Back at E3, I wrote about how Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, the 3DS-exclusive spin-off to the Epic Mickey games, nailed that "joyous whimsical sensation that is a throwback to old classics while still keeping up with the times." Several months later, after playing the majority of the second world of the game, set in Agrabah, I feel the exact same way.

Power of Illusion pays homage to Castle of Illusion, but also manages to keep the gameplay fresh, with a whole fortress-building mechanic as you rescue familiar Disney characters and bring them back to the fortress, a paint/thinner mechanic that offers some interesting puzzles and a nice risk/reward proposition, and a hinted-at post-game section that might turn the experience on its (mouse?) ear.

But outside of all that, Power of Illusion is a damn fine platformer. It's at the same measured pace of Castle of Illusion, emphasizing methodical puzzle solving over speeding through levels. In each level, there are several characters to rescue, some easy to find and others hard to get to. Even after you finish a level, there is more to do in each level. Characters will give you quests, forcing you to return to levels. Fortunately, every single level features different enemy patterns after you complete them, making the replays required by quests not as repetitious.

I played nearly everything in the second world and I was mighty impressed. The game's interface has improved and the overall challenge seems to be a little higher, or at least more balanced.

The first level out of the batch was a level where the Castle of Illusion was still at the forefront of the Agrabah world. This predominantly castle-themed level featured a lot of cannons that you had to paint and thin to get around the open environment. Depending on how well you draw the cannon sketch, it will either last forever, or only shoot you out a few times before disappearing. This was the level that was the most tedious for me, but that was also because I hadn't played the game at all since E3 2012, and I was getting readjusted to looking at the bottom screen to scan for things to interact with in the world. DreamRift's Ara Shirinian, who worked on the design of the level, teased a Metroid reference in the level. It's nothing life altering, but keep an eye on it when you play the final game.

The second level was based off of the streets of Agrabah. More Aladdin-specific enemies showed up here, including big, burly palace guards. The key mechanic shown off here were swinging chain sketches, which involved a somewhat complicated process to deal with. First, you had to dodge the chains, as the bottom of them featured a blade. Then, you had to thin them out and paint them back in, so you could use them like a rope.

The third level of the world took place in the Cave of Wonders. This level featured more familiar Aladdin foes, such as the golden idols that appear in the area in the movie. You can paint and thin magic carpets that take you across gaps and over enemies in this level as well. The magic carpets are one of the more interesting sketches I have seen so far, as they offer you more choice and nuance. You can sometimes muscle past without painting them in. You could say "screw it" and leap over a chasm and take some damage from spikes. It's like a 2D version of Epic Mickey's overall mantra of "Playstyle Matters"

One of my worries back at E3 was that the paint/thinner mechanic would dramatically slow down gameplay, but after going through levels where I had to smartly paint and thin objects at a rapid pace, I realized the game makes you a better artist - at least in the sense that you become an expert at tracing stencils on the 3DS touch screen. The gameplay concept doesn't hinder the game, and really only seems to embolden the overall design. It gives you several options to go through levels, and they introduce new objects every level it seems, as you can see in my descriptions of the levels above.

There are also the various sketches, 10 in total, that you can deploy yourself. I saw three of the sketches in this demo. The first was a Thwomp adorned with the Pete character that is pretty self-explanatory. The others were far more interesting: Goofy and Scrooge McDuck. Goofy kicked a soccer ball around to hurt enemies, while Scrooge hops on his trusty pogo stick to bounce around and damage foes. While I didn't see any other sketches in game, the preceding presentation by Peter Ong, the game's director, revealed a Sorcerer's Apprentice-inspired hat sketch that made Mickey temporarily invincible.

Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion looks like it might have the potential to be both a successor to a two-decade-old game and the start of something wondrous. Fans of platformers, Mickey Mouse, and Disney should have November 18 circled for another reason other than the launch of the Wii U, as that's when this promising game hits stores.