Epic Mickey 2 announced with multiplayer, musical numbers on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii

Written by Matt Swider on March 21, 2012

News: Mickey Mouse is getting a sequel with Disney Epic Mickey 2 and, more importantly, a chance to play with the big boys on Xbox 360 and PS3.

Disney Epic Mickey 2 is coming back to video games following his ho-hum debut on the Wii in 2010. Thankfully, legendary game designer Warren Spector told the Associated Press all about the fixes he and his team at Junction Point Studios have put in place over the last two years to turn ho-hum into his favorite word to use in interviews: ?magical.?

Also See: Interview: Warren Spector on Disney's Archives, Rejections and Advice from Pixar

The first right move is that Epic Mickey 2 is coming to Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. The first game was a Wii-exclusive, and that was at a time when Nintendo's console was heading into its sales slump - a slump which is hasn't recovered from. Secondly, as the official name of Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two suggests, Epic Mickey 2 won't be a single-player affair like its predecessor.

"It's drop-in, drop-out co-op," Spector told the AP. "You can sit down at any time with a friend who is playing as Mickey, and you can take control of Oswald. If you're playing as a single player, Oswald will be there every second of the game. He's not just a multiplayer character. He's a helper, whether you're playing alone or with a friend or family member."

Playing as Oswald should finally give you that two-player option that you were looking for in the Super Mario Galaxy games - the ones in which a second player could only control a gem-collecting star icon. In this game, the second player gets to control Oswald who has a remote control that command electricity. Mickey will return his paint and thinner brush powers.

In addition to coming to multiple consoles and having co-op multiplayer, Disney Epic Mickey 2 will have a fixed camera and musical numbers. Players of the first game will no doubt like the former enhancement, and Spector knows it, saying to the AP, "We've had a team working on the camera from literally the day we finished the first game. They'll be working on it until the day we ship the second game.?

Spector describes himself as a ?geek about musicals? at GDC, saying ?when a character breaks into song, which they do on a regular basis in this game, it's magic." There's that magic word again. Performing this musical wizardry in Epic Mickey 2 is Jim Dooley and Mike Himelstein. They're the composer and lyricist duo who wrote the music for the upcoming animated film "Dorothy of Oz." The AP says that Dooley and Himelstein will be crafting original tunes for Epic Mickey 2.

The most significant changes to Disney Epic Mickey 2 are that it'll be on ground-up consoles and sport a better camera system. Two-player co-op and musical numbers seem like icing on the magical cake. We'll let you know how it tastes when Epic Mickey releases for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii this fall.

source: AP