As the November 28 release of Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power Two draws ever closer, Disney’s Junction Point Studios is finally letting the lid off of Mickey and Oswald’s next escapade. I recently got the chance to try out an early version of the game, painting and thinning my way through a portion of the Disney Gulch area. So far Epic Mickey 2 seems to be similar in tone and mechanics to the Wii original - albeit with a few additions and some upgraded graphics.
The main draw of Epic 2 is that player choice will have a significant effect on the surrounding world - far more so than the original. For instance, whether you decide to paint a saloon back to life or use your paint thinner to erase it from existence informs how the characters in that area react to you. This will theoretically have a butterfly effect on various aspects of the story, as well as inform which secrets you can find and which are gone for good.
In this way all your choices - whether you rely on paint or thinner more, who you befriend, how you go about your adventure and so on - affects the overall outcome of the game, so much so that I was told it would take a player three full playthroughs to find and accomplish everything Epic Mickey 2 has to offer. That's a lot of Mickey.
Another key aspect of Epic 2 is teamwork. The game features drop-in, drop-out co-op play for two players, where one takes the lead as Mickey with his paintbrush while the other chips in as Oswald with his floppy propeller ears. While much of the quest can be completed solo, I was told that certain areas and items can only be reached with the cooperation of two players - so start hitting up your Disney-loving buddies if you intend to 100% this one.
The particular journey I completed with a fellow player involved collecting a few batteries to power a train, then taking that train to an area where we had to jump across a series of crazy platforms to progress the story. As another testament to how your actions have a meaningful effect on the world, the more batteries you collect the easier this segment of the game is. Don’t collect any, and you’re in for a severely tricky bit of platforming - collect them all, and various mechanical doodads make the endeavor much, much easier. It’s great that the game will give you the freedom to skip certain tasks and face the consequences if you so choose - and I hope the rest of the game features similar scenarios.
It must be bizarre seeing your own face on a watch.
As mentioned, the area I played was called Disney Gulch, Wasteland’s equivalent to Disneyland’s western-themed Frontierland. While the main area features a stereotypical old west setting (a saloon, plenty of desert, craggy rocks, cacti, etc.), the outskirts are positively littered with Disney memorabilia. Clocks, watches, statues, umbrellas - it’s like a Dalí painting on Disney acid come to life.
This sequel to the Wii original will be coming to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in the coming months (PC and Wii versions are confirmed, though no launch information has yet been provided). A 3DS entry in the franchise is also in the works - check out my preview of Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion if you haven’t already. If both of these games pan out, this holiday should prove an exciting one for fans of the mouse.
For all things Epic, be sure to keep it here on IGN.
Audrey Drake is an Associate Editor at IGN and a proud member of the IGN Nintendo team. She is also a lifelong gamer, a frequent banisher of evil and a wielder of various legendary blades. You can follow her wild adventures on her IGN blog and Twitter. Game on!
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