LOS ANGELES—Mickey Mouse is coming back to video games in two sequels to 2009's Epic Mickey.
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two brings Mickey back to the Wasteland, where fellow cartoon and Disney creation Oswald the Lucky Rabbit will work with him to save the land. Epic Mickey 2: World of Illusion, meanwhile, is a side-scrolling game for the Nintendo 3DS that calls back to the Sega Genesis classic Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. I sat down at Disney's booth at E3 and tried Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two.
The demo started in Mickey's home, where Gus the Gremlin, Mickey's guide from the first game, contacted him through a TV screen. Things were happening in the Wasteland, so Mickey had to help out again. A jump through a TV screen took me to the wizard Yen Sid's (Get it? The name backwards spells something! Do you get it?) lab. Mickey put on a wizard hat and brooms came to life in a scene similar to the classic Fantasia sequence. The action began at that point, where Mickey picked up the magic paintbrush from the first game and went to work.
While the demo was on the Xbox 360 and not the Wii, the same mechanics applied. The right stick controlled the aiming reticule, which let me paint in objects and thin them out to solve puzzles in the game. The left stick controlled Mickey, and the direction pad controlled the camera. The developers claim that the camera issues that plagued the first Epic Mickey have been resolved, but it was still awkward adjusting the camera with the direction pad. The targeting reticule moved the camera around slightly, but it felt too slow to be responsive, so I still had to rely on the game's automatic perspective the majority of the time.
The brooms started to fill Yen Sid's observatory with water, so I had to use paint and thinner to stop the brooms from pouring water and fill in the paintings that were also spilling water. The telescope served as a ramp to the next part of the game, but I couldn't climb it until I used thinner on the base to lower it so I could jump onto it. The water puzzle wasn't necessary to proceed, but stopping the water drained the room and revealed a chest with magic tickets that unlock things later in the game.
The next section was a side-scroller like the transition stages in the first game, but in full color instead of the black and white style reminiscent of the first cartoons. In this mode, a developer hopped on as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, jumping into the game and splitting the screen automatically. The two characters have similar abilities in the side-scrolling levels, but they can boost each other to get to higher platforms, more magical tickets, or other secrets. This was a quick level, and it soon moved on to the third part of the demo, a boss fight.
A mechanical dragon that looked like Pete's Dragon attacked Mickey, who had to use thinner to destroy the dragon's armor. The battle had three parts, where the dragon changed its tactics to use its spinning saw tail, breathed fire, and smashed the platforms on which Mickey was standing. The dragon was finally defeated when Mickey used thinner to destroy the pillars supporting the ceiling, which came crashing down on the dragon. The developer could jump in and out of the game during the fight, taking control of Oswald in a split-screen mode. Oswald used a remote that could electrify and stun enemies, while Mickey used his magic paintbrush. While two players aren't necessary, they can work together to fight enemies and solve puzzles.
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two comes out on all major game consoles in September.
