All has been well in Wasteland since Mickey Mouse saved it from destruction by the Shadow Blot, with the world's inhabitants beginning its restoration, but a series of earthquakes have been occurring lately. The Mad Doctor, who apparently survived his previous defeat and mostly communicates by singing, arrives and asks Oswald to join forces with him in order to save Wasteland. Not trusting the Mad Doctor, Gus, the leader of the Gremlins, and Ortensia, Oswald's wife, contact Mickey, who enters Yen Sid's workshop once more and takes the magic paintbrush to aid him as he enters Wasteland. Oswald joins up with them in Dark Beauty Castle, explaining the Mad Doctor warned him of an impending attack by Blotworx - Blotlings piloting Beetleworx-like machines. The castle begins collapsing from an earthquake, forcing them to escape; Oswald retrieves his powerful remote en route.
Mickey and Oswald arrive in Mean Street, which has been split in half by the earthquake, where Gremlin Jamface advises them to fix the disabled projector travel network via their control station in Rainbow Falls. They fight their way through Wasteland to accomplish this, battling various Blotworx. After heading to the Mad Doctor's lab in Disney Gulch and defeating a Blotworx dragon, they find out the projectors were intentionally sabotaged. Small Pete presents evidence pointing to OsTown's grumpy caretaker Gremlin Prescott, whom the heroes had earlier caught assembling a secret television device. The group follow him to Fort Wasteland, a fortress abandoned during the Blot's revolt, and onto the Floatyard, where they find Prescott has built a gigantic robot modelled after himself. Confessing to the projectors' sabotage, he accuses Gus of never recognizing his potential, and turns his mech against the heroes. After trapping or destroying his creation, Mickey and Oswald try interrogating Prescott, only for the Wasteland news team and the Mad Doctor to arrive. The Mad Doctor's robots place Prescott in a hypnotic trance, making him publicly confess to being behind the chaos – which convinces everyone except for Mickey, Oswald, and Gus. The Mad Doctor announces he will be building a new attraction in celebration. The toons of Wasteland begin to accept him as their leader instead of Oswald, to the rabbit's dismay.
Gus goes through Prescott's belongings and retrieves blueprints that suggest his main project was not the mech, but rather an undercover operation in Ventureland. Mickey and Oswald follow the trail through Ventureland, which leads them to Autotopia, a region that was presumed to be destroyed by the Thinner Disaster. There, they witness mechanical siphons erected by Prescott pumping Wasteland's primeval spirits, the Guardians, out of the ground. After disabling them, they discover a secret projector playing what appears to be a television show of the Mad Doctor's own creation; travelling through, they learn what happened to the Mad Doctor after the events of the first game. He crash-landed in Disney Gulch and set up a new lab there, creating the Blotworx as part of a plan for revenge, but was forced to cast them out due to their hostility. In the attic of Lonesome Manor, which has been retooled into a secret television studio, they find the Mad Doctor's diary, from which they learn of his true plan. He convinced Prescott to build him a television device with which he plans to broadcast a television program, called The Mad Doctor's Wonderful World of Evil, into the Cartoon World, where its ratings would bestow upon him remembrance and thus a new heart, allowing him to leave Wasteland. Wanting to become a Toon again after discovering that his animatronic parts were deteriorating, the Mad Doctor schemed to capture the Guardians in Autotopia. He knew they would have the power to make him a Toon, and this had been the cause of the earthquakes all along.
Oswald and Mickey confront the Mad Doctor at his attraction, now revealed to be a doomsday device intended to destroy Wasteland upon the doctor's departure. He demands the brush from Mickey, with which he intends to rule the Cartoon World, in exchange for sparing the residents of Wasteland trapped on the ride. Mickey is prepared to hand it over, but Oswald prevents this from happening. The pair defeat the Mad Doctor, whose robotic body finally gives out and is either killed or redeemed depending on which path is taken in his fight. If redeemed, the Mad Doctor experiences a true change of heart after being splattered with Paint and saves the heroes from falling into a pool of Thinner; and, as a reward, is turned into a Toon by the Guardians. Afterwards, all of Wasteland celebrates Mickey and Oswald's triumph with a parade highlighting the duo's major choices throughout the game.
Meanwhile, the Petes of Wasteland (with Petetronic being present if the thinner path was taken) kidnap Prescott, presumably having plans for both him and Wasteland.
Gameplay
Like its predecessor, Epic Mickey 2 takes place in a world based on classic and retired Disney characters and attractions. Likewise, the gameplay in Epic Mickey 2 closely resembles that of the original. One of the biggest updates is the addition of Oswald as a supporting character for Mickey; Oswald can either be controlled by the computer or a second player. Oswald uses a remote control in a way similar to how Mickey uses his paintbrush, to attack (or befriend, in some cases) enemy characters and to power or reprogram machines as needed to complete tasks. Oswald also has many other abilities, such as flying with his ears, taking off his leg, using his arms as boomerangs, etc. There are also some special abilities that can only be used when Mickey and Oswald are working together. In the PlayStation 3 version of the game, players are able to use motion controls using the PlayStation Move controller.
Development
In August 2011, Destructoid posted an article that speculated that a sequel, Epic Mickey 2, was in development and showed possible box art for the game.[3] These rumors were further encouraged when Disney France and Warren Spector invited the French media to an "epic project" taking place on March 27, 2012. Nintendo Power magazine also commented on the rumor, stating that their April 2012 issue would include a "top-secret" title preview, with the preview for the issue showing a cropped down picture of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
Game Trailers also stated that their March 22, 2012 episode would include a "world-exclusive preview of Warren Spector's new epic adventure" and that it would be "notably significant".[4] Warren Spector himself also commented on the game's development, revealing that he had "a team of over 700 people working on the sequel".[5] Following this, on March 20, 2012, the official French Nintendo magazine posted a comment on Twitter, revealing that Disney had plans to create a companion to the main sequel for the 3DS, under the name Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion.[6]
Warren Spector officially confirmed the rumors, revealing the sequel's title to be Epic Mickey: Power of Two.[7] Spector also directly addressed the camera issues that reviewers criticized in the first game, stating that "they'll be working on it until the day we ship the second game. (There have been) over 1,000 specific changes made to the camera. Our goal is that you will not have to touch the manual camera controls even once to play through the main story path of this game".
Spector also revealed that the game was to include voice acting and musical numbers, both of which were absent in the first game. Spector said: "I'm such a geek about musicals, I love the co-op and next-gen stuff, but for me, when a character breaks into song, which they do on a regular basis in this game, it's magic".
Spector also commented on the sequel's co-op features: "It's drop-in, drop-out co-op, 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". Wasteland itself will feature old areas ruined by earthquakes and other natural disasters, as well as new areas such as Disney Gulch, based on Disneyland's Frontierland.[8]
12 screenshots for the game were released in October 2012. Fans long speculated that the recently located Oswald cartoon Hungry Hobos (1928) would appear as an unlockable, but the final game included the Silly Symphony Skeleton Dance (1929) instead.
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two later received a port to Sony's PlayStation Vita platform. The Vita version was developed by Blitz Game Studios (in collaboration with Sony Computer Entertainment), which has already dealt with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version of the game. This version was optimized especially for the Vita, such that the defects of the original version were placated; in particular the frame-rate and artificial intelligence. The Vita version supports co-op online or via ad-hoc connection.[9]
The previously canceled PC port of Epic Mickey 2 was given a limited release in Central European countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic in October 2013.[10]
The game arrived in Japan exclusively on Nintendo's consoles (Wii and Wii U) on September 26, 2013. Nintendo 3DS sister title Power of Illusion (renamed as Mickey's Marvelous Adventure) arrived with The Power of Two on the same day in Japan. Unlike the previous title Epic Mickey, Epic Mickey 2 was published by Spike Chunsoft in Japan.[11]
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two received "mixed or average reviews", with most complaints being the game not fixing issues that were present in the original, as well as issues with Oswald's AI. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Wii version 67.60% and 64/100,[13][19] the Xbox 360 version 60.80% and 59/100[14][20] the PlayStation 3 version 57.83% and 59/100,[15][21] the Wii U version 55.42% and 57/100,[16][22] and the PlayStation Vita version 51.50% and 57/100.[17][23]
Sales
Epic Mickey 2 was projected to sell over 2 million units worldwide. Despite heavy marketing and being released on several platforms, however, the game ultimately only sold 529,000 copies in the United States by the end of 2012,[36] a quarter of what its predecessor sold. Following these financial losses, Disney made an official statement on January 29, 2013 that Junction Point Studios was to be closed in order to direct resources to other projects, with Warren Spector also stating that he was "in doubt" about the future of the series.[37]
Cancelled sequel and spin-offs
Epic Mickey was envisioned as a three part story by Warren Spector,[38][39][40] but a third Epic Mickey game was never announced, and developer Junction Point Studios was closed on January 29, 2013.[41] Spector commented on the closure that "Disney just wanted to move in a different direction. Probably the right decision for them, frankly. No regrets. I had a great time working for Disney."[40]Epic Mickey 2 was one of the last games to be published by Disney Interactive Studios before it closed in May 2016.
In 2016, concept art was leaked of a canceled kart racer based on the Epic Mickey franchise, named Epic Disney Racers, which was to include a number of other playable characters from Disney's legacy including Scrooge McDuck and Cruella de Vil, as well as Mickey and Oswald.[42]
A cancelled spin-off starring Donald Duck, named Epic Donald was leaked in 2022 with the concept art.[43]
