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Epic Mickey was excellent.
I am sort of surprised. I didn’t expect to be half so thrilled with it as I was. But damn—the game was gorgeous, and I have to admit I am totally in love with Oswald the Lucky But Sort Of Bitter Rabbit.* The sibling rivalry aspect got pretty in-depth, too. There was a real sense of the pathos of small, forgotten gods permeating the game.**
Plus, I get a huge kick out of spraying a bit of paint and watching a whole wall splash to life.
My brother and I were laughing about the fact that we are too damn nice in video games—in Knights of the Old Republic the baddest he could get was what we termed Light Bastard Jedi, and in Myst 3 I never could bring myself to do the douchebag ending where you strand Brad Dourif forever, even though he did kill me with a hammer once before. So needless to say, I wound up doing things more with paint (the “good” stuff) rather than paint thinner (the “evil” stuff, which also rather too closely resembled the Dip in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, a movie which can still traumatize me). So I may never know if there’s an alternate Mickey Is An Asshole ending, but that’s fine with me, because the ending I did get had me squeaking with delight.
There were a few things I wasn't thrilled with—you can't go back to some places, and the camera is contrary at times—but I'll forgive a lot for a damn good story.
I read a review floating somewhere on the internet that summed it up nicely. To paraphrase, it said it’s been too long since Mickey’s been treated as a character instead of simply a corporate mascot. Since I always loved the character of Mickey,*** I am all for giving him a nice saga, and this was a good one.
*Backstory: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was created by Disney before Mickey Mouse. He looked a lot like Mickey, right down to the silly pants, but Universal owned the rights to him, so Disney had to create a new character when he split. Disney just got the rights to Oswald back in 2006. They traded a sportscaster for him. No, really.
**I honestly feel that cartoon characters and superheroes can be types of gods. They seem to hold a similar place in the psyche—malleable, liminal, and doing bizarre things that can’t be done in the real world.
***Although Donald Duck still wins my heart. I never realized what an optimist Donald was as a kid. He always starts out totally cheerful and positive that nothing will go wrong today. And he can entertain himself like no one else I know.
I am sort of surprised. I didn’t expect to be half so thrilled with it as I was. But damn—the game was gorgeous, and I have to admit I am totally in love with Oswald the Lucky But Sort Of Bitter Rabbit.* The sibling rivalry aspect got pretty in-depth, too. There was a real sense of the pathos of small, forgotten gods permeating the game.**
Plus, I get a huge kick out of spraying a bit of paint and watching a whole wall splash to life.
My brother and I were laughing about the fact that we are too damn nice in video games—in Knights of the Old Republic the baddest he could get was what we termed Light Bastard Jedi, and in Myst 3 I never could bring myself to do the douchebag ending where you strand Brad Dourif forever, even though he did kill me with a hammer once before. So needless to say, I wound up doing things more with paint (the “good” stuff) rather than paint thinner (the “evil” stuff, which also rather too closely resembled the Dip in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, a movie which can still traumatize me). So I may never know if there’s an alternate Mickey Is An Asshole ending, but that’s fine with me, because the ending I did get had me squeaking with delight.
There were a few things I wasn't thrilled with—you can't go back to some places, and the camera is contrary at times—but I'll forgive a lot for a damn good story.
I read a review floating somewhere on the internet that summed it up nicely. To paraphrase, it said it’s been too long since Mickey’s been treated as a character instead of simply a corporate mascot. Since I always loved the character of Mickey,*** I am all for giving him a nice saga, and this was a good one.
*Backstory: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was created by Disney before Mickey Mouse. He looked a lot like Mickey, right down to the silly pants, but Universal owned the rights to him, so Disney had to create a new character when he split. Disney just got the rights to Oswald back in 2006. They traded a sportscaster for him. No, really.
**I honestly feel that cartoon characters and superheroes can be types of gods. They seem to hold a similar place in the psyche—malleable, liminal, and doing bizarre things that can’t be done in the real world.
***Although Donald Duck still wins my heart. I never realized what an optimist Donald was as a kid. He always starts out totally cheerful and positive that nothing will go wrong today. And he can entertain himself like no one else I know.
