Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion

Alongside the release of Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two in 2012, there came the release of a companion game on the 3DS known as Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion (Power of Illusion), which takes more inspiration from the long-running Castle of Illusion series of Disney games in terms of gameplay and story. While I was aware of the Epic Mickey console games when they came out, Power of Illusion was one that I wasn’t really aware of until I was looking into actually playing the games, though I was fortunate to not have too much trouble finding a copy at the time. Around the time I first experienced the console duology, I decided to give the 3DS game a try, only to give up close to the end due to a sudden difficulty spike in the third act. Though I had meant to revisit the game someday, the release of Epic Mickey: Rebrushed motivated me to do so sooner than I might have otherwise, this time going in with the intent to be more prepared for the late game. After finally beating the game, I can say that putting in that extra effort on my last playthrough was worth it in the end.

After a mysterious castle appears in Wasteland, Oswald contacts Mickey for help. After learning Minnie is trapped inside, Mickey returns to Wasteland to rescue her, just as she is looking for him in his world. Once Mickey arrives, he learns that the castle, known as the Castle of Illusion, is run by an evil witch named Mizrabel, who has taken on Maleficent’s appearance and captured Toons to steal their Heart Power so she can leave Wasteland. In addition to rescuing Minnie, Mickey now must rescue every captured Toon before it’s too late.

 

Mickey has to rescue Minnie and other Toons from Mizrabel.

The gameplay is generally similar to that of its console counterparts, but has been cleverly adapted to work as a side scroller, such as adding the ability to hop on top of enemies to deal damage and reach greater heights if timed right. Paint and Thinner can be used as projectiles to hit enemies and breakable objects from afar, but while there is no morality system in play, the type of projectile you use can change what items are dropped. You can also use a myriad of unlockable Sketches to help out at various points, but you only have so many available slots at a time (you can freely select which sketches you have on you before starting a level). The primary objective in non-Boss stages is obtaining items and rescuing Toons, the latter of which return to the main Fortress hub world upon finishing the level and includes characters from a variety of classic Disney films in addition to the then-recent The Princess and the Frog and Tangled. Rescued Toons can then be talked to for various Quests to help upgrade their rooms, which is well worth doing since completing Quests can grant either more E-Tickets to spend at shops, or various stat boosts such as extra health and Sketch slots among other things. While some Quests can be completed by going between rescued Toons within the Fortress, some require going back through a completed level to retrieve something that wasn’t there on your first run.

 

Rescuing and helping Toons is more important than you might
initially think.

Paint and Thinner no longer rely on paint buckets to be refilled, rather they are both refilled upon collecting a paintbrush and can be swapped using L. You can also swap between the top and bottom screens at any time using X, with the bottom screen being where you can interact with objects and use Sketches (scrolled through with R). Painting objects on the bottom screen involves drawing an outline of the object, with a greater amount of the Paint and Super Meters filled up based on your precision. Using Sketches works the same way, except they also drain your Paint Meter afterwards. Thinning objects requires erasing objects within their silhouette, only the supply is more finite and straying too far from the given area drains the meter even faster. Additionally, Thinning objects rewards you with E-Tickets if you thin specific parts fast enough at the start.

While the gameplay works well for the portable format, certain frustrations come up that can easily affect the experience. For context, each non-Boss level is split into two areas, and losing all of your health causes you to respawn at the last checkpoint, which is the beginning of the last area you died at. However, you must then recollect any items or Toons you may have already obtained from that area (thankfully not the first if you died in the second). While this task can still be fairly easy to accomplish if you know what you’re doing, it can get particularly tricky in the South Wing levels due to the sharp difficulty spike. The worst offender is the level Under the Sea, which was difficult enough to make me drop the game the first time, but became somewhat easier (but no less difficult) on my last playthrough due to going in better prepared after buying as many upgrades and completing as many Quests as I could. Also worth noting is that Power of Illusion only has two save slots, which may or may not become frustrating depending on how often you plan to play it.

 

Sketches can help out immensely in some situations.

Much like the gameplay, the game does a good job of faithfully translating the Epic Mickey console game to its pixelated art direction, with dialogue presented in the style of a visual novel complete with high quality character portraits. Said dialogue has the occasional noticeable typo, but it doesn’t happen often enough to impact the experience. There is also some voice acting as in Epic Mickey 2, but only between Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Oswald, and even then, they are restricted to a handful of phrases during dialogue, but it’s still nice to hear Frank Welker as Oswald again despite these shortcomings. Similarly, the game makes use of some of the console games’ music, as well as some original compositions that fit within the style of the reused ones.

Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion is an interesting take on the Epic Mickey gameplay, paying homage to the then-forgotten Castle of Illusion series while still fitting within the Epic Mickey world. Those looking to get more out of either series should consider looking into this game, though hopefully the success of Epic Mickey: Rebrushed means we’ll see more from it in the future.