Disney's Epic Mickey won't be launching until the end of November, a time when most consumers are knee deep in holiday shopping following Thanksgiving. Junction Point Studios' Warren Spector believes the Wii exclusive title will be the perfect gift because it's designed to appeal to both children and adults. Mickey Mouse is one of media's great icons, but does he hold the same weight in video games? Spector believes so, and he thinks that Mickey can go up against any character out there.
Spector, a self-confessed Disney fanatic, told IndustryGamers in a soon-to-be-published in-depth interview, "I love our guy, I think this is the best Mickey ever, but he is the video game Mickey. ... You have to find the core of the character, what makes Mickey relevant after 82 years, when no other characters are, and no other movies are. And the list is pretty short and pretty straightforward: he’s smart, he’s loyal, he is a friend to all, he’s persistent, he never gives up, he is overly enthusiastic, doesn’t always think things through, gets himself in mischief and has to get himself out of trouble. That’s true everywhere, intensely curious. So what I wanted to do is take smart, loyal, friend, and overly enthusiastic, mischievous, curious... that to me defines a great video game character."
He added, "And then do what you have to do in a video game is give players something they’ve never seen before – in our case it's drawing and erasing. And I think you’ve got a little guy who can take on Mario and Sonic, Link, Master Chief."
There's no doubt that Mickey is a great icon, but we're not sure his game can rack up the same sales as a Mario or Master Chief.
2 Comments
October 8, 2010
I'm still waiting for a Kingdom Hearts where you can play Mickey as a core character (and no, 365/2 doesn't count). This game should definitely tide me over though, even without a keyblade.
October 11, 2010
The last Master Chief Halo(Halo 3) has already sold over 10 million copies worldwide. I don't see Epic Mickey pulling those numbers. But Sonic? Thats a much fairer comparison and completely possible based on the quality of Sonic games over the last several years.