Epic Mickey Catch-All

I've got a preorder in as a result of taking the wife around the Expo floor of PAX, and her pointing to it, eyes wide with a sharp intake of breath.

Success-wise, I think that Epic Mickey has the best chance of any non-Mario game of being a success on the Wii. For all that folk are talking about oversaturation, when was the last time Mickey was in anything? Kingdom Hearts as a bit part?

The Christmas launch window is going to do gangbusters for it if I don't miss my guess.

Jasonofindy wrote:

Wow. I can honestly say I'm shocked. How tight on time is their development cycle that they are forgoing being in-store and on the shelf for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend just to grab an extra week? Guys like us will still pick it up any way, but how many mainstream moms and dads that otherwise won't even know it exists would have picked it up off the shelf that weekend for their families?

I think this will be a good test case to see how important the thanksgiving weekend is. If this game has any of the legs of a nintendo product it shouldn't effect it at all. If not...........

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Official release dates: 11/25 for Europe, 11/26 for the UK, and 11/30 for the US.

Wow. I can honestly say I'm shocked. How tight on time is their development cycle that they are forgoing being in-store and on the shelf for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend just to grab an extra week? Guys like us will still pick it up anyway, but how many mainstream moms and dads that otherwise won't even know it exists would have picked it up off the shelf that weekend for their families?

Jasonofindy wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Official release dates: 11/25 for Europe, 11/26 for the UK, and 11/30 for the US.

Wow. I can honestly say I'm shocked. How tight on time is their development cycle that they are forgoing being in-store and on the shelf for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend just to grab an extra week? Guys like us will still pick it up anyway, but how many mainstream moms and dads that otherwise won't even know it exists would have picked it up off the shelf that weekend for their families?

But that puts it squarely in the new releases for the Christmas season, and as much as November is big for sales numbers, December is literally twice as big (according to NPD numbers for software sales in $, and # of hardware units sold)

And Mickey's ears are, I'm assuming, a big BUY ME sign for the shopper looking for a present for a kid.

Excellent. This will be a great gift/prize after completing NaNoWriMo.

Oh crap. I think I must have this game which means I have to find where I boxed up my Wii when I moved. Or buy a new one now that it's out in Black. The art direction looks superb and from what some people have told me the gameplay is solid as well. Plus it's Spector.

New video with Adam Sessler and Warren Spector detailing the "Tomorrow City" level. Getting more excited...but still sad the concept art is nowhere near reality. But still excited.

I have played the game for about an hour and I really like it. The platforming is better than Kingdom Hearts but not as tight as a Mario title, the art direction is brilliant and the combat is satisfying. Did anyone else pick it up?

I'm going to try and go pick up my copy as soon as I get this (@)&% build done. I'm glad to hear you like it so far. The Review-niverse has been muddle about it, and I wasn't sure how much of it was their usual problem with games that they are not the target audience for.

It's on The List, but I'm not sure I'll get to it by Christmas.

I picked my copy up, and I really love the Mickey figure I got with the collectors edition. It's a great addition to my collection. I don't think I can play it tonight, but tomorrow for sure.

Did you get the brush thingy for the 'Mote?

momgamer wrote:

Did you get the brush thingy for the 'Mote?

I haven't found anywhere that has it. But I am going to scour the region to find one. I'll be really sad if it was made just for display at PAX.

EDIT: Amazon has it, but not GameStop.

EDIT the second: Target has it for pre-order. It comes out December 3rd.

I ordered a copy from Amazon (just ahead of the release date) and hope to get it before Christmas.

Of course, my plan is to actually just play it myself before my kids even know it exists so I can, uh, screen it. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Metacritic has this at 78 right now. Respectable score. Sadly, the reviews seem to be, "the gameplay is hit or miss but your love of all things Disney will carry you through." I was hoping it wasn't going to lean on the license too hard. Think I might need to pass on this one. Still, the reviews also say it's very dark so I'm glad it exists.

Good job, Mr. Spector. Maybe next time you could make a game for me too?

LobsterMobster wrote:

Metacritic has this at 78 right now. Respectable score. Sadly, the reviews seem to be, "the gameplay is hit or miss but your love of all things Disney will carry you through." I was hoping it wasn't going to lean on the license too hard. Think I might need to pass on this one. Still, the reviews also say it's very dark so I'm glad it exists.

Good job, Mr. Spector. Maybe next time you could make a game for me too? ;)

Some reviews were complaining about the camera but I havne't run into any problems with it. If a player double taps the d-pad it snaps the camera quickly. The platforming is it's weakest part that I've experienced, so far, but it's not terrible. I think that it's being hurt by being a character adventure/platforming game during a generation when those titles are not in vogue.

If this game would have been released on the PS2/Xbox/GC era I think the reviews would be more favourable (but an 78 isn't a bad score).

You are correct that they do expect the loev of Disney to be apart of the game which is something I'm glad they played to. If you love Disney, Disney Land and the Magical Kingdom then the reviews don't matter. If you're not really a big fan of Disney and like action/platforming it's a good game. If you only play the creme of the crop of action/platformers then I don't think that this is a game that needs to be picked up.

I was thinking about a comment from the latest CC about Gaald not being able to handle a game that he cannot do everything, this game is not for those types of players. I'm 3 hours into it and there are choices that the player has to make and to do everything is going to require multiple times to do everything or to see what choices you make can be different.

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/70...

I saw this review and it sums up my feelings pretty well.

EDIT: This is going to be one of those games I champion because it's a game that I think will be overlooked by a lot of posters here based on it's platform, the type of game it is, and that it's a Mickey game. It is better than the old Mickey Capcom games.

Malor wrote:

It's on The List, but I'm not sure I'll get to it by Christmas.

This is true for me, sadly. I was prepared to buy it yesterday, but I had to put that money toward other, more responsible things.

Would this be a game that a 4-5 year old kid would enjoy? I just have no idea how complex it is, how much reading, or if it's a more straight forward action game.

As much as I want to play this now, with my copy and Wii sitting next to me, I'm going to wait until I can play it in it's entirety with my paintbrush nunchuck this weekend.

I've got my copy, but we are in the same boat, I think. My life just got even more, uh, interesting and I didn't think that was even possible. Let me know about the brush, though. I'm really interested. I had some real problems playing Kirby with the 'Mote, and if this helped it would be nice.

I fail at beign a good gamer. I really need to get this and try it. I have planned on it for a long time, but stupid World of Warcraft sucked me up for the Cata release.

I will be out to get this one and play it soon, I hope to continueing hearing good things about it.

It's a Christmas gift in our house. My wife has been longing for this game for some time. So I will have some post-Christmas impressions. Between this, Kirby and Donkey Kong Country, it may be quite the Wii Christmas.

Kehama wrote:

Would this be a game that a 4-5 year old kid would enjoy? I just have no idea how complex it is, how much reading, or if it's a more straight forward action game.

Check out the GiantBomb quick look -- one of the things they were surprised about was the amount of reading required. It looked like quest objectives are given out as text, as well as most of the how-to-play tutorial tips.

Katy wrote:
Kehama wrote:

Would this be a game that a 4-5 year old kid would enjoy? I just have no idea how complex it is, how much reading, or if it's a more straight forward action game.

Check out the GiantBomb quick look -- one of the things they were surprised about was the amount of reading required. It looked like quest objectives are given out as text, as well as most of the how-to-play tutorial tips.

Correct. And the game might be a little scary for a 4-5 year old (I don't know I'm not a parent).

I love G4TV, they want the game on HD consoles for voice acting because on the Xbox 360 a DVD holds more data than on the Wii. HDMI ports increase DVD capacity.

Ulairi wrote:

I love G4TV, they want the game on HD consoles for voice acting because on the Xbox 360 a DVD holds more data than on the Wii. HDMI ports increase DVD capacity.

I heard this with the release of Super Mario Galaxy, too. It's not a question of the platform's capabilities; it's a decision made by the publisher and/or developer. It drives me crazy when reviewers don't get that.

Ulairi wrote:

on the Xbox 360 a DVD holds more data than on the Wii.

While the rest of that was nonsense, I believe this bit is actually true. The Wii uses a fixed-speed drive while the Xbox uses a standard variable-speed drive. This means the Wii disks can store less data on the outer rings than a standard DVD-ROM can. I'm not sure how significant the difference is, but it's there.

Jayhawker wrote:

It's a Christmas gift in our house. My wife has been longing for this game for some time. So I will have some post-Christmas impressions. Between this, Kirby and Donkey Kong Country, it may be quite the Wii Christmas.

I feel so bad for taking a pass on Kirby, but between the two other games you listed, building a new gaming PC earlier this year and buying our first HD console (a PS3) one of them had to give, and my wife, like yours, really wants Epic Mickey. Skipping DKCR was not an option. Sadly, with regards to gameplay control and such this looks to be the weakest contender of them all, so I might never play it. And that's a weird thing for me to say to myself.