and Darkwing Duck is charming if not as funny as I remembered.

We seriously need a "Disney Afternoon" Land in this game with all these old shows, though.

EDIT: Oh, and don't forget Gummi Bears!

Cosigned, everything. Duck Tales holds up the best of the shows from that era.

I've watched them all recently, Tale Spin is great as well. I think they all hold up quite well.

BECKERS

Duck Tales is the only Disney show I still rewatch. Not to mention it had two awesome NES games.

Rescue Rangers had two really good NES games too.

I tried rewatching Tale Spin when I rewatched the others, and although I can tell it's still a good show I still couldn't get myself to sit through it if that makes any sense.  There's just something about it that doesn't keep my interest, especially compared to Duck Tales (which I never had problems marathoning).

Bring "Peter Pig" back!  He's only in 1 cartoon and 1 comic book- talk about forgotten!

I marathoned Duck Tales, Darkwing Duck, Tale Spin and Chip N Dale like a year ago. Good times. Have not seen Gummi Bears again yet.

I made a post a while back with some forgotten characters, Peter Pig was one of those listed
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=29538.msg554438#msg554438

Bonkers was a good one. I liked how it was a cartoon where 'humans' interacted with 'toons' in a modern world. A very fun concept. Plus Bonker's random and bizarre behaviors were always funny.

Warren Spector comments on the Concept Art we saw before the reveal of the game


"There are a couple aspects to that. I think I've mentioned before, that I'm a big believer in finding out where the line is by pushing past it. There are lines that are on every project; every project exists in a creative box. For most of my games, I create that box and the team has to sort of work within it. In this case, there's a creative box that I create, and there's the creative box that Disney overlays on that. I know where my lines are, but I don't know where Disney's are. I had a lot of stuff generated that was very specifically designed to be provocative and to cross that line. I know it's too far -- or is it? You tell me. So it forces a confrontation or a decision. Some of what you saw was beyond the line, and so I learned something from it. Some of it was early design ideas that are no longer relevant. Some of it is stuff that's still in the game, and I'm not saying what."

So, the screens. The art style seems kind of inconsistent to me, unfinished. Like an early phase of a CGI movie. Also, the Mickey character model looks out of proportion. Too tall, ears to close to the head.

Well, it is unfinished. The screens of just the mouse are probably not in-engine and I don't like the lighting setup, threepoint just doesn't work well on cartoon characters.

Anyway, I like how Mickey looks on the ingame shots, his position and expression seems to actually fit into the environment, looking carefully downwards in mid-air, pretty unhappy while fleeing from a foe, happy while standing next to an ad of himself, etc.

If anyone knows gameplay it's Warren Spector. Deus Ex is still held in high esteem today despite its aged graphics and so is Thief: The Dark Project. System Shock got overshadowed by its sequel but that's still held in very high regard.

I loved Thief and Thief 2. I need to go back and play those games again. I think I had Deus Ex somewhere too, but I never played it because it couldn't run right on my system for some crazy reason.

Been so long since I played Deus-Ex I remember being blown away by how open ended the game was when it came to how you approach things.

I just watched Warren Spector's 30 minute presentation on Epic Mickey. Color me impressed. He's very passionate about the game. I'm starting to get excited about it. Granted, it's like, what, a year away from release, but considering it's now November, that time will fly by before you know it.

New Warren Spector Interview in the latest issue of Nintendo Power:
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Take note third parties, this is how you make a GOOD Nintendo-quality Wii without spreading bull-shit.

On another note, I bet the PS360 fanboys are howling to have this game on their system, regardless of the fact they WON'T BUY IT.

Reality is hilarious.

...
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...

Oh god I forgot about that crap!

Why is Mickey topless when other characters are pantsless?

Why this sick double-standard?

Not only that, but Donald Duck does not wear pants. Yet after he takes a shower he wraps himself with a towel and if the towel falls it is embarrassing.

Cinderella's destroyed ball gown must have so much erotic fan fiction dedicated to it.

I don't know if anyone else noticed, but doesn't it look like Oswald is holding a bong in that stained glass pic of him?

It does bear some resemblance to a bong but I would guess it is actually a science beaker of some substance bearing an impact on the game (something that Mickey has to clean up like the sludge in Mario Sunshine?).

That is a beaker, you can see the bubbles come up from it.

I know what it is, I was just saying what it kinda looked like.

I just wonder what the point is. We may find out the answer in late 2010.

Disney: EPIC Mickey to be as successful as a Nintendo Title

That sounds reassuring, but you know if it sells well, the other third parties are just going find another excuse for its sales.  "Only established franchises sell", "Only family games sell", and so on...

I'm excited to see that some people in the industry don't buy into it.

Well, in all fairness if Mickey Mouse can't sell on Wii, nothing can.  It's not like there's anything working against the game on Wii, at least when it comes to attracting mass market attention.  Most 3rd party games on Wii can't say as much.

If Mickey Mouse can't sell on the Wii, then it won't sell on the other platforms. There was talk of possibly bringing the game to 360 and PS3 which is a terrible idea. Epic Mickey is specifically built for the Wii and its controller and the audience most likely to purchase the game are Wii owners.

I don't see anything wrong with bringing the game to the HD consoles and letting you see that artwork in full HD glory, especially with all the consoles soon having their own motion controllers so they can more easily port from Wii (especially Sony's wand).  But yes, if it doesn't sell on Wii it won't sell better elsewhere.

If a game is planned from the beginning to be a multiplatform game, that's a-ok with me. However, Epic Mickey was made for the Wii after making the game for 360/PS3 was dropped. Deciding more than half-way through development that HD versions need to be made spells trouble. What does that mean for the Wii version? Would Warren Spector have to divide his attention away from the main Wii version? If he doesn't, will that mean the other versions will suffer?

I just think it's better for Disney/Junction Point to focus on making this game the best it can be and since it's already on the Wii, make it the best Wii game it can be. Considering other versions at this point is a distraction and not worth potentially delaying the game or causing problems with the Wii version already neck deep in development.

You mean a properly made Mickey Mouse game with Warren Spector at the helm. Of course a cheapo cash-in wouldn't work but this is Warren Spector. The only worry is that it might end up too deep for most people.

i wonder how many frames of vector animation could be stored on one dvd? Thats me thinking about the future.

This game is awesome.

If this is marketed well, it could be a decent seller. But it seems awfully niche. The people who like "hardcore" video games aren't necessarily the people who like Mickey Mouse.

Kingdom Hearts sold well but it had the Square Enix Final Fantasy thing going for it. Gaming has changed since Kingdom Hearts though, if Kingdom Hearts launched as a new franchise today, I don't think it would be as big of a hit.

That being said, I like Mickey Mouse and look forward to this game.

The only problem I find with Mickey Mouse is that he is boring as a character. The fact you can change Mickey with different actions is very pleasing.

If nothing else, Disney's confidence confirms they're not going to send it out to die with no advertising like all other 3rd party Wii games. That alone gives it a much better shot at success.

I'm assuming these comments mean the game will actually be advertised. Hopefully.

Before every Disney Produced movie in the theater, before every Disney release on DVD/Bluray, on every Disney Owned TV station (including ABC & ESPN), print ads in Disney magazines and some sort of crossover at every Disney Theme park.

And that's just the cheapest way for them to push a game starring their most iconic mascot.

Yeah, this game is going to sell big if they just do that. In fact, I think it will become the highest selling 3rd party game on Wii. The only competitors for it in my mind are the Guitar Hero games and Mario & Sonic series and many people don't even count those since Mario is in them.

That is my prediction.*




*Assuming they put a Disney sized marketing push on the game and don't abandon it to die like other companies do.

I don't think we have to worry about Epic Mickey not selling on Wii, not with the Disney Marketing Machine and the Star Power of Mickey Mouse behind it.  The only question is whether it's going to sell "well" or "exceptionally well", where I suppose is where we gamers factor in and it's probably going to be dependent on how much general Disney is stressed in the marketing.  I know I can't stand Mickey Mouse.  I'm getting this game for the interesting take on Disney's other properties.

I have feeling that this game will open the door for the next kingdom hearts game to come to the wii. Perhaps the characters of this game could be used in KH3 and considering that 358/2 days sold farely well, it could happen if Square and Disney collaborated Nintendo.

358/2 sold well? I thought it was underwhelming in sales. Or did I miss something and it only sold poorly in Japan?

Again, that's the whole point of Epic Mickey. Mickey Mouse has become too bland and boring, pretty much just a shallow image to be printed on merchandise. Epic Mickey is Disney's plan to revive Mickey Mouse and turn him into an interesting character again. That is why Warren Spector gave up independence and joined Disney. To revive Mickey Mouse.

Disney is going to put some serious resources behind this game if they really take it as seriously as they claim.

I'd just like to say that Epic Mickey is the worst name ever and I hope it's not final.

Anyone hoping for more of a reveal for this game at E3?

I know I've probably tricked some people into thinking there is some new info, but I'm just sad discussion of the game has tapered off.

It's supposed to release around Oct. of this year, so I would think there will be a huge blow out at E3.

Maybe it will get some time in the Nintendo E3 Press Conference. It is probably the biggest Disney game of the generation to date and it's also Wii exclusive so it might have a chance at special treatment.

It should get special treatment. I think this will be a major eye opener regarding Wii game sales. Or at least I hope it will be.

So your prediction is 150k in sales? ;)

It's based on the most popular animated character, and it's being developed by Warren Spector and it's also (at least appears to be) a grade A platformer that could rival Nintendo's best.

If Disney does an advertising blowout, it might sell... 250k first month? Disney themselves have said their games sell better on Wii/DS.

Yeah you made me thought there was info, you bad bad person.

What's there to discuss? I'm intrigued and subscribed to the newsletter, thats all there is for now.

Has there been anything to report since last time? Nothing to discuss if we don't get more information.

I actually wonder what kind of selling power Mickey Mouse still has. When was the last time that anything major featuring Mickey was released?

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, and the upcoming Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.

Those games had a bunch of Disney characters in them though, right?

I guess my question is, when was the last time Mickey starred in a videogame or movie?

Yes, but the mouse himself was (semi)important to the plot.

The last game that had Mickey in the lead role was Magical Mirror starring Mickey Mouse for the GCN... back in 2002. Basically was called Mickey Mousecapade in 3D (you know, the Capcom publish but Hudson made NES game?).

I thought the Magical Quest games on the SNES were pretty good though. The first one had awesome music.

I thought the second one was a GBA sequel to the SNES game? I loved the first one. A classic.

Mickey Speedway USA was the only one I could recall on the N64.

Was The GC Mickey game good? I don't remember hearing much about it and assumed the lull of information to mean it was a poor game.

Reviews panned the GCN game, since it was made for kids. Wasted potential right there.

Now I really want to try the second and third ones. I thought the GBA one was a quick cash-in on an older popular game.

The GBA ports, from what I heard, suffered from poor sound (obvious). Other then that, I heard nothing else.

Looks like Disney is set to publish 2 Epic Mickey books to coincide with the release of the Epic Mickey game for Wii.
Both books look to be aimed at the ages 9-12 yr old.

Epic Mickey - It's Your Call #1 / 144 pages (October 12, 2010)

Become Mickey Mouse as he travels through the Cartoon Wasteland full of rejected and forgotten creations. Battle fierce robots called “Beetleworx”, anamotronic blotlings, and Mickey’s older half brother, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit! Armed with a magical paintbrush, Mickey must stop the Phantom Blot who will stop at nothing to rule the Cartoon Wasteland, earn back his half-brother’s trust, and save the Cartoon Wasteland from total devastation! Are you up for the job?

Sounds like typical modern Disney, with more of an interest in the supplementary merchandise that can be exploited from a product than the product itself.  I'm a little disappointed by the decision to make a young reader series of books from the game, but whatever.  A new animated series would be kind of awesome if done right, though.  Hopefully the game will still be awesome.

So they are pulling a Metal Gear Solid novelization?

Um... good for them?

Win back Oswald's trust? Damn. I was hoping he was going to be the final boss or something.

That doesn't necessarily mean Oswald can't be the final boss. Epic Mickey is envisioned as a trilogy so he could at least be the final boss of the first game, assuming of course they complete the trilogy. /points and laughs at Too Human

Did you actual want a sequel to Too Human?  Bleh, now Shenmue III on the other hand.

And I think WS stated the game to have multiple playthroughs (good/bad ect) so you don't need to earn his trust, if you go against him maybe he will be an enemy boss.

Still can't wait to see more Epic Mickey at E3.

I have the impression that Oswald is to The Phantom Blot what Aghanim (sp?) and Zaant from the Zelda series were to Gannon. Oswald is a puppet and eventually you have to fight him to break the power the sinister true boss has on him.

I believe they already stated you won't get the option to kill Oswald (but you'll probably fight him a few times), it's still a Disney game and the moral spectrum is virtuous-mischievous, not good-evil. I suppose you do get to influence whether Mickey greets him with a sincere handshake or an electro shocker in his palm.

Yu Suzuki is no longer at Sega, and if the way Sega's development team are these days, they would fucking destroy the franchise.

Shenmue doesn't deserve that.

I don't know, dude. You tell me.

I don't know if this has been mentioned here yet since it's been reported somewhere else about a week ago, but;

EPIC Mickey to get a graphical overhaul?

I'm not sure what the power of the Wii has to do with the style of the graphics, but I hope they aim to more closely resemble the artwork we originally saw.

Well, hopefully this rumor will be turn out to be true, because I have been very underwhelmed by this game's presentation so far.  They put out such badass concept art, and then released screenshots that look nothing like it.  The whole dark and twisted spin on well-known Disneyana is what makes the game look so appealing, so hopefully the finished product will hold more true to the original version.  Obviously, final product always deviates from concept art by necesssity, but it can at least be in the ballpark.

The Wii has more then enough power to do that style of graphics.  All they have to do is make the game cel-shaded and they'd be able to easily make the game resemble the original artstyle.

People don't seem to remember that the Gamecube had several cel-shaded games that looked exactly like they're artwork.  Since the Wii is more powerful then the Gamecube, there's absolutely no excuse that they can't make a game that looks similar to the artwork.

The game looks fine the way it is. Everybody is crying because the game is still practically in alpha, and doesn't have the vast majority of typical graphical details running on it yet.

I just hope this doesn't translate to "PS360 version".

Methinks the HARDCOREZ wouldn't spend a dime on Epic Mickey, but that's honestly just me.

At least (hopefully) our fanbase will accept the game, since A) it's a platformer made by Warren Spector and B) it messes with Disney's best.

Speaking as someone who considers themself a hardcore gamer, I'm very much interested in Epic Mickey.  Of course, I am a bit of a Disney buff, though, and am largely interested in seeing a new spin on old Disney characters and creations.

As for other core players perhaps not so interested in Disney, remember that dark and twisted is EXTREEEEEEEEEEME (sorry, best link I could find for the routine)!  I think it would find an audience on the other platforms, and just for the sake of seeing this game's art style (provided it eventually proves similar to the concept art) in HD I hope it does go cross-platform

But is it good from a business stand-point though? The anti-Ninty fan wankers will surely bitch, but then again, they always bitch kind of like the core fanbase Ninty has lol. Doesn't automatically mean they will buy the damn game. Disney could very well be putting money into a sinkhole if they attempted an HD version. Look what happened to No More Heroes: Flopping Paradise in Japan.

And Valkaria Chronicles.

We are dealing with a third party developer here. The excuse will come sooner or later.

Sadly

*Spelling Error Fixed*

Alright, first off don't try to compare an Epic Mickey port with the No More Heroes port, a game that didn't even sell well on the Wii.  And Valkyria Chronicles (which, by the way, isn't a port of anything) didn't sell poorly because of its art style, but because Sega's a moron at marketing anything RPGs.  It didn't help that they released the game right in the midst of an extremely full Fall 2008 schedule, when it could (and did) have sold just fine a few months down the road.

A better point of comparison would be LittleBigPlanet, a "child-friendly" game that sold just fine on the PS3.

Which didn't sell well on Wii? Seriously? It is one of Suda51's better selling games, which is saying A LOT.

Is "just fine" enough to get back the budget though?

Using Obi-Wan Kenobi logic....it's true from a certain point of view...

No More Heroes is Suda51's best selling game, but his other games sold roughly 37 copies combined.

But it has nothing to do with the fact that it was a Wii game, it would have probably sold even worse on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The fact that it sold well enough to get a sequel is also impressive.

I kind of wish it didn't. No More Heroes 2 was a waste, save for Margaret Moonlight and Alice Twilight.

I never said the game sold poorly because it was a Wii game.  Peachy there was trying to use the mediocre-to-poor sales of the HD No More Heroes port in Japan as evidence that Wii ports can't sell well on other consoles, and that HD players can't embrace games with more abstract/colorful visual styles.  I was pointing out that the game didn't sell well on Wii, either.  Suda 51 just lucked out that he managed to get $10 in sales off a game that only cost $8 to make (speaking relatively, of course).  Only the truly insane could expect the game to sell better just because it was on the HD consoles now, which explains why Suda 51 ported it over.

For an Epic Mickey HD port to sell well, the developers would have to demonstrate that the game has been optimized to work on the new platforms.  Move and NATAL support would have to work flawlessly, and the game couldn't have any obvious symptoms of lazy porting.  Gee, that sounds just like the standards that every game on all 3 consoles has to measure up to.

Oh, and by the way add the 3 Ratchet & Clank Future games to the list of "colorful" PS3 games that have sold well on the console.

Suda wasn't responsible for the port.  That was MMV's call, a publisher that has now exterminated original IPs from future planning.

You mean they've become like Activision except Japanese and with less financial clout?

http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=126116

huh?

deadbeat flops

?dontcha getit

Companies that enjoy sending products out to die.

I thought it was a typo because I didn't think that was what they meant.

E3 2010: http://www.gamekyo.com/videoen16925_e3-2010-premieres-photos.html
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/179720100612_223526_15_big.jpg

No More Heroes sold like 50K on the WII in Japan, but that's when it hit bargin bin statue--meaning even the XBOX version is still selling on par and will hit the 50K mark as well.

Quote:
For the Japanese release, a poorly attended launch event for the game was held on December 6, 2007 at Akihabara's Sofmap Amusement featuring both Suda51 and Yasuhiro Wada signing copies of the games and giving away premiums. After 20 minutes passed without any purchases, a Famitsu reporter had a copy signed while others took photos" 

NMH = sold like poo period though alot of people expected alot more sales on the WII considering the HYPE it held (E3's ect). 

Still I think Disney Epic Mickey will sell (I think it will hit 500K plus this year alone). 

Cing wet bankrupt because they were making new games that undersold, so Marvelous Entertainment will stick to existing IP's since they tend to sell better and cost less to make.

We got some great pictures of the Epic Mickey banners, there's more than just those four.  I plan to do a write-up, but to summarize it, there's a lot of DisneyLand/DisneyWorld references everywhere.

well there are 4 more Epic Mickey pics in that pic making a total of 8(4 in front, and 4 off to the far right), but I know what you meant :P

There's actually twelve, and we got four of them.  There's four to the left and four to the right, all like the ones we've got in our Epic Mickey photo gallery.  An evaluation of them is about to go live on our site, the link will be here.

I'm intrigued by the Partners statue with Mickey instead of Oswald.  I've seen that statue more times then I can probably count, and it's just so odd to see it without Mickey!!!

Also, looking at all the images, I would venture a guess that this is ALL Disneyland, and not Disney World.  It's tough to see from the small images, but most of the items they're seeming to depict are from Disneyland.  For example, the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland is very different than the one in Disney World, theme wise.  The picture in the Epic Mickey banner is Disneyland's mansion.

I've got more now, of the other four banners we missed.  I need to upload and talk about them, but they're closer up than these.  It's definitely based on Disney Land in a lot of places, but does a park have Sleeping Beauty's castle in addition to Cinderella's?  One almost definitely featured that.

As far as the whole thing goes, there's a grand total of 16 Epic Mickey banners in the hallway, eight being the Mickey Mouse style ears with concept art, and eight being some other kind of rendering with harder to see concept art, Oswald, Mickey art, and an enemy.  I've got a little bit of those, too, but they're less interesting.  It'll be some time before they go up because I'm not a miracle worker, but I'll provide a link if I find anything compelling when I do get it there.

Are you SURE that's a castle in that one?  Looking at it, I see a warped Mattherhorn, which again would be Disneyland.  Disneyland has Sleeping Beauty Castle and Disney World and Tokyo Disney have Cinderella Castle.  I'm curious to see the others when you have them up.  I'm such a Disney nerd that it's like a seek-and-find game trying to figure out what they've twisted around.

The one from yesterday isn't a castle.  I didn't get to retake a close-up of it, but I found Cinderella's Castle, or someone's castle, at least.  The gallery is up here.  The new feature's up, as well, talking about the new pics I took.

I would not be opposed to a game where you traverse an altered Disneyland, including angry or altered guests in the form of Disney characters.  After going to the parks so many times, I'd love a chance to take out some sort of revenge =P

Ah, okay, much clearer castle now.  It's really tough to say which castle that is.  It's too tall to be Sleeping Beauty, and the turrets are the wrong shape to be Cinderella.  It actually looks the most like Le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant which is the castle in Disneyland Paris.  Quite possibly it's meant to be a mash-up of all the current castles.

The red photo that you say could possibly be Town Hall, if you look to the far right of the building with the columns, you can see the round greenhouse that's to be found on the right side of the Magic Kingdom Haunted Mansion.  So that image could possibly be a mash-up of both Mansions.  It's a little unclear from that one if the round greenhouse is attached to that building or not.  I can't really tell.  The next photo with the ship in the background, but still red, that actually looks like a mash-up of Disneyland Mansion and Phantom Manor, the Mansion of Disneyland Paris.  Disneyland Mansion has the columns, but Phantom Manor has the Victorian style with the tower.  The pirate ship and Mansion appearing together makes sense because in Disneyland they are in the same land, which is New Orleans Square.

I love the last image with the tea cups!  Most especially cause you can see Oswald to the right, and then Mickey running off to left, over by the clock tower and the infamous It's A Small World.

Fantastic photos.  I am so excited for this game!!!

Now that you mention 'It's a Small World', I am excited to see this games interpretation of both the ride/theme and any musical remixes. Remixes of that song would be pretty sweet.

I agree, I'm really curious to see how much of the game world is like the parks, since that seems to be what all the art is showing.  If they do use the park music, I wonder if it will be altered enough to be recognizable still or not.  They do this on the Haunted Mansion ride, the whole ride there is only one song, played at different tempos, but you don't usually realize it unless you're listening closely.  The other thing I wonder is if they're going to use the parks as inspiration, which park are they going to be mimicking?  They're laid out similarly, but there are differences.  I also wonder how many of the rides they're going to be able to at least show, some of them are so popular (like the Mansion) that we've seen them several times in the artwork, but other rides (such as Snow White's Scary Adventures) probably won't appear, I would guess.  As long as the Mansion and the Jungle Cruise appear, I'll be pleased.

Man, so much Disney geek-age.  It's nice to see other people who are into this stuff as much as me.  ;D

Really looking forward to hopefully see Nintendo show this game off today, considering it's their only notable Wii 3rd party support right now (aside from DQ X, and who knows when Square will get around to that) that I can think of.

Wow, Epic Mickey actaully looks amazing.  So far its the highlight of Nintendo's presentation IMO.

Yeah Epic Mickey looks awesome. I'm one to not like Disney at all, specially their newer stuff, but this game changes it all.

Yeah, I wasn't much of a Disney fan either while growing up, stuck mostly to Looney Toons.  The part that really got me was how you'll be able to return to old cartoon episodes for some side scrolling action through the actual film lol. 

I'm really suprised there was so much 2d gaming at Nintendo's conference presentation.  It really did good to bring everyone back to their roots.  So long to 2d gaming being dead lol.

I really didn't have any expectations of this game being any good, mostly because I didn't want to end up disappointed. But the brief bit that was shown at the conference was pretty amazing.

Indeed.  The visuals had a certain Kingdom Hearts flair to them.  Could have done with another environment or two to see something other than a dark jungle.

Anybody got a video?

Just the E3 trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o3hRlEY7Pc

EDIT: Oh wait, found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNd7s3hm3Vg

Here's an interview with Warren Specter done by IGN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCIXyl4DcQ4

Ah thanks for the videos!

This will probably be my most anticipated title.

What's so good about this is that it's still an exclusive to the Wii.

I was genuinely irked by that first video because it was a whole lot of nothing. I like what I see in that developer's trailer. The game is shaping up to be something special.

How does that relate to the quality of the game?

It keeps developers focused on making the best game possible, rather than attempting to make 3 versions work. I guess that technically doesn't have much to do with Wii exclusivity. I'm glad there's just one version of the game though.

That, and it doesn't include any emo characters from Final Fantasy.

I've got some serious footage, ten minutes of nearly completely gameplay, but it'll be a pain to upload.  Looks good, but there's item fetching, which severely disappoints me.  I'm going to be spending more time harassing the people while we're there, but I had to make the Rock Band 3 appointment at 12:30.  I'll try more tomorrow.

Item fetching... ugh, when did Rare start developing this game?

That is why we have Warren at the helm and not Square. This is really what Kingdom Hearts should have been.

The storyline for this game is getting me hyped.

So true, and I hope this game is successful enough that we will get more games like this with the other old Disney characters.

I would love more games with old characters, and old style Mickey!

From the videos I saw Smee, Gremlin Gus, and in an interiview, Warren Spector Mentioned Horace Horsecollar.

Well, where there is Horace, there is Clarabelle Cow as well.  I think I've seen her in one of the videos or screenshots somewhere.  Then of course there's Pete in the Steamboat Willie part, since he is the oldest Disney character in use (yep, older than Mickey).

Epic Mickey Demo - IGN Live E3 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C8WY_A9Nks

I saw Clarabelle COw too, in black and white, but they called her Henrietta. Maybe that was an early incarnation I don't know about.

Fantastic, there's Fantasia brooms.  Also ABCDE tickets and also Disney pin collecting, they're really trying to cover all bases of Disney history here.  Count me as one of those hardcore Disney fans who's going to play there Where Did That Come From? game, already doing that with my friends and the concept art.

Hmm, me too, I'll have to look in my Disney Encyclopedia in the morning to see if that was an earlier character name.  I'll always think of her as Clarabelle though.

Never mind, found part of my answer I think.  She does appear in Steamboat Willie, but as an unnamed character, same as Minnie Mouse who was also as-yet-unnamed in Steamboat Willie.  Not sure still where the name Henrietta was chosen from.

You can see where they call her Henrietta in this video, a good interview with Warren Spector at 1up
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/30037

Also, They referred to a Goofy Prototype as a different name too. It wasn't Dippy Dawg, I've seen that before.

Ah, here it is: http://e3.g4tv.com/videos/46542/E3-2010-Live-Epic-Mickey-Hands-On-Preview/

They have a character called Tiki Sam. Also, they mention a character called The Mad Doctor, who I didn't know.

The Mad Doctor popped up as a boss in Mickey Mania on the SNES from the Mouse's early years, but that's the extent of what I know about him.  I don't much care for the Mouse's cartoons, so I'm not familiar with most of them.

Tiki Sam just wanted to trade some item for another item needed to give Shmee to progress.  I've got nearly ten minutes of footage I've just decided I've got to hold back on, and he's included in it.  There's too much to cover to try to edit it and make the dev showing me the game audible, so it isn't worth uploading until I get some time back home.

Tiki Sam, with the glimpse I had, reminded me of Goofy, but ultimately, I was trying to talk to the guy about the absent Tiki Birds at that point.

What's honestly a lot more interesting than the smidgen of gameplay available on the floor is the artwork.  I've found more details and taken better pictures of a few things I plan to point out when I have more time, and every time I see it, the artwork seems more stunning.

You get me even more excited for this game.

Disney makes a special Epic Mickey Controller for Wii
http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/06/19/pdp-and-disney-team-for-tron-and-epic-mickey-controllers.aspx

(also some pretty bad-ass TRON controllers for all 3 systems)