Epic Mickey 3DS: Power of Illusion is Castle of Illusion + KH + Suikoden...

[Garren]

Had no interest in the original Epic Mickey, nor does the 2nd console one interest me, but I'm looking forward to the 3Ds one.

'Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion' Preview Courtesy of Nintendo Power

Power of Illusion is being put together by DreamRift, the studio behind 2011's Monster Tale for the Nintendo DS. The game, which is its own side-scrolling, platforming title (instead of a mere port of The Power of Two), is a follow-up to Epic Mickey, but more interestingly, it's also a follow-up to Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, a 1990 game for the Sega Genesis!

Power of Illusion will make heavy use of the Nintendo 3DS's stylus. By tapping the item icons exist in every level, you'll be able to "paint" (trace) those items into existence, including cliffs, cannons, and floating platforms. The more precisely you trace, the better for Mickey. A flawlessly-painted canon will only damage Mickey's enemies, for instance, but if you mess up the painting, the canon will be a danger to everyone in the area.

Sometimes you'll need to erase objects, which is done by spreading thinner. Again, the stylus comes into play here.

The hand-drawn sprites in Power of Illusion are extremely compelling, and, thanks to scrolling parallax backgrounds (a heavily-used graphic technique in the days of 16-bit gaming), reportedly look great in sterescopic 3D. Even better, every level in the game is based on an animated Disney adventure, from "Sleeping Beauty" to "Tangled" and lots in between.

As a final declaration of oldschool love, every character that Mickey saves in Power of Illusion will take up residence in the fortress that Mickey uses as his home base, a confirmed nod to the esteemed Suikoden RPG series. Sometimes you find references in the unlikeliest of places, but that's part of what makes video games fun. Right?

There's no release date set for Power of Illusion (Fall 2012 is a general target), but expect lots more information on this game as the weeks march on like Mouseketeers.

There are scans floating around, and the graphics look like Castle of Illusion basically. A Beauty and the Beast and Captain Hook's Ship levels are show.

 

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

Great, now there's two Epic Mickey games I have to look forward to. At this rate, Oswald will finally gain back his popularity from the last 80+ years.

 

[Xenidal]

I wasn't aware that there was a second Epic Mickey. I played part of the first but just couldn't stand it because of the horrible camera. If they didn't fix that then I'm not even giving the 3DS one a chance. I probably won't get the 3DS one anyway though... from what I played of the first one before the camera got so annoying that I stopped playing it wasn't too appealing to me. I mean, it was nowhere near as good as Kingdom Hearts.

 

[Garren]

Well, if you actually read the description I quoted, you'll see that the camera issue won't factor into it at all considering it's a side-scrolling, sprite-based platformer.

 

[Jesterman]

Very excited, I LOVE Monster Tale and am one of the only people who really care about DreamRift. (I also love Henry Hatsworth. :3)