In an ambitious effort to help Disney restore Mickey Mouse's iconic status, it brings back the happy memories of Disney's classic short subjects and feature length films from their Golden Age, Silent Age, Dark Age and Renaissance Age as well as attractions from the Disney Theme Parks of old. I wish I could warp back to the time when Power of Illusion was full of mysterious promise.Epic Mickey is a Disney game for the Wii developed by Junction Point, spearheaded by Warren Spector of Deus Ex and System Shock fame. “We’ve got a fort you can stay safe in.” “Sounds good,” the character says before dematerializing, which seems like they could have done it at any time. and I somehow ended up here,” the character says. “I was walking through the forest/castle/etc. You could always go back to collect missed Disney characters and items, but what’s the point? Every conversation with these chumps goes the same way. Hardcore players will be surprised how fast they’ll finish if they can power through (my game clock read 95:13 after the credits rolled). Casual players will probably never make it to the end due to spike-covered later levels and cheap enemies. So you have to redraw everything you already did over and over and shoot for all the tricky collectibles again. The worst part is that you lose all of the money and collectibles you’ve nabbed along the way when you die and restart at the beginning of the level or the inconvenient checkpoint. In fact, the entire game goes from cakewalk to infuriating deathtrap about halfway through. The earlier bosses are ridiculously easy. This complaint is mostly aimed at the final boss, Mizrabel, who for some reason is now Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty instead of the Evil Queen from Snow White. You’re out of the zone and not as focused as you could be. Normally, if you pause during a tough boss fight in any other game and come back you’d fail pretty quickly. This completely kills any rhythm you try to build. Instead of focusing in on an enemy’s pattern, you have to stop what you’re doing and trace/erase constantly. This drawing frustration extends to boss battles as well. There’s a pretense of creativity implied with painting that never rings true here. You can’t even choose where you place platforms or decide what shape they’ll take. Then, the cannons disappear after shooting you a couple times so you have to draw them in all over again. Imagine if you had to sketch in every barrel cannon in Donkey Kong Country before launching yourself around the level. It soon becomes positively frustrating after you have to stop what you’re doing every 10 steps to doodle and then wait around while Mickey shoots paint or thinner to make the object appear/disappear. Similarly, you can remove objects in the top screen by erasing images with the stylus. You trace a drawing on the touch screen to make platforms and other objects appear in the top screen. The main offender is the forced painting and thinning mechanic. Despite its pedigree, Power of Illusion went seriously wrong somewhere along the way. It’s developed by DreamRift, the creators of the innovative yet flawed Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure and Monster Tale, one of my favorite Metroid and Castlevania-inspired games from the last few years. It’s a spiritual sequel to the beloved Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse for Sega Genesis. Epic Mickey: Power Of Illusion has all the right ingredients on paper.
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