I re-assembled Daisy, Goofy and Daffy.

Daisy says she has this link with Donald but needs electricity, but it doesn't add a quest. Gus then asks me: Do you have anything like that? I assumed it meant a power spark. Either way I have no idea what she wants from me as you can't give her anything.

...

...

phantom_leo said:

Just place one in her vicinity. She'll walk over to it, fiddle with the dials and be electrocuted. What that does exactly, I don't know, but TV's are used to restore power all over the rest of the game, so I am assuming that is what they are referring to.

I would try this but I just started the first blot battle again and I dont think they will let me.

I hope there is a sequel, I enjoyed this a lot.

Some cool concept art here.

Ravenprose said:

Anyway, I want to take a break and quit the game for a while, so I clicked "Quit" and the game told me I'd lose everything I did since the last checkpoint. Unfortuantely, I have no idea when the last checkpoint was! Does it happen when you complete a mission or after each level? Gah!

What's that? Check the manual? Never heard of it.

The game auto saves any time you do anything of importance. Any quest accepted or completed, any important item found, any new areas visited. The autosave is pretty much always going off in the game.

Ravenprose said:

...

Anyway, I want to take a break and quit the game for a while, so I clicked "Quit" and the game told me I'd lose everything I did since the last checkpoint. Unfortuantely, I have no idea when the last checkpoint was! Does it happen when you complete a mission or after each level? Gah!

I HATE THAT. It happens fairly rarely, maybe one in 8 current gen games, but it drives me nuts.  Bayonetta on the PS3 did that as well, so I end up (with games like these) plowing through until I get to a defined end of level so I know it saved.  This leads to burnout pretty fast (having to play a game beyond when you'd usually set it down).

Just in time -- I was going to transcribe this interview rfom last months Game Informer, but it just went digital.

Spector settles the lock-on question once and for all: (THIS IS NOT THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW -- there are a few more questions in the magazine).

Disney’s Epic Mickey released on November 25 to mixed reviews. Some critics praised the rich Disney world and choice-driven gameplay, while others called out problems with the camera and mission structure. We spoke with Junction Point studio head Warren Spector for his take on the company’s first Wii release.

What aspect of Epic Mickey turned out just the way you had hoped or better than you hoped? Are there elements of the game you wish you could have made more changes to?

Well, clearly the music turned out better than I imagined it would. I’m really happy about that. The story has the kind of emotional resonance I always hoped it would, and the game really doesn’t feel – to me, at least – like any other game. Its tone and pacing and its feel isn’t like other games. That’s one of the reasons the direct comparisons with Mario Galaxy are so hard for me to hear. We weren’t trying to make a Mario game, a Zelda game, or a Deus Ex – we were trying to make a game that borrowed some elements of all of them to achieve something new and I think we did that. Are there elements I wish we could have worked on more? Sure. I’ve never worked on a game I was completely satisfied with and hope I never do. I guess top of the list would be our use of the paint and thinner mechanic. We did some interesting stuff with it but it was the first time we, or anyone, had ever tried anything like that and I know we can do more in the future.

What prompted the decision to not include spoken voice for most of the characters in the game?

I thought it would be best to borrow an approach Walt used in the earliest Mickey cartoons where he didn’t use actual words, but communicated mostly by making noises. I also had it in my head that Oswald, as a silent cartoon character, couldn’t talk and as ruler of Wasteland laid down the law – “If I can’t speak, no one will.” Then there were some localization and disk space issues. Put ‘em all together and sticking with the Japanese RPG and console standard of “bark plus text” just made sense.

The camera system became a problem for some players. Are there changes that could have been made to make the camera more cooperative?

I suppose so, but to be honest there was only one thing we might have done that we didn’t and looking back on it, I wish we had done. There were situations in the game where we took control of the camera, which was necessary, but we decided not to let players override our decision. In other words, there are times when the manual camera controls simply don’t work. Now, I think that may not have been our best decision. But other than that, people have to understand that all the games we’re being compared to – and it’s pretty amazing company – are “pure,” single-focus games, with Mario being the prime example. The fact is, a pure platform game has very different requirements than an action/adventure game, and we were trying to merge elements of both. That meant our camera had to be the best blend we could come up with of platform and action/adventure camera techniques. I still think we did well – given the challenge we faced in combining these two genres into one game and given that we threw in the ability to erase walls and floors and ceilings and parts of them...I mean, we really did take a very hard problem and make it much, much harder. Oh, and one more thing – we’ve been knocked by some folks for not including a lock-on camera mode, which would have made combat easier. Those folks are right – which is why we did include a lock-on camera mode. Try it, you might like it, folks!