Like What You See of Epic Mickey? Thank Kingdom Hearts [2/19]

[Amizon]

When the first rumors and mutterings of a game called "Epic Mickey" began to surface, one of the first thoughts that came to peoples' minds was the black-cloaked, zipper-laden, Keyblade-wielding version of the character which has appeared in the Square Enix/Disney saga, Kingdom Hearts. And in a sense, it turns out that they were right in doing so.

While some at the latter company felt that the mash-up of their pantheon of characters and the Japanese RPG superstars was "an abomination," fans took to it anyway. And that "forced us to challenge assumptions," said Graham Hopper, Studio Chief for Disney's gaming division.

Pointing at the sales for the PlayStation Portable installment, Birth by Sleep, Hopper noted "That franchise is alive and its doing very well." Well enough, it seems, to have influenced their own work.

"If you look at nothing else, you can look at Disney Epic Mickey taking the characters and showing them in a surprising way," he said, adding that the success of KH creator Tetsuya Nomura helped lift the "abomination" view within the company. And that prepared them to allow Warren Spector the freedom necessary to realize his vision of Epic Mickey.

Source: Kombo Wii

 

[Fusionist]

I don't get it...So because KH is so popular and featured Mickey Mouse, the people working on Epic Mickey felt more at ease to portray Mickey in a more action-oriented way?

I heard Epic Mickey would be similar to Okami, what the brush/painting involved with the gameplay, so no kudos to Capcom for that? xD

 

[Linnaete]

Oh - I just assumed at first that Epic Mickey is another shameless, casual cash-grabber on the Wii like about 80% of other disc-released Wii games! After doing some background research, this certainly surprised me! I guess you can't judge a game by the name!

So they're basically saying: "Ooh, SE did a good job incorporating Mickey Mouse into a popular video game! Maybe we can do that as well!" Good luck with that, guys! I'm not sure how well the game will do on the Wii though - but hey - the name itself will sell a lot of the game.

That Mickey looks demented and evil! I quite like the idea actually! xD

 

[DeadFantasy]

Well it'll be interesting to see where the game goes. I haven't heard anything about this game, whats it suppose to be about anyways? I mean if they want to try and use a similar design (not so much design but idea) as the Mickey Mouse from KH so be it. Apparently from what Ami said, it's working.