Epic Mickey is one of those strange games where it's good, but not great. It's fun but boring.... if that makes any sense. I guess I should explain. Let's start with the gameplay mechanics here: the paintbrush. I was turned off by this concept (and not so keen on the idea of the Wasteland), and starting off in the game, I still wasn't sure. However, it grew on me, and I found it rather fun after a while. So there's the fun factor. The boring factor is what the game puts you through to get to its thrilling ending.
Fetch-quests.
Each area of the game you enter through, and each NPC you speak to, you are more than likely have some kind of objective they want from you. Normally I'm okay with this, but there are a number of different reasons why this is more of a chore than fun. Sometimes you have to bring an item back for a character, usually involving backtracking. The objectives that your Gremlin Gus (your tutorial for the game) gives you is usually patching up pipes with paint or filling up tanks with either paint or thinner.
Which brings me to your paint and thinner. Your paint is more like a good guy where it usually brings invisible objects such as ledges to life. Sometimes in battle you can use it to make enemies your friend rather than killing them. This helps bring the hero ending of the game, I guess. The thinner kills enemies and turns a lot of objects invisible. Sometimes you need to just so you can find certain items or whatnot so it has its advantages.
As boring as these quests are, it's the story that keeps me going which centers around characters Disney created that most people didn't even know they exist: like Oswald. Poor little Oswald. He had been angry with Mickey Mouse ever since Walt Disney abandoned him and made Mickey a star. Now since Mickey has created the Wasteland (comprised of dull environments)its up to Mickey to set things right. There's more to the story than this, and believe me, it's a good one.
Which leads me to the last third of the game: it is epic. I found the last third more thrilling than anything else in the game. It's too bad that its such a chore to get there. The characters they throw at you will keep you entertained, and there are also these side-scrolling levels based on earlier cartoons from Mickey and Oswald that I really like. And the music in the game is incredible, especially the ending music.
Is it worth playing through? Oh yeah, especially if you're a fan of Disney like me. Also towards the end, I can see why they compared this game to Kingdom Hearts. However, I wish they would make some kind of movie off of this. It would make one heck of a film!
