Epic Mickey 2 Bombs Badly

[kortin]

The only reason I knew about Epic Mickey 2 was because of my sisters who watch Disney Channel. They did a lot of advertisements for the game and the "inside look on the game" advert that played after every commercial break was really bad. It looked, both physically and aesthetically, like it played like a really, really, really, really, really bad Spyro game.

 

[Lazy]

I, too, had no idea this game had even been released yet. I'm thinking Disney's marketing department is in dire need of some coffee, or perhaps smelling salts.

 

[oldtaku]

Another problem: they actually made the mechanics /worse/. If you've played the first you might be wondering how that's possible, but they did it. A big part of it is AI Oswald sabotaging whatever you try to do, but it's not all.

And then without the charm you've got no motivation to stick it through anyhow like I did with the first one.

 

[iniudan]

The game was available on PC ? I can easily see why it didn't sell on PC, it not available on any online distribution I check. (GOG, Gamersgate, Steam, Humble Bundle[or indie selling through them, from their own site])

 

[schmulki]

Epic Mickey 1 was a horrible game. The controls were horrid. There were invisible walls and collision-detection issues all over the place. The camera made Mario 64's look good. And when all those things conspired to kill you, you respawned in the same area....with pretty much all your progress in that area taken away.

So then there's news of a sequel, where we're promised basically more of the same, and the reviews confirmed that some mechanics were fixed, but not enough, and other things faltered in the process. So.....yea, it was a flop. It should have been.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

I knew it was out, but I heard it was awful. I own and finished the original Epic Mickey, and I thought it was fun, though I do agree that Camera was at times too hard to work with. It's a shame its sequel bombed, but maybe this will make them work harder on Epic Mickey 3... Or cancel it...

 

[Beautiful End]

I work for Gamestop and I don't even remember when this came out. I remember it was at the end of last year but that's about it. I remember when Madden, Halo, CoD, Pokemon, the Vita, the WiiU, Dishonored, AC3, even Arkham City, Red Dead Redemption, and Playstation All Stars came out. But not Epic Mickey 2. I remember some ads about it, though. "The power of two" or something like that.

Well, that sucks. I have the first one and I haven't played it. But I liked the franchise. the idea of bringing back Oswald trough videogames was cool. And it theory, it's a great game for kids and families; a game that's not CoD but doesn't seem as "meh" as your average Disney game.
The game has potential. I hope the franchise doesn't die.

 

[Callate]

It sounded promising in the planning stages, but every review of it I read suggested that it just, well, failed. It's a musical!... with bad songs. It's more expansive!... with a bunch of MMO-like "fetch x of this" crap. And the camera is... about as bad as last time, really.

I believe Warren Spector is capable of great things; I don't think games like Deus Ex and Thief were flukes. But maybe it would be for the best if he moved on.

 

[jollybarracuda]

I played the demo of this a while back on the XBL marketplace and it definitely did seem rather...meh. As in, it just didn't seem to have anything going for it. The controls were a bit wonky, and movement felt imprecise, but there wasn't much in the way of difficult platforming, either. It was supposed to be a musical, which is a really neat idea i was looking forward to, but the singing was fairly boring, mostly ending up being things that could just be spoken as usual, but with a soundtrack playing along with them talking. To put it in perspective, there's very few times that I stop playing a demo before it's over, because hey, free gaming. But i just got immensely bored with the demo for this game, so unfortunately, i can't say im surprised at it's failure. Hopefully Warren Specter and his company have better luck in the future.

 

[luvd1]

I think it says a lot when no one remembers it even came out. No one remembers Susan reviewed it, the banners on here for it, or the game actully sitting in their local store staring out at them, pleading for anyone to take notice. Sad.

 

[EvilChameleon]

Count me among those that didn't know it was released. Thought it was a early 2013 release.

 

[Charli]

I apologize for tasteless memeing but it captures my feelings on the matter so well. It's good that Disney knows this tripe shouldn't have even gotten a sequel. Speak with your wallets! Gameplay was le horrible mess.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

I really feel quite sorry for Warren Spector. I hear he's quite the Disney aficionado and every developer diary I saw for Epic Mickey gave me the impression he was really passionate about the project. I'm surprised to hear EM2 felt so obsolete and souless. Perhaps it was simply pressure from the Disney publishers. Either way it'll be a shame to see the license ripped from his studio's hands, even if the games were considered poor.

Vaguely related amusing video:

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Maybe it would have sold better if there was some advertising. I knew it had to come out around "this time". And by "this time" I mean between summer last year to summer this year.

 

[StoneMcKnuckle]

The game was available on PC ? I can easily see why it didn't sell on PC, it not available on any online distribution I check. (GOG, Gamersgate, Steam, Humble Bundle[or indie selling through them, from their own site])

To be fair, the game's not actually out on PC and Mac yet. Those versions both got delayed to "January 2013" for reasons they wouldn't divulge, and we still haven't gotten a more specific date despite it actually being jan 2013 now, so who knows.

Also, even if they'd actually been released, PC/Mac sales are normally weighed rather unfairly against consoles as digital downloads are not accounted for. While that's not really relevant to this particular article, it's always something to keep in mind as the PC/Mac retail sales are abysmal, whereas the digital distribution markets are doing pretty damn well.

 

[hazabaza1]

Everyone who's surprised put their hands up.

Oh look nobody.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

You what? Oh... This game exists. Wait, this game exists? I didn't even know it was out. Doesn't sound like I'm missing anything though.

 

[Raggedstar]

Susan, that's perhaps the most favourable opinion from a reviewer I've ever seen on this game. Pretty much everyone criticized how Epic Mickey 2 didn't handle great (even the 6 and 7 ratings). Jim Sterling also ripped it apart with a nasty 2/10. [http://www.destructoid.com/review-disney-epic-mickey-2-the-power-of-two-238026.phtml&category=reviews]

The original LOOKED good. It didn't hit the execution well, but potential was there. The game needed a sequel that would clean up and and tweak everything (camera and level design most of all). A sequel was announced, and it was going to be multiplat. Great, maybe the camera could've been assigned to the right analog stick like any 3rd person game. NOPE! Not to mention I hear the AI for Oswald was barely functional. Spend more time fixing what needs fixing than adding more crap and criticizing fans. Plus I watched a stream (playing multiplayer) where they were playing the WiiU version and it ended in a ragequit over how obnoxious and repetitive the voices were, the terrible camera, and how generally unintuitive it was. He also complained about some framerate issues (...I repeat, this is supposed to be the WiiU version).

I told all of my friends way back since spring of last year. I KNEW this game was going to be bad and it would bomb. I take no pride in being right, but I was right. And also I wish they could've figured out a better name x_x.

I apologize for tasteless memeing but it captures my feelings on the matter so well. It's good that Disney knows this tripe shouldn't have even gotten a sequel. Speak with your wallets! Gameplay was le horrible mess.

You are forgiven for tasteless memeing. Grumpy Cat is the only one that could provide a suitable answer to this case.

 

[saintdane05]

You know, I'm one of the five people on the internet who liked the first. I'm kind of sad about this now.