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Epic Mickey 2, particularly the Wii U version, is one of the worst games ever made

G

Gonzo The Great

Banned
Disney should be ashamed of themselves for releasing this piece of shit in its current state, and Warren Spector should never be allowed to direct another game again. He's responsible for murdering one of the most beloved cartoon characters in human history.

- It looks like a Gamecube game running in 720p
- Forced GamePad controls for player 1 even though the far superior Wii Remote controls work in multiplayer
- The framerate is so terrible that it actually runs better in Youtube videos than on my TV
- Unnecessary and forced co-op that makes the game gimmicky and nearly unplayable
- Extremely confusing mission-based system that doesn't make sense for a platformer
- The camera is so bad that even Earthworm Jim 3D and Tonic Trouble put it to shame
- Lame fanservice (since when are Pete's Dragon and Tron forgotten Disney characters?)

The worst part about this series is how much wasted potential it has. I still remember when the first Epic Mickey game got revealed via a leaked Game Informer cover, but the hype quickly deflated when it was confirmed to be a Wii exclusive. Although I can understand why, Super Mario Galaxy proves that developers can make beautiful looking games on weak hardware. Epic Mickey, on the other hand, has zero redeeming qualities, both artistically and graphically.

Not only is the level design atrocious, but poor checkpoint implementation, tedious and boring sidequests, and muddy graphics cement Epic Mickey and its sequel as two of the worst platformers I have ever played in my entire life. Epic Mickey 2 is particularly offensive, because the developers at Junction Point made no effort to fix the criticisms people had with the first game. They somehow managed to make it even worse by forcing you to play co-op with either a human player or the AI, which, by the way, is so laughably unintelligent that it may as well not exist at all.
 
I'm glad it exists just for the initial reaction on the giantbomb wii u stream of the framerate fucking tanking everytime you use a vital part of the gameplay by melting away stuff.
 
The whole Epic Mickey franchise is one of, if not the biggest missed opportunity of this gen. They couldn't even get the fanservice right.

And least this was hilarious on the GB WiiU stream when they all freaked out over the framerate.
 
The Giant Bomb QL when the framerate just goes to absolute shit when you starting using your paint / thinner was a thing to behold

http://youtu.be/qA6TV9SQZn4?t=16m1s


I have been curious on how the weird super late Vita port did. That port just seemed like a "you are contractually obligated to publish one Vita game" so I cant expect its much better then the WIi U.


Man.... That original Epic Mickey concept art was SOOOOOOO good. :(
 
SmithnCo said:
The whole Epic Mickey franchise is one of, if not the biggest missed opportunity of this gen. They couldn't even get the fanservice right.

And least this was hilarious on the GB WiiU stream when they all freaked out over the framerate.
Click to expand...

It sounded pretty good when they were talking about the first one, with the different moods mickey can be in etc..

Then the game came out.
 
Mickey Mouse is one of my favorite cartoon characters and it was heartbreaking to see Epic Mickey happen the way it did. Even the 3DS game was a huge piece of shit.
 
funkystudent said:
The Giant Bomb QL when the framerate just goes to absolute shit when you starting using your paint / thinner was a thing to behold

http://youtu.be/qA6TV9SQZn4?t=16m1s


I have been curious on how the weird super late Vita port did. That port just seemed like a "you are contractually obligated to publish one Vita game" so I cant expect its much better then the WIi U.
Click to expand...

Was the first Epic Mickey even any good? People seemed to overrate it because it was a Wii exclusive.

And that video has my favorite line. "Power of 2...frames per second"
 
The original is a good looker on Wii no doubt, and it definitely feels good despite its flaws.

I never got proof or impressions of this, but apparently Nintendo redid the camera themselves when they brought the original to JP, pretty obvious that they wouldn't allow Junction Point to use said ideas for a multiplat sequel.

Know the ironic part? Heavy Iron, who did the Wii U version, did the Wii and Wii U versions of Infinity, which by all counts it's supposed to be on par if not better than the PS360 versions on Wii U.

Surprised Disney haven't bought them yet, they did most of the Pixar games at THQ, they probably worked on more Disney games than any other company. Even more than TT Games (*sniff* :'( ).

I'd be fine with them on Finding Dory if TT Games is banned from ever working on a Pixar game again due to Warner Bros owning them.

Unless of course Disney license out the game to them like they did with Frozen (to Gamemill and 1st Playable) and Phineas & Ferb (to Majesco and Behavior).
 
I have the game in my backlog. I hope there's at least something to like about it. I loved the first one, even though gamers seemed to hate on it. I think it was probably my favorite game on the Wii.
 
narton said:
Was the first Epic Mickey even any good? People seemed to overrate it because it was a Wii exclusive.

And that video has my favorite line. "Power of 2...frames per second"
Click to expand...

The first game was nothing special. Not bad by any means. Just kind of a ok 3D platformer that had some pretty bad camera issues.


But seriously. Go google "Epic Mickey Concept Art". Its amazing.

Anyone know if that artist went on to better things?
 
funkystudent said:
The first game was nothing special. Not bad by any means. Just kind of a ok 3D platformer that had some pretty bad camera issues.


But seriously. Go google "Epic Mickey Concept Art". Its amazing.

Anyone know if that artist went on to better things?
Click to expand...

I remember the same artist also did concept art for Jimmy Neutron which was shown on his site. As well as Ant Bully.
 
Atilac said:
Let's be honest here... Disney killed Mickey way before Warren Specter got his hands on him.
Click to expand...

Disney is not responsible for the quality of their 3rd party licensed products.
Their games were amazing on the SNES/Genesis when competent developers had their hands on them.

All the fault lays squarely on Warren Spector. He was the one running the company & oversaw development of this crapper.

I do agree he shouldn't direct another game after this. Seems the glory days are waaaay behind him now.
 
funkystudent said:
The Giant Bomb QL when the framerate just goes to absolute shit when you starting using your paint / thinner was a thing to behold

http://youtu.be/qA6TV9SQZn4?t=16m1s


I have been curious on how the weird super late Vita port did. That port just seemed like a "you are contractually obligated to publish one Vita game" so I cant expect its much better then the WIi U.


Man.... That original Epic Mickey concept art was SOOOOOOO good. :(
Click to expand...
Sales probably bad.

Quality, it looks really good on Vita. Framerate has problems, but I hear every version of the game does so that's not really new. Controls are fine.

I like the game personally. Certainly not perfect, but neither was the first game. Biggest issue is the retarded decision to not allow you to switch to Oswald. His AI is some of the worst ever.
 
Im sure people are going to start posting the old creepy concept art. THAT WAS NOT THE GAMES PROBLEM. The original concept art wouldnt have worked well with the idea of forgotten disneyland, the problem comes of not using that idea to its full extent. In fact the real concept art used for the game is not bad at all, but it also was translated badly into the game.

Gonzo The Great said:
- Forced GamePad controls for player 1 even though the far superior Wii Remote controls work in multiplayer
Click to expand...

The worst part of all, in multiplayer, intead of having to cut in half the fucking TV screen, they could have used one on the gamepad, and the other on the tv, making a great multiplayer experience (if the game had been good of course).

Gonzo The Great said:
- Lame fanservice (since when are Pete's Dragon and Tron forgotten Disney characters?)

The worst part about this series is how much wasted potential it has.
Click to expand...

Lame fanservice has been there since the first game. Atrocious part of the game in my opinion, and something that could have made it special. It's a pity becuase it relally looked that Spector was a Disneyland fan and knew what was doing. The music not being renditions of disneyland music is just disastorus.
Tron is surely not forgotten (lol at using tron as themeing in Tomorrowland instead of the awesome and old 1960's version), but Pete, it was referencing to Main Street Electrical Parade, somethign taht doesnt exist in Disneyland anymore so that was not so bad in my opinion.

Its a horrible, horrible game. The worst part of all, as a big disneyland fan, I knew how easy was to tick the boxes to make this game special, but its ruined by not understanding its own premise. Forgotten disneyland.
And lets not talk about the atrocious game design...
 
funkystudent said:
The first game was nothing special. Not bad by any means. Just kind of a ok 3D platformer that had some pretty bad camera issues.


But seriously. Go google "Epic Mickey Concept Art". Its amazing.

Anyone know if that artist went on to better things?
Click to expand...

that concept art is from before it became wii exclusiv, isnt it?
 
I dont think either game are particularly bad platformers, but with all of the concepts behind them its difficult to excuse the sequel being little more than a retread of the first game's mechanics.

From what I know, Disney also rushed this game excessively to meet the Wii U launch. Just about every version of this game from the 3DS one, to the various ports all have blatant issues because of it.
 
I think I remember Spector saying EM2 team was around 600~, if so it's one of the biggest failures ever.

I only played the PS3 demo and I thought it was an absolute disaster. Oswald's AI is something to behold.
 
SmithnCo said:
This really stung. The Toy Story 3 game had actual Haunted Mansion music in it. What's their excuse for using a generic "spooky" tune in Epic Mickey. Just one example of terrible fanservice.
Click to expand...

What about the shitty rendition to the pirates of the caribbean movie music instead of the rides music in the first game?
Fucking piece of shit of composer, I do not give a fuck if you did Pushing Daisies, Epic Mickey's soundtrack is a disservice to the amazing works of X Atencio, George Bruns, Buddy Baker, the Sherman brothers... when the whole game is supposed to be a huge tribute.
New creepy renditions of disneyland music would have been amazing, but it seems warren told him to do its a small world and then the guy forgot he was doing disneyland music.
 
I liked it better than the first one. It was an improved version with a better camera by default since you can use the right stick. My son and I had a lot of fun playing it. Not a great game by any means, but enjoyable if you are a Disney fan. Could have been so much more though.

There's supposedly a PC version floating around. Sad we'll never get to see it in the states. :(
 
Shaanyboi said:
Shoddily made, a waste of potential, and not worth the time or effort? Sure.

One of the worst ever made? Eh... I doubt it.
Click to expand...

This

OP needs to play waaaaaaaaaaaay more bad games.

This is a hidden gem near Sonic 2006 and Superman 64 just to say the more famous ones
 
Phaethon0017 said:
This thread just made me feel bad. I bought this as a gift for my friend who has a Wii U.
Click to expand...
IToDB4E.gif
 
Gonzo The Great said:
Disney should be ashamed of themselves for releasing this piece of shit in its current state, and Warren Spector should never be allowed to direct another game again. He's responsible for murdering one of the most beloved cartoon characters in human history.

- It looks like a Gamecube game running in 720p
- Forced GamePad controls for player 1 even though the far superior Wii Remote controls work in multiplayer
- The framerate is so terrible that it actually runs better in Youtube videos than on my TV
- Unnecessary and forced co-op that makes the game gimmicky and nearly unplayable
- Extremely confusing mission-based system that doesn't make sense for a platformer
- The camera is so bad that even Earthworm Jim 3D and Tonic Trouble put it to shame
- Lame fanservice (since when are Pete's Dragon and Tron forgotten Disney characters?)

The worst part about this series is how much wasted potential it has. I still remember when the first Epic Mickey game got revealed via a leaked Game Informer cover, but the hype quickly deflated when it was confirmed to be a Wii exclusive. Although I can understand why, Super Mario Galaxy proves that developers can make beautiful looking games on weak hardware. Epic Mickey, on the other hand, has zero redeeming qualities, both artistically and graphically.

Not only is the level design atrocious, but poor checkpoint implementation, tedious and boring sidequests, and muddy graphics cement Epic Mickey and its sequel as two of the worst platformers I have ever played in my entire life. Epic Mickey 2 is particularly offensive, because the developers at Junction Point made no effort to fix the criticisms people had with the first game. They somehow managed to make it even worse by forcing you to play co-op with either a human player or the AI, which, by the way, is so laughably unintelligent that it may as well not exist at all.
Click to expand...

wii version has none of those performance issues. I enjoyed it quite a bit and the coop wasn't a problem either.
 
I still remember the mass graveyard that it was the gameinformer reveal thread with people so excited about the concept art and the article that would go openly port begging the game. Such a wasted opportunity. There was real excitement on a non conventional, darker take on Disney's universe. It could have been our generation Fantasia.
 
One thing that goes through my mind when I see these kinds of games... do the developers get some sort of satisfaction by releasing bad games? Do they wake up in the morning and say, "Fuck you gamers, I'm going to make a bad game!"? Does it even compute to them that they're making a bad game, and yet still continue to do it anyway?

It boggles my mind.
 
I remember the Giant Bomb stream. Multiple prolonged instances of single digit framerate during like the 10 minutes they played it. It was shockingly poor. The lowest point of an already disappointing first look at the platform.
 
I played the first game and thought it was okay, gave up about half way through my second run to try and get the perfect ending.

It reminds me of Last Story in the sense of it being such a great idea but some really bad execution. Last Story isn't nearly as flawed though, just similarly flawed.

They really should make a Rayman like platformer in the style of the new shorts though.
 
I just picked this P.O.S. UP from gamefly for 8 bucks because my kids love mickey. They are too young to play so I play and they watch. I wanted to stab my eyes out it was so bad. The sound was absent for two whole levels as well. A giant piece of shit.
 
Al Gore's Thermostat said:
One thing that goes through my mind when I see these kinds of games... do the developers get some sort of satisfaction by releasing bad games? Do they wake up in the morning and say, "Fuck you gamers, I'm going to make a bad game!"? Does it even compute to them that they're making a bad game, and yet still continue to do it anyway?

It boggles my mind.
Click to expand...

Really?

Budget
Time
Talent
Luck
Publisher
Over ambition

I'm not sure how it's possible to not understand how things can go wrong even with the best intentions. I assume everything you've ever done has been perfect?
 
bomma_man said:
Really?

Budget
Time
Talent
Luck
Publisher
Over ambition

I'm not sure how it's possible to not understand how things can go wrong even with the best intentions. I assume everything you've ever done has been perfect?
Click to expand...

Those things are obvious, but these people still release a pile of crap anyway. I'm not perfect, but when I aspire to create something for someone, I do my best, and I feel good about it.

These guys can't feel good about it. There's no way.
 
Al Gore's Thermostat said:
One thing that goes through my mind when I see these kinds of games... do the developers get some sort of satisfaction by releasing bad games? Do they wake up in the morning and say, "Fuck you gamers, I'm going to make a bad game!"? Does it even compute to them that they're making a bad game, and yet still continue to do it anyway?

It boggles my mind.
Click to expand...

Game development is a long process compromised (generally) of many people including directors, programmers, investors, and so on. Pretty sure in situations like this, they just try to work with what they got, while they watch this snow ball inevitably become the final product. No one wants to create something terrible but they're contractually obligated to release something within their time constraints.
 
PAULINK said:
Game development is a long process compromised (generally) of many people including directors, programmers, investors, and so on. Pretty sure in situations like this, they just try to work with what they got, while they watch this snow ball inevitably become the final product. No one wants to create something terrible but they're contractually obligated to release something within their time constraints.
Click to expand...

But what about the people in charge? Do they not care about making a quality product? I mean, sure, there are those games once in a while that have insanely high production values that turn into a turd, but besides those, they've GOT to know they're producing a turd. Then they expect it to sell? It's like they're sending the devs to their deaths (such as the Mickey dev). It just ain't right.

Time constraints notwithstanding, more devs need to take up the "it's done when it's done" mentality.
 
Al Gore's Thermostat said:
But what about the people in charge? Do they not care about making a quality product? I mean, sure, there are those games once in a while that have insanely high production values that turn into a turd, but besides those, they've GOT to know they're producing a turd. Then they expect it to sell? It's like they're sending the devs to their deaths (such as the Mickey dev). It just ain't right.

Time constraints notwithstanding, more devs need to take up the "it's done when it's done" mentality.
Click to expand...

Not many studios have that luxury to just delay a game. It's all about the money in the end. As long as the game is in a playable state where all the bugs are ironed out, I'm sure that's probably the best they can end up with, doing anything major would probably require overhauling the whole game and would require a lot of time. Arguably, they probably should have aimed for a "Quality game" but that's a factor of a lot of things, starting with the direction.

In regard to it selling, it has that instant brand recognition, Mickey will sell based on the name alone (and look at shovelware based on popular movies). Epic Mickey (the first one) sold over a million in it's first month, despite being a new ip and met with lukewarm support after the hype that was following it. Dunno how Epic Mickey 2 did though.

All purely speculation but the reality is, if one person working on the game ( out of a 50 person studio) knows the game is turning into a turd, what can he possibly do to turn that around? Is he going to magically turn the game around so far into development? Convince others in development to just change EVERYTHING?
 
Sometimes, if you just speak up and show that you know your stuff, sure, it could change everything. Giving up is laaaaame! I'm beating a dead horse now. I "get" why these things happen, I just wish they didn't.
 
PAULINK said:
In regard to it selling, it has that instant brand recognition, Mickey will sell based on the name alone (and look at shovelware based on popular movies). Epic Mickey (the first one) sold over a million in it's first month, despite being a new ip and met with lukewarm support after the hype that was following it. Dunno how Epic Mickey 2 did though.
Click to expand...

It bombed so badly that Disney closed the development studio and fired Warren Spector. Yeah, he really should have spoken up if he wanted to keep his job.
 
I think if a plat-former isn't open-world. It's probably not going to do well.
I don't get why any developer who makes a plat former, action or adventure, would want to make their game linear.
 
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