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NWR Interactive => TalkBack => Topic started by: NWR_pap64 on October 06, 2009, 11:02:04 AM

Title: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: NWR_pap64 on October 06, 2009, 11:02:04 AM
Some of the tidbits include plot details, the tools that Mickey will use in his quest, and Mickey's first makeover in years.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=20108

 Just as Game Informer officially confirmed Epic Mickey for Wii yesterday, Eurogamer has revealed the first details surrounding the title.    


The story will be one of revenge. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney's first cartoon character, is jealous of Mickey's fame and success. He runs a world filled with forgotten and obscure Disney elements such as characters, stories, and theme park rides, featuring mechanical characters  with bitter personalities. Oswald plots to take over Mickey's world by summoning the Phantom Blot (Mickey Mouse's arch nemesis from the Disney comics) and wiping out everything in sight, Mickey included, by using black ink to make the colors fade away.    


Mickey will be using tools related to his animated roots, including paintbrushes, pencils, erasers, paint thinners, and many others. Players will be using these tools to restore the animated world, such as drawing bridges and painting them in the right color, and using the eraser to destroy obstacles.    


Mickey will also receive an aesthetic makeover, a rare occurrence for such an iconic character.

Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on October 06, 2009, 06:05:05 PM
Mouse Commander IV:  Heart of the Rabbit
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: Flames_of_chaos on October 06, 2009, 06:30:29 PM
I'm very confident of this title since it also sounds like a thinking game as well which is what Warren Spector is usually known for.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: TJ Spyke on October 06, 2009, 06:32:00 PM
The few details known about this game have me interested. This could be the first good Mickey game in years.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: Stogi on October 06, 2009, 06:33:12 PM
If there is a part in it that's anything like Fantasia, I'm in.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: NWR_pap64 on October 06, 2009, 06:44:43 PM
You can tell that this game is being made by a Disney fanboy. I am already loving the idea of forgotten characters taking revenge on Mickey and his empire. Color me excited.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: Jonnyboy117 on October 06, 2009, 07:44:39 PM
It sounds similar to Okami, which could be a very good thing.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: broodwars on October 06, 2009, 07:44:58 PM
Making Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Mickey's Nemesis for this game is a stroke of genius, and it's really sad this is an angle they haven't been able to use till now.  The gameplay sounds very Okami-ish, though.  I'm not sure yet if that's a good or bad thing.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: Stogi on October 06, 2009, 07:54:22 PM
You sound like you've never played Okami. It's a great thing.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: broodwars on October 06, 2009, 08:18:03 PM
You sound like you've never played Okami. It's a great thing.

No, I played it.  I bought it, in fact, when it came out on Wii.  I never finished it, but I did make it to the end of the game and got so utterly bored by the game (I was doing the bead quests) that I just stopped playing it and sold it off.  I thought it was an extremely over-rated Zelda knockoff with a motion control element that didn't work properly, and the combat was made even more tedious than it already likely was on the PS2 by the implementation of Twilight Princess-esque waggling.  The dungeons were dull and the plot only slightly less so.  It was a gorgeous game, though, with the promise of being an awesome game.  I just don't think it ever got there.

That's why I'm a little wary of this game implementing Okami-style gameplay.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: Stogi on October 06, 2009, 08:24:59 PM
Ok so you didn't like the game. Did you like the puzzle mechanics?
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: broodwars on October 06, 2009, 08:37:54 PM
Ok so you didn't like the game. Did you like the puzzle mechanics?

Sometimes.  It was often a question of when they worked properly.  The celestial brush recognition software had a lot of problems recognizing a lot of important shapes.  For instance, I had a lot of problems with the sequence in the game where you had to quickly draw circles around Sakura Tree blossoms during a cutscene to make them bloom.  I'd draw the circles, and the game would just ignore me and then instantly tell me I failed.  I must have had to repeat the sequence over a dozen tedious times.  I had similar problems getting Lillypads to spawn on the water as well.  Then you had stuff like drawing lightning that only ever worked when the game felt like it.

As you can see, it all comes down to how Disney uses the drawing mechanic.  If it works perfectly and the puzzles are clever, more power to them.  But there has to be compelling experience around the motion control as well, something I don't think Okami managed.  Thankfully, that seems to be getting the proper attention in this project so far.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: Sessha on October 06, 2009, 09:21:01 PM
The only problem I had with Okami's drawing mechanic was drawing a straight line when crossing out names in your bounty book.  It wasn't perfect but I didn't have the amount of problems you did broodwars, you really had a problem with lightning?  That seems like i was the easiest it was just connecting a line from the cloud to the other point right? 
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: broodwars on October 06, 2009, 09:25:34 PM
The only problem I had with Okami's drawing mechanic was drawing a straight line when crossing out names in your bounty book.  It wasn't perfect but I didn't have the amount of problems you did broodwars, you really had a problem with lightning?  That seems like i was the easiest it was just connecting a line from the cloud to the other point right?

No, there was a lightning technique as well that had you actually summoning a lightning bolt by drawing a zig-zag iconic lightning bolt on-screen (you learn it by climbing that huge tower in the main town).  I only ever managed to get the game to recognize that symbol twice, and one of those was to get the spell in the first place.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on October 06, 2009, 10:01:20 PM
Can any of you explain, in words, how Okami Wii was reading controller input to register "brush" input?
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: broodwars on October 06, 2009, 10:19:51 PM
Can any of you explain, in words, how Okami Wii was reading controller input to register "brush" input?

I get the feeling that's a joke question, but fine I'll answer it seriously: it reads the input fine.  If I do a movement with my hand when the celestial canvas is on-screen, an accurate representation of my hand movement appears on-screen accordingly.  The game just never seemed altogether sure what to do with the shape once I released the button.  Take that circle shape I mentioned earlier, which when performed in-game on dead trees restores them to full bloom.  However, probably 3/5 times I'd get the wind-blowing effect or the bomb effect, both of which also use circular shapes (a loop with two connecting lines for the wind, and a circle with a line sticking out for a bomb).  If I performed this shape with a large portion of sky in the background, I'd sometimes get the "sun" effect, and if water was in the background sometimes I'd get the "Lillypad" effect. Sometimes nothing would happen.  When I'd try to do a zig-zag for the lightning spell, I'd get the "cut" effect or nothing at all.  Stuff like that just plagued my experience with the game.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: Mop it up on October 06, 2009, 10:27:43 PM
This is eerily similar to an idea for a videogame that I once had myself. That alone has my interest piqued.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: BranDonk Kong on October 06, 2009, 10:29:44 PM
I really like the few details that we have. I bet if this sells well, it could eventually lead to an animated movie.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: Stogi on October 07, 2009, 12:52:44 AM
Can any of you explain, in words, how Okami Wii was reading controller input to register "brush" input?

I get the feeling that's a joke question, but fine I'll answer it seriously: it reads the input fine.  If I do a movement with my hand when the celestial canvas is on-screen, an accurate representation of my hand movement appears on-screen accordingly.  The game just never seemed altogether sure what to do with the shape once I released the button.  Take that circle shape I mentioned earlier, which when performed in-game on dead trees restores them to full bloom.  However, probably 3/5 times I'd get the wind-blowing effect or the bomb effect, both of which also use circular shapes (a loop with two connecting lines for the wind, and a circle with a line sticking out for a bomb).  If I performed this shape with a large portion of sky in the background, I'd sometimes get the "sun" effect, and if water was in the background sometimes I'd get the "Lillypad" effect. Sometimes nothing would happen.  When I'd try to do a zig-zag for the lightning spell, I'd get the "cut" effect or nothing at all.  Stuff like that just plagued my experience with the game.

I admit, I've had the same problems at first. AT FIRST.

By the end of the game, I could do all the techniques in rapid succession and even perform the special attack (needed to get special things...) for each of the enemies who are about to fall.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: KDR_11k on October 07, 2009, 09:02:59 AM
I got less of an Okami vibe and more of a Crayon Physics vibe from the description.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on October 07, 2009, 12:52:25 PM
Can any of you explain, in words, how Okami Wii was reading controller input to register "brush" input?

I get the feeling that's a joke question, but fine I'll answer it seriously: it reads the input fine.  If I do a movement with my hand when the celestial canvas is on-screen, an accurate representation of my hand movement appears on-screen accordingly.  The game just never seemed altogether sure what to do with the shape once I released the button.  Take that circle shape I mentioned earlier, which when performed in-game on dead trees restores them to full bloom.  However, probably 3/5 times I'd get the wind-blowing effect or the bomb effect, both of which also use circular shapes (a loop with two connecting lines for the wind, and a circle with a line sticking out for a bomb).  If I performed this shape with a large portion of sky in the background, I'd sometimes get the "sun" effect, and if water was in the background sometimes I'd get the "Lillypad" effect. Sometimes nothing would happen.  When I'd try to do a zig-zag for the lightning spell, I'd get the "cut" effect or nothing at all.  Stuff like that just plagued my experience with the game.

I admit, I've had the same problems at first. AT FIRST.

By the end of the game, I could do all the techniques in rapid succession and even perform the special attack (needed to get special things...) for each of the enemies who are about to fall.


Okami is the only waggle game I could not make immediate sense of.  RE4, Tenchu, NMH, Zack-Wiki, Cursed Mountain, TP, BWii, Punch Out, Wii Sports, Mario Party, Rune Factory -- all these I understood to the point of cheating the motions, or concluding that attempting to cheat the motions creates epic fail.

So what exactly are you doing to achieve them?  Quick wrist flicks or more exaggerated mid-air drawings by waving your hand?  Or is it IR pointer input (to me this did not seem to be the case)?  Is the software paying attention to your hand speed and directional changes?  Is it working in a similar fashion to SSX Wii, which also earned a bit of controversy over its motion input?
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: vudu on October 07, 2009, 02:24:38 PM
FYI, there's a small typo in the article.

Oswald plots to take over Mickey's world by summoning the Phantom Blot
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: TJ Spyke on October 07, 2009, 02:27:47 PM
How is that an error? That is the correct spelling. Mickey's nemesis in the comics was the Phantom Blot.
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: vudu on October 07, 2009, 02:40:47 PM
Really?  My bad.  I always thought it was Phantom Blob.

Move along!  Nothing to see here!
Title: Re: Eurogamer Spills First Epic Mickey Details
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on October 07, 2009, 03:02:49 PM
Phantom Bob

Mickey's Quest through Epic WalMart