Lately Disney has its fingers in all the pieces, however not so way back the corporate was firmly in its previous lane of animation powerhouse and theme park operator. With videogames particularly, Disney struggled to do a lot past licensing its characters, maybe the most important success being the collaboration with Sq. Enix that resulted within the Kingdom Hearts sequence.
Within the mid-2000s one thing modified, and Disney determined to know the nettle and make its personal big-budget recreation with its most iconic character: the Home of Mouse had acquired Junction Level Studios, a dream workforce based and headed up by Warren Spector, and Epic Mickey started.
The thought behind the sport had been floating round Disney for some time (although it hinged on re-acquiring the rights to Oswald the Fortunate Rabbit), and there was actual ardour behind it: Epic Mickey turned out to be a kind of video games the place the artistry and idea nearly make up for what’s missing in execution. And that is regardless of Disney ultimately selecting to focus on the sport on the all-conquering Wii platform, a gorgeous console to make sure however one which noticed Nintendo stubbornly sticking with SD as the remainder of the business transitioned into the HD period. The upcoming remaster, Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, will give this imaginative and prescient the constancy it is all the time been screaming out for and sure carry it to a much bigger viewers than ever earlier than.
Warren Spector stays best-known for his work at Wanting Glass Studios and on Deus Ex, so directing Epic Mickey was one thing of a change for him too. Spector’s now posted concerning the announcement of the remaster on LinkedIn (first noticed by Nintendo Every part), paying tribute to the designers and the venture as a complete.
“I can’t start to explain how excited I’m that Disney Epic Mickey is coming again on Swap and different platforms,” says Spector. “Everybody on the unique workforce in addition to the Purple Lamp and THQ Nordic groups that labored on the remaster did an amazing job bringing the sport to life.
“The groups on that venture have been implausible—it was clearly an actual labor of affection—and each workforce member can take delight in the truth that we created one thing that—like nearly all the pieces Disney—is evergreen. Being a part of the corporate’s ongoing legacy of delivering household leisure that lives on for many years is greater than I might have hoped for.”
Spector additionally has a bit of parting shot to make Epic Mickey followers smile: “Solely downside is that they didn’t point out Oswald the Fortunate Rabbit. That poor little man can’t get no respect!”
Spector has beforehand mentioned his work on Epic Mickey, and in doing so talked about that the sport was conceived of as a trilogy. Junction Level would go on to make Epic Mickey: The Energy of Two, and start early work on a 3rd entry, however issues modified and it by no means occurred. In response to considered one of his connections asking concerning the third recreation on the above submit, Spector replies:
“I might like to do Epic Mickey 3 however I’ve a day job that will make that unattainable. I even have a high-level concept for what I might do in a tri-quel. Don’t be concerned what I am engaged on is fairly darn cool and OtherSide is trying to rent for that venture and one different we’re engaged on.”
There’s some indication of the place an Epic Mickey 3 would have gone initially, and buckle up as a result of that is heartbreaking: one concept was to go full-on Donald Duck. Even earlier than Epic Mickey Spector had concepts for a recreation involving Scrooge McDuck and the broader Duck-verse (is {that a} factor?), and early sketches exist for a 3rd recreation that will have been referred to as Epic Donald.
“The sport was to characteristic Donald Duck, Duckburg, and the numerous traditional world clan,” wrote Disney idea artist Pat Block in 2016. “I labored onerous on a ‘Carl Barks’ primarily based Duckburg, pulling scenes of the city from his comics and doing my finest to maintain a 1950’s feeling spirit concerning the recreation world.”
Whether or not that recreation would have been Epic Mickey 3 or its personal factor is unclear.
Properly, we’re by no means going to see what Junction Level would’ve made from it: although if Epic Mickey’s re-release goes nicely, who is aware of what lies forward for the broader idea. It clearly will not contain Spector within the close to future although: he is going again to his roots, and beavering away on an immersive sim.
