![]() ![]() "The games I like working on are the games that ask you to think about yourself as a human and about what you think is important," he says. "It's like capture the flag or prevent the enemy from capturing the flag or kill that thing or defeat that boss. "Even what I consider to be the best of co-op gameplay is about people playing a specific role to accomplish a specific goal," he says. Spector says that most cooperative games feel, to him, more like a sports team working together to achieve a goal rather than players working together as they unravel and partake in a story of their own making together. "And sort of in a weird way, the 30 years I’ve been making games have really just been about capturing that feeling again and letting other people experience it." One of which happened to be in 1978 - the first time I played 'Dungeons and Dragons' and I experienced the power of sitting there with a half dozen of my friends telling a story together," he says. "I've had a couple of life-changing moments over the years. Spector says that he also tried with "Epic Mickey 2" to explore "cooperative storytelling" in a way it hasn't been explored in video games before. Consider the musical numbers from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Cinderella," "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King" just to name a few.īut it's not just music that he's is dabling in here. But one need only look at Disney's own musical history to see why this makes such good sense here. Sure, making a video game that's also a musical has its. You can catch the opening musical number - "Help Me/Help You" - in the trailer for the game below. With invisible ink and indelible ink, Mickey and Oswald become invisible to enemies or immune to their attacks for a period of time.īut perhaps most intriguingly, "Epic Mickey 2" finds characters breaking into musical numbers throughout the game much like you would see characters do in any other musical. And like the first "Epic Mickey," this sequel is a game of choice and consequence - about using the power to both create and to erase.īut for "Epic Mickey 2," Spector and his team at Junction Point Studios have added some new twists and turns. Not only does the game feature two-player cooperative gameplay (you and a friend can play Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit) but players can now make use of new kinds of ink within this cartoon world. Once again it takes Mickey Mouse (and you the player) to Wasteland - a world where castoff and forgotten Disney characters come to vivid life. Like the first "Epic Mickey" game, "Epic Mickey 2" is very much a love note to Disney past and present. Mickey is “one of the world’s most recognizable corporate logos,” but he has “long since receded into irrelevance as a cartoon character.” Kudos to Disney for finally realizing this, but “more than two generations have grown up with a Mickey that is flat and boring.” Better luck next time."The bottom line is, if you’re honoring 80 years of Disney’s creative history, then you have to have songs," Spector told me in a recent interview. “Mickey Mouse’s ‘naughty’ makeover promises to be disturbing”ĭisney waited too long: It’s too late for the cartoon mouse, says Bruce Watson in Daily Finance. The word “naughty” should really be “off-limits to people whose jobs involve children.” That said, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised: “In retrospect, always did dress a bit like a Chippendale dancer.” have “thrilled kids for years”-they certainly don’t need “an edge” now.Ī ‘naughty’ Mickey is disturbing: Is it just me, or is there a subtle element of “sexual creepiness" here, asks Azaria Jagger in Gawker. This “scary makeover”-turning the “cute, lovable” classic Mickey into a “maniacal” rodent-is baffling. Has Disney gone insane? Why are the folks at Disney trying to “scare the hell out of young kids,” asks Jonathan Elias at. Though most commentators agree that the “bland” Mickey could use a refresh, does he have to become such a, well, rat? ( Watch the sweet, old-school Mickey attend a picnic in a clip from 1930)ĭisney has no choice-Mickey has no relevance: “There’s a distinct risk of alienating your core consumer when you tweak a sacred character," but it’s a risk have to take, says branding expert Matt Britton, quoted in the New York Times, (which notes that “Epic Mickey” also features a “disemboweled, robotic Donald Duck” and a “twisted, broken, dangerous” version of the Disney ditty, “It’s a Small World"). Though still adventurous, this “cantankerous and cunning” incarnation of the heretofore perky character-created for “Epic Mickey,” a Nintendo Wii video game-will even turn into a rat at one point. has unveiled a nasty new version of Mickey Mouse, the iconic rodent who drives over $5 billion in annual merchandising. ![]()
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