Disney fans will get a kick out of seeing which characters turn up, but if you're expecting another Castle of Illusion, you're going to be disappointed.
Power of Illusion is unlikely to entertain fans of the Mega Drive game beyond the initial buzz of nostalgia, and kids of today won't fancy trekking all the way back through the Neverland jungle to find Wendy's needle when they could be watching the Power Rangers kick space robots to death. Oh Mickey, what a pity.
I can’t fault the developer, as they’ve clearly put heaps of effort into this title. It’s just a shame that a deadline might’ve prevented it from reaching its full potential.
It offers some great level design, top notch fan service, and a decent challenge, but that challenge arrives a little too late. Combine that with a dearth of Disney worlds, and Power of Illusion can best be summed up with the words "unrealized potential." It's good, but it could have been a lot better.
The Good
Tight platforming feel Great, challenging level design Colourful visuals that are full of charm Lots of classic Disney characters to meet RPG elements provide lots of extra content.
The Bad
Later levels might be too challenging for some.
Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion is a very competent platform adventure, yet sadly falls short of the excellence many would have expected from the otherwise superb DreamRift. That is not to say it comes without any merit, since the -- admittedly shorter than expected -- adventure is filled with smart platform antics, lovely colourful retro visuals and a delightful soundtrack. Hopefully DreamRift will be given another shot to polish up the formula in a 3DS sequel.
Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion is beautiful to look at. It's also quite obviously unfinished. The building blocks of the ultimate Mickey Mouse game are here, but we'll have to wait yet another day to see that vision become reality.
“There’s also a fortress mode [in Power of Illusion]; I’ve wanted to do this in every game I’ve done since I’ve played – There’s a game called Suikoden many years ago on the PS1, and I have written a customizable fortress into every design document I’ve worked on since then, and I’ve [had to] cut it from [each one] I’ve written since then. This time, it didn’t get cut.” - Warren Spector
To read more info on Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, hit up an interview
- Oswald the Lucky Rabbit informs Mickey that the Castle of Illusion has appeared in the Cartoon Wasteland
- this also includes an appearance to the witch Mizrabel
- she ends up kidnapping Mickey's pals
- toggle between paint and thinner with the L button
- tap the shape that's outlined on the bottom screen and then draw in the object's outline
- tracing is ranked as you perform
- Aladdin can be drawn to call in for help
- several "wings" of the castle, each with a different theme
- includes an Alice in Wonderland section, as well as London and the pirate galley from Peter Pan
- Mizrabel takes on the form of many Disney villains
- she really enjoys taking on the form of Maleficent
- Tangled-themed content is also included in the game
- eventually collect and trace sketches of certain enemies
- use these to clear a path through your adversaries
- buy status power-ups from Scrooge McDuck
- decorate a character's bare-bones room to reflect their personality and origins
Check out a transcript of Mr. Spector's presentation here
A portion of an NWR interview with Peter Ong...
NWR: Going off of that, as far as influences on the game, Castle of Illusion is a given, but did you pull anything from the previous Epic Mickey games and any of the classic Disney games from the NES/SNES/Genesis eras?
PO: I’m not sure if I’m allowed to talk about directly referencing things from the other games, but I think that people that are fans of the 16-bit and 8-bit Capcom games, like Ducktales, will be happy. I mean, Scrooge McDuck is in this game.
NWR: Let’s put it this way: he’s on the damn pogo stick when you bring him in the game.
PO: Yea, I forgot that you played that. You can sketch Scrooge into this game and he pogos around. I can neither confirm nor deny that that is directly inspired by the original 8-bit game, but in that game he also mysteriously pogos around as his primary attack.
So yea, big fans of 16-bit and 8-bit best, classic Disney platforming games. We looked at everything, I’ll tell you that.
And for Epic Mickey inspirations, I think its apparent from some things we’ve shown so far that there are direct draws. Paint and thinner are the biggest things, as they are your projectile attacks in the game and are also used for the drawing mechanic.
Full interview here
- hinted-at post-game section
- each level has several characters to rescue
- characters will give you quests that have you returning to previous levels
- every single level features different enemy patterns after you complete them
- one castle-themed level features a lot of cannons
- you have to paint and thin them to get around
- depending on how well you draw, the canon can last forever or disappear after a few shots
- level features a Metroid reference
- another level is based off of the streets of Agrabah
- this will feature Aladdin-specific enemies
- key mechanic in this level is swinging chain sketches
- first dodge the chains (with blades on the bottom), thenthin them out and paint them back in to use as a rope
- another level is the Cave of Wonders
- includes golden idols
- paint and thin magic carpets that take you across gaps and over enemies
- 10 sketches you can do on your own
- one sketch is a Thwomp adorned with the Pete character
- another is Goofy that kicks a soccer ball around to hurt enemies
- another is Scrooge, who hops on his pogo stick to bounce around and damage foes
- there's also a Sorcerer's Apprentice-inspired hat sketch that makes Mickey temporarily invincible
ORLANDO -- Disney Interactive revealed the Aladdin-based second castle wing of is much anticipated handheld platformer Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion for the Nintendo 3DS handheld and released new screenshots. Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion's story bridges the storyline between Epic Mickey and the upcoming Epic Mickey 2 for consoles and fully utilizes the Nintendo 3DS' two screens as well as its 3D capabilities. We talked exclusively to Creative Director Warren Spector and Game Director Peter Ong about the new game and got a hands on preview. Also, check out the new screenshots
Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion pits Mickey against the evil witch Mizrabel. Mizrabel and her Castle of Illusion have been accidentally transported to the Wasteland, where lose Disney characters reside, by the wizard Yen Sid. Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit contacts Mickey Mouse to tell him that the castle has mysteriously appeared in Wasteland and that Minnie Mouse has been spotted inside the castle. Mickey must go and save Minnie and the "illusions" of other Disney characters stuck inside the castle. Players control Mickey with classic side-scrolling gameplay combined with the paint and thinner mechanics from Epic Mickey.
Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion for the Nintendo 3DS will ship November 18th in conjunction with Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two for consoles.
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One of this fall's Nintendo 3DS games of note that isn't made by Nintendo is Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, a sidecrolling throwback to an old Genesis game, and a game that's got some unusual things going for it. More »
