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November 27, 2012

Failed Review – Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 11:32 pm

Review Epic Mickey 2 The Power of Two
Given how much work goes into creating the elements that bring a videogame into existence, even releases that fall short of their goals tend to offer minor points of interest. I’ve often maintained that even the worst releases have good ideas seeded somewhere within their core – why else would people work so hard in the attempt to flesh them out?

But Disney is determined to prove me wrong, offering a disheartening view into the business side of game creation with the multiplatform release of Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, a game that feels as if it were assembled by machines in a subterranean dome. And while that may sound like an extreme appraisal of a project that clearly had human hands involved in its creation, anyone involved that ever had a love for playing videogames was clearly discouraged from expressing said love here, I assure you.

Any logical sense that guides the creation process has been abandoned in the bizarre effort to race the original Wii release to the bottom while selling you on the idea that the exact opposite is the case.

There are a lot of more fanciful and poetic paths toward opening a discussion about the game, but the simple fact is that I can’t be bothered.

Life is too short to expend the effort on Epic Mickey 2.

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June 10, 2012

E3 2012 – Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two

Disney Epic Mickey 2 the power of two E3 2012
Sitting down to discuss a game with any publisher is going to involve bullet-points, often with the razor sharpened and deadly efficiency of marketing power working to drill said points into your skull. So when I say that meeting with Disney to discuss the sequel to Epic Mickey involved a long list of bullet-points, you’ll likely thank me for pointing out the obvious.

In the case of Epic Mickey 2, Disney’s bullet-points begin with hitting the obvious – the 2012 release of Epic Mickey on Wii was an awkward one, sailing onto the Internet sea to find itself quickly smashed against the rocks by disgruntled waves. This wasn’t the result of the game simply falling short of its ambition, but of control problems that made appreciating what was accomplished consistently difficult and frustrating.

So Disney wants you to know that Epic Mickey 2 works diligently to resolve the camera system that garnered so much criticism the first time out, and that the game has added depth to the impact of player choice and how decisions affect the unfolding play of the game along the way. Disney also wants you to know that when you change something within the game, it remains the way you left it when you return – so no more painting the same house twenty times.

When these points have been hit, Disney wants you to know that Epic Mickey 2 is all about the power of two, encouraging players to tackle the game together as Oswald and Mickey.

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