gamingeek said:

WTF is up with Eurogamer and Metro, these British reviewers seem to have a bug up their butt about Mickey mouse in a dark world.

Metro:

"Maybe it's just us but the idea of taking Mickey Mouse and making him 'darker, more mature' is just a step too far. As seemingly every kid's property is transformed into a glum, violent pastiche of its earlier self we'd at least thought Disney would be immune to such trends. But here he's press-ganged into a Nintendo-esque platformer with a Mass Effect style morality system. How that ever could've seemed like a good idea we don't know…"

Eurogamer:

"Fundamentally, Epic Mickey misunderstands what people love about Mickey Mouse. He simply doesn't fit in this grim, post-modern dystopia, dripping with bitter-sweet nods to forgotten corners of Disney lore, nor does he need to confront his dark commercial heart to stay relevant in 2010.



          He just needs to be Mickey, with blue skies, wholesome adventures and bright primary colours. A game with the breezy aesthetic and technical polish of Super Mario Galaxy, starring Mickey, Donald, Goofy and friends would do more to rekindle our affection for the mouse than this admirable but flawed attempt at forced reinvention."

It seems like this is some sticking point which ruins the whole game for them, giving 5/10 and 6/10 respectively.

Fuuuuu, it seems that Mickey Mouse is far too loved a character for some people to get over their nostalgia and appreciate the game for what it is, instead of longing for what they would have wanted it to be.

SteelAttack said:

Fuuuuu, it seems that Mickey Mouse is far too loved a character for some people to get over their nostalgia and appreciate the game for what it is, instead of longing for what they would have wanted it to be.

I think the point I would make to the reviewer is that the whole point of the paint mechanic is that you paint a fun happy, Disney like world over the drab, dark wasteland. For instance if there is a dark, ghostly looking house, you paint it and suddenly chunky windows and Disney like doors and colours spring to life. So I have no clue what this guy is talking about.

SteelAttack said:

Then these guys are not even paying attention to what they review, lol, or they didn't reach that point?

Maybe they were talking about the black and white levels and didn't realise that it was on purpose?

Eh, that stuff is absurd yeah. It's not like it's gritty Mickey with a gun or something, like Shadow the Hedgehog. It's just a hero rises against some evil type story (with its own twists etc). Mickey has starred in such before. Or even horror stories, like the Mad Doctor, which the game starts with even... How can they miss this? They're just riding the "brown gritty next gen mess" bandwagon (but not forgetting to rate any COD like game with top marks) but they're doing it with the wrong game... The whole thing is Disney nostalgia (which I personally don't even have much of), and they say it's too far removed from Disney and what Mickey is? That's just ignorance.

Anyway, glad you like it GG, I knew it's a game that's more than the sum of its parts from what I played. And you don't have to do all quests if you find some of them boring, do you? Or you can perhaps also do a lot of them together by fully exploring areas to make sure you got all the quests, rather than go back and forth for each one then discover you have to repeat back and forth for another. From its pacing you probably have to go to the quest areas for the main story anyway, so you could do it all together. And yes, the exploration aspect was first apparent in that area you take the first boat ride in, where you save the gremnlin at the ticket booth, as thinning and painting and completing quests for that gremlin basically opened up twice the playing space than was obvious in that seemingly simple area. Good to know that continues in the rest of the game.

If I were to explain the initial meh impressions of Epic Mickey it would be because it takes several hours to get going. You see, the game is much larger than you expect, so in my experience you go through a large opening of hum drum which is okay, but nothing special. Then later you realise that that long opening section, was only a lead in to the main game which hasn't even started yet.

You do this drop into the wasteland and then this Asia boat ride which is okay, but you get worried that it wont get any better.

Then you hit Mean street which is the hub world and the game makes you do some fetch questing which is, nothing special, maybe even slightly meh. Also until you start thinning and painting it, Mean Street seems like a 2D facade of a level. Then when you start thinning things you find a whole new way to open up the area and a verticality to the levels when you start climbing up rooftops like a platform game.  

Then later you find that there are tons more 3D and 2D levels, lots of variety in themes after that and ton of room to explore and engage with the characters. The controls become more natural and you just have a lot of fun in this platform/adventure game.

Not everyone will love it, I can see some 7/10s but I don't think the games' occasional technical quirks, or dark theme should confine it to the garbage bin either. I can certainly see why some love it, although I wouldn't agree with the 5/5s or anything, it eventually becomes a great platform game, assuming you like the N64 Rare style platformer.  

Islamic Value Game ratings announced

“based on the culture, society and the special values of Islam”

I'm tempted to make funny jokes for this but I will bite my tongue.

That Gamesradar GT5 review was by far the best review. It lays out all the issues perfectly with visual aids and you can tell the reviewer spent a lot of time on the game and even admits there is plenty more to see. Sad to see the product that was released. I think the game will still be incredible but clearly not as polished as it should be.

Gamespot is pretty much a relic now. They're the slowest to post news, the slowest to post reviews, and don't offer a great deal of exclusive content. Frankly I don't know even know why people visit the site anymore. An old habit I suppose.

For news, they are embarrasing.  In terms of reviews, I find the quick presentation of User review scores, critical consensus and their review score all in that 2 square inches of space to be a good way to get a feel for a game.

But yeah, for news, they are among the slowest.  They don't spam news like Eurogamer and Game Informer at least. GI is retracting a story a week for the last 4 weeks running.  Eurogamer over the last 2 weeks have been posting some news that is weeks old (stuff that we had aggregated here).

gamingeek said:

Do I hear Endless Ocean talk?

Glad you are enjoying it ASK, try out the first game too, it probably has more interesting and memorable environments, although it doesn't have the gamey structure of the second game.

Yeah, I just love wildlife and nature, like I said, so Endless Ocean is great!

But I only got it because it was on hobo sales from Black Friday. The first one is more expensive right now and harder to find, so I'll probably skip it. But I'm glad I got Blue World!