THQ Nordic has announced Disney Epic Mickey Rebrushed, coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X this year.
As THQ revealed in their press released, this is a remaster of the Wii title, developed by Purple Lamp Studios, with assistance from the game’s original director, Warren Spector.
Warren shared this statement about getting to work on this title again:
“I’ve received more heartfelt fan mail from players of all ages about Disney Epic Mickey than any other project I’ve worked on – a true indicator of the timelessness of this game.
That my team and I contributed to that legacy is truly an honor and I’m delighted that old fans and new will get to enjoy the adventures of Mickey and Oswald in Wasteland once again.”
Disney Epic Mickey was that true rare convergence of video games and license that nobody knew they wanted. Warren had, of course, minted his name at this point as director and producer of 2000’s Deus Ex. In his tenure at Looking Glass Studios, Warren had also worked on other classics like System Shock and Thief: The Dark Project.
Warren was a lifelong fan of Disney, but when Epic Mickey started, it was originally about Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a character co-created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks in the 1940s. In modern times, Oswald was owned by Universal Pictures, until it was acquired by Disney, in a fascinating behind-the-scenes story of CEO wheeling and dealing I encourage you to find for yourself.
In Disney Epic Mickey, Mickey plays around Yen Sid’s laboratory while he isn’t around, and accidentally opens a portal into the Wasteland, a ruined and broken mirror of Mickey’s world where forgotten cartoon characters languish under the rule of the Blot. The way the game tells Oswald’s in-game story matches how Mickey Mouse found success as Disney’s mascot, while Oswald would be forgotten in real life until this game.
Purple Lamp Studios made the surprisingly well made remaster of SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated, as well as their own original sequel for this game, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake. So the studio behind this remaster has also been proven for making this sort of thing, and it’s a safe bet that this remaster will also be worth checking out.
A major point that changes with this remaster is that the game will have to adapt from its original WiiMote + Nunchuck controls to more conventional gamepad controllers. Warren tried to do this sort of thing with the game’s sequel, Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, but that game was not a critical or commercial success. So this will be the first time most gamers will get this conventional controller Epic Mickey experience.
You can check out the official announcement trailer below.
