Epic Mickey Finally Announced, Detailed

Disney Interactive has officially announced Epic Mickey.

IncGamers, attending the Epic Mickey reveal event in London earlier today, spoke to designer Warren Spector who was on hand to brief us on what to expect from the game.

The game is being touted as a platformer/RPG adventure that will send Mickey into the Cartoon Wasteland, a "whimsically-twisted world" where Disney characters which have been rejected or retired by Disney live out their lives. Mickey, years back, discovered a map created by the sorceror Yen Sid - yes, him from Fantasia - and is pulled into the Wasteland, where he accidentally screws things up and devastates the place.

Years later, Mickey will have to rectify his mistake when Yen Sid's first creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, wants revenge. Pulled into this strange world, and armed with magical paint and thinner abilities which allow the player to shape the landscape, Mickey is up against it.

There are two main types of enemy in Oswald's creepy army: Spatters and Beetleworx. TheBeetleworx are robotic characters that are immuneto the paint and paint thinner mechanics used by Mickey, but the Spatters - well, over to Warren Spector: "You canerase Spatters, or make them friendly, or distract them. You caninteract with these minions in all sorts of ways."

You read that right. The way you play - as either a Scrapper or a Hero - changes your gaming experience, including the way characters will react to you. "In this game, you can get around and not fight a boss. That sounds crazy, but everyone wants something, and you can figure out how to not fight a boss," commented Spector.

While researching the history of Mickey, developer Junction Pointuncovered Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and other long-forgotten charactersfrom the world of Disney. Mickey's recent history in the world ofcomputer games has been a bit bleak - the last good one we can rememberwas on the SNES, barring Kingdom Hearts - and it transpires that theDisney Think Tank put Mickey games on hold until they could find a wayto make him an interesting character to play. "Mickey is mostrecognised as an icon on a watch or t-shirt, but not as a character innarrative. So we had to make Mickey cool again," said Spector, on thechallenges faced.

Today's reveal makes us even more excited about the game and we'll have a full report of the London event for you shortly. Stay tuned.