Lately Disney has its fingers in every part, however not so way back the corporate was firmly in its outdated lane of animation powerhouse and theme park operator.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 collection.
Within the mid-2000s one thing modified, and Disney determined to know the nettle and make its personal big-budget sport with its most iconic character: the Home of Mouse had acquired Junction Level Studios, a dream group 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 finally selecting to focus on the sport on the all-conquering Wii platform, a fantastic console to make certain 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 certain deliver it to an even 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 thing), 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 Change and different platforms,” says Spector. “Everybody on the unique group in addition to the Purple Lamp and THQ Nordic groups that labored on the remaster did an incredible job bringing the sport to life.
“The groups on that venture had been implausible—it was clearly an actual labor of affection—and each group member can take pleasure in the truth that we created one thing that—like nearly every part 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 may have hoped for.”
Spector additionally has somewhat 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 one among his connections asking concerning the third sport on the above submit, Spector replies:
“I would like to do Epic Mickey 3 however I’ve a day job that may make that inconceivable. I even have a high-level concept for what I would do in a tri-quel. Don’t fret 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 may be 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 sport involving Scrooge McDuck and the broader Duck-verse (is {that a} factor?), and early sketches exist for a 3rd sport which will have been referred to as Epic Donald.
“The sport was to characteristic Donald Duck, Duckburg, and the various 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 greatest to maintain a 1950’s feeling spirit concerning the sport world.”
Whether or not that sport 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 fabricated 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.
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