Epic Mickey: Rebrushed Review: A Stellar 3D Platformer With Meaningful Consequences
In this Disney-themed platformer, players can use both paint and paint thinner to interact with the environment, with their choices affecting the story.
Posted a month ago
Platform reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Pros
- Deep storyline where player choice really matters
- Variety of hidden collectibles
- Unique paint and thinner systems
Cons
- Fast traveling requires E-tickets
- Sometimes difficult to paint or thin nearby objects
ESRB Age Rating: Everyone 10+
ESRB Content Descriptors: Fantasy Violence
Review code provided by the publisher.
The original Epic Mickey was released on Nintendo Wii way back in 2010, and now, the 3D platformer has been updated and remade for a new generation of Disney fans to enjoy.
Going into this review, I think it’s important to note I didn’t play the original Epic Mickey, so I came into Rebrushed with fresh eyes. Those who remember the original, however, can expect to see a variety of improvements to the experience, including new abilities for Mickey (like sprinting), enhanced graphics (including 4K support), and more.
Welcome to Wasteland
In Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, Mickey Mouse finds himself inside Yen Sid’s workshop, where the sorcerer has created a diorama inspired by Disneyland theme park to house “forgotten” things – in this case, forgotten Disney characters and animated shorts. As Mickey views the diorama and begins experimenting with Yen Sid’s magic paintbrush, he inadvertently forms an evil paint monster known as the Blot. In the ensuing chaos, paint and paint thinner are poured onto the diorama, causing terrible destruction to the living world contained within.
While Mickey escapes unharmed, a considerable time later, the Blot attacks Mickey in his own home and sucks him back into the diorama (along with the magic paintbrush), where the famous mouse can see firsthand the damage his mischief caused.
Inside the diorama, now known as Wasteland, Mickey will meet “forgotten” Disney characters like Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle, and Pete, who are struggling to survive in this once vibrant world now tormented by the Blot and its minions, as well as the Mad Doctor and his robotic creations. To get back home, Mickey will be challenged to navigate 3D environments inspired by Disneyland rides and attractions, such as It’s a Small World and the Haunted Mansion, but whether or not he actually helps the people of Wasteland along the way will be up to players to decide.
Epic Mickey: Rebrushed allows players to make choices that impact the way the story plays out, with both “good” and “bad” choices being available. One could argue Mickey is the real villain here, having caused the destruction to Wasteland in the first place, but the game gives him the chance to clean up the mess he’s made or make the world even worse for its inhabitants, which is a really interesting setup.
©Purple Lamp, THQ Nordic / Restart
Get to work
Mickey is equipped with the magic paintbrush, which can fire both paint and paint thinner, depending on the button players press. As you might expect, paint can be used to build or repair objects, while paint thinner is used to erase or destroy. Generally speaking, the more players use paint, the more they’re helping to repair and rebuild Wasteland, while using paint thinner causes more destruction and harm.
Objects that can be painted appear as transparent outlines surrounded by subtle sparkles, making it easy to tell when something is missing from the environment. At the same time, objects that can be thinned tend to have brighter colors and appear more like a traditional cartoon than the surrounding environments. As players explore Wasteland, they’ll be able to use a combination of paint and thinner to navigate around obstacles, discover secret rooms and hidden collectibles, stop and start moving platforms, and more.
This system of painting and thinning objects is very fluid, with no delay between when an object is painted and when the game recognizes it as a solid surface that can be walked on. Our only complaint is that it’s sometimes difficult to paint objects that Mickey is standing right next to, so we had to take a few steps back.
In addition to painting or thinning inanimate objects, players can also use both mediums to “defeat” paint-based enemies. Here, painting an enemy causes them to have a change of heart and fight alongside Mickey, while thinning them simply kills them. Eventually, players will run into robotic enemies, which must be thinned and then hit with a melee attack in order to be defeated – since they’re robots, they can’t be converted to the good side. (Mickey's melee attack can also be used to interact with in-game objects, like valves and switches.)
Over time, players will also unlock access to additional tools and helpers, such as Guardians, which can instantly convert or thin a paint-based enemy, and sketches that allow them to bring special items into the environment, such as TVs that can be used to power electrical stations.
©Purple Lamp, THQ Nordic / Restat
Will you be good or evil?
While Disney properties, and 3D platformers in general, are typically associated with feel good, happy stories, the story in Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is actually quite dark and deep (to the game’s benefit). For instance, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who once ruled Wasteland, has gone into exile following the “Thinner Disaster” that Mickey caused, and once he sees the mouse in his world, we learn he resents Walt’s most famous creation for “replacing” him.
The game’s focus on player choice is also super meaningful. While painting or thinning simple decorations may not have a great effect on the state of Wasteland, the outcomes of boss battles and story quests certainly will, and we were genuinely moved as we saw this system play out in real time.
If you’ll forgive a lengthy example, during the first boss battle, it didn’t occur to me that paint would actually have a use in the fight, so I defeated the boss with thinner. It was only after I had “killed” the boss that I realized I could have used paint to help the boss instead, and my heart sank. I was even more heartbroken upon realizing the game had autosaved and I couldn’t go back and fix my mistake. I made a mental vow to do better going forward, focusing as much on painting and repairing as I possibly could. But while I chose to be the hero Wasteland desperately needed, I could have just as easily destroyed everything in sight and still “beaten” the game.
©Purple Lamp, THQ Nordic / Restart
Exploring Wasteland
Mickey is guided through Wasteland by a friendly Gremlin named Gus, who is one of many Gremlins who live throughout the world. Unfortunately, Gus’ friends have been trapped in cages, and players have the option to rescue them as they explore environments. While rescuing Gremlins may require players to take a detour away from the linear story path, it’s often worth doing, as Gremlins can sometimes complete entire story tasks for them, stop enemies from spawning, and more.
Players will also have the option to help Wasteland’s residents with their requests to receive rewards, including E-tickets, the game’s currency. These tickets can also be found scattered throughout environments (and collected in other ways), and they can be spent on a variety of items, including paint and thinner refills, filters for the game’s camera mode, pins, and more.
Pins are one of the game’s multiple collectible types, and in addition to purchasing them, they can be gathered by finding and opening hidden treasure chests or completing story quests in certain ways. That is, players may receive a specific pin for using paint to solve a problem, or a different pin for using thinner. This means it’s impossible to collect every pin in a single playthrough.
©Purple Lamp, THQ Nordic / Restart
Similarly, some quests can be failed if players make the “wrong” choice or leave an area before completing them, since not all areas can be revisited. There are even instances where two quests will be active at once, and completing one will fail the other – again, this places emphasis on player choice and how they want to leave Wasteland when all is said and done.
The game’s 3D environments are connected by portals in the form of projector screens showing classic Disney shorts. Mickey can jump into these screens to navigate short side-scrolling levels inspired by titles like Steamboat Willie and Alpine Climbers, among many others. As players choose to revisit certain areas (for instance, to complete side quests), they can either play through these stages repeatedly each time they want to move from one environment to the next, or pay 10 E-tickets to skip each trip. This sounds cheap, but there are lots of really valuable items to spend E-tickets on, so it's disappointing there's a cost associated with fast traveling at all.
Even with this slight issue, Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is a stellar 3D platformer with a deep, engaging storyline that made me genuinely care about its characters and what happens to them. While the experience will likely be more meaningful to established Disney fans with some familiarity with the game’s “forgotten” characters (raises hand), the game is unique enough as a standalone experience to warrant playing by any fans of the genre.
Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed
Release Date: September 24, 2024
