EPIC MICKEY: REBRUSHED
When the original version of this game was announed way back when (2007? 2008?) and everyone saw the concept art that was coming out of super creepy Disney characters all transmogrified into horrible nightmare visions, people were just kinda like... Can Disney actually do this? Well, technically no, because the game we eventually got was a severely toned down version of what the concept art showcased.
But the game we did get was still pretty cool and had some pretty dark themes on display throughout regardless of whatever kibosh Disney put on the original concepts. The fact that it came out at all is pretty neat and the game turned out to be a pretty fun time all things considered.
So, the thing they don't tell you about this game is that it's secretly a Disneyland game! The main gist of the story is that Mickey wanders into Yen Sid's magical workshop and messes things up (a la Fantasia). This time, Yen Sid was working on a magical diorama theme park in the image of Disneyland where all the forgotten cartoons from old Disney media could go live after they weren't on the screen anymore. Well, Mickey gets a little curious and like a dumb, clumsy oaf spills a bunch of paint and thinner into the diorama park that summons a big giant thinner monster and sucks Mickey into the model park in the process.
So, now Mickey ends up in a twisted, gnarly version of the Happiest Place on Earth... which is where my fun with this game really begins!! I'm kind of a huge Disneyland enjoyer. I make a trip to the parks usually once a year, or every other year. I always tell people I want to be an Imagineer when I grow up. I just have a fascination with the artistry and tech magic that goes into bringing the whole place to life.
The whole game is set up just like the park, from the beginning near the entrance by a fake train station, down to the worlds being split up and themed in much the same way the park is laid out. You've got an Adventure Land, a Haunted Mansion, a Tomorrowland, even a version of Matterhorn Mountain that's extra unsettling.
You start off dumped on Mean Street, this world's version of Main Street USA, and right away the place is pretty drab and dreary. Buildings are missing whole chunks where thinner has dumped and wrecked them and cartoons walk the street depressed and moaning about the current state of affairs. Who could blame them??
The story itelf, while definitely made for kids, can get pretty dark for a Disney endeavor. The game deals with themes of abandonment and unfulfilled dreams as the world is filled with cartoon characters that were featured in some of Disney's earliest cartoons. They walk up to Mickey, excited to see an old acquaintance, only for Mickey to have no memory of them.
A while into the game, you meet Mickey's rival, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who was originally going to be Disney's mascot (in the game and in real life!) before Mickey rose up and took the spotlight instead. There's a moment where Oswald is lamenting his fall from grace and Mickey sympathetically asks what happened only for Oswald to whirl around, jabbing a finger towards Mickey and shouting "YOU happened!!". So not only did Mickey just wreck these folks home, he finds out he basically, through no fault of his own, got a character with a heart and soul cast aside and shunned by the world and I find it all very heavy for a game about goofy cartoon characters.
The gameplay is, for the most part, pretty standard platformer stuff, the big difference here is that you have your paint brush. In the Wii version, you would use the remote to aim the paint brush around the world and either paint or thin parts of the surroundings to fix up structures enough to interact with them, or thin away walls to gain access to new areas. In the Rebrushed version, the paint brush is controlled by the right stick which feels more natural than I thought it would.
There is combat, which is pretty basic. You can either paint or thin enemies ("The Blot" as they are called) which mind-controls them or evaporates them, respectively. You can also walk up and give them a whack with a spin move which mostly doesn't do much but knock them over so you can paint/thing them easier. In the Wii version, you have to waggle the remote to get off a spin attack which after a while I found really dang annoying, so I appreciate the fact that it's just a button press in this game. If I were reviewing the Wii version, I would have given the gameplay a 6/10 instead of 7/10 because of the waggle alone.
Going through the levels is basic, you basically talk to a charcter who wants a thing, so you go get the thing, which grants you access to new areas with more characters who want things that you have to go get. Eventually, each world has a boss at the end. The boss fight were actually quite fun overall, with each boss requiring different strategy and mechanics to take down. And of course, they're all fun references to the park! The Tomorrowland boss is especially fun, with a fight against Peg-Legged Pete done up as a character from Tron as you duke it out on the outside of Space Mountain.
The only thing that got kind of old was the 2D level sections that you go through in between the main level areas. They are all based on old Mickey cartoons, and that's neat and fun, but the platforming here is even more basic. It kinda harkens back to the old Mickey Mouse games like Castle of Illusion or Mickey Mania, but the gampeplay itself gets pretty stale as you just kinda jump around and collect things. The nice thing is that the game lets you pay in tickets (the game's currency) to skip these sections once you've played them once, since backtracking is required.
The graphics are good! Honestly, I thought the game was pretty fun to look at for the most part. The rendered cutscenes really pop and the in-game world is rendered to be sufficiently cartoony, with abstract shapes and lines filled in by bright colors, the colors dulled only a bit to fit the theme of a ruined hom.
For the most part, the painting and thinning mechanic looks great. I always found myself painting in thinned out structures even if I didn't have to since it made the world look just a bit nicer. I guess I also fell into the roll of Mickey here and felt a bit obligated to fix his mess and leave no cartoon brick un-painted. Thinning stuff out is cool too and it's kind of neat to see something be wiped away to reveal what's inside or behind it, or that underneath all the colorful cartoon shine there's just a delapidated, run-down building.
Then there are the 2D animated cutscenes. Most of the story beats are presented this way, with a cute, chalk drawing style of animation. The characters aren't voiced, which is fine, and the characterizations are a lot of fun to see play out here.
The music gets a 5... not because it was terrible, I just don't remember any of it. :/
That's really all I have to say about that.
And the title screen music was kind of annoying.
The whole time writing this review, I kept down to this part and changing the number from a 7 to an 8, back to a 7, then back to an 8m so on and so forth. I think the real exciting for me comes from playing a game that so faithfully recreates one of my favorite places ever, even if it's a condensed, cartoon parody version. In fact, it being a cartoon parody makes it even more fun... picking out all the little easter eggs and having little "a-ha!" moments as I excitedly point at the screen having seen some reference tucked away. One thing I especially love about the park analogy aspect is that part of the plot involves Mickey going around and fixing rides. And sections of level that are mechanial or automated are referred to as "effects" by the characters that hang around them. And there's pin collecting even! You can spend the tickets you get in game to unlock special art peices or little fake pins that sit in a fake little pin box.
Fun fact! The rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit were sold to Universal during a financial dispute, so in order to make this game, Disney traded an ESPN sports caster named Al Michaels so the could reclaim the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Whoa!
