Epic Mickey/Trivia


 * Christmas Rushed: Word of God is that Epic Mickey was rushed to reach store shelves by the 2010 holiday season, which explains a few of the game's rougher edges. Even with the rush, it still missed the "Black Friday" after-Thanksgiving shopping weekend.
 * Collectors Edition: Those who pre-ordered the game got a special edition of the strategy guide (with an interview with Warren Spector in it), themed Wii skins, and a vinyl Mickey figurine holding a paintbrush.
 * Dueling Games: Very broadly. The simple fact that it's a rather "unorthodox" Disney game that features Mickey Mouse being cooler than you remember is getting it compared to the Kingdom Hearts series. "Fans" occasionally bring in an "East vs. West" mentality to arguments over which is superior, to complicate matters further.
 * Executive Meddling: Seemingly averted. Interestingly, Disney's support of the game style is rumored to be related to the business-savvy observation that the company's biggest profits in video games come from ones willing to adopt a semi-dark style, as well as genuinely trying to revamp Mickey Mouse as a genuinely useful (and marketable) character.
 * Granted, they've vetoed some minor elements along the way, but considering how over-protective Disney's been regarding the Mouse recently (remember the Runaway Brain fiasco?), this could actually be a Crowning Moment of Awesome for the company.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Oswald is voiced by Frank Welker, the voice of Megatron.
 * Dave Wittenberg is the Mad Doctor.
 * In the sequel, Gremlin Gus now has the voice of the Dread Pirate Roberts.
 * Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition: Comes with a Behind the Scenes DVD, a Mickey figure, and some decals for the Wii and Wiimote.
 * Marth Debuted in Smash Bros: You can bet your left foot that most people who are aware of Oswald's existence owe it to this game (which was intentionally made as a comeback vehicle for both him and his brother, and the games at least acknowledge Oswald's original cartoons). Adding to the issue is that while half of his original cartoons are available on DVD, said set only got a limited release, and wasn't released in other countries.
 * Media Research Failure: Gametrailers.com mistakenly labeled Yen Sid as Merlin. This was later corrected in the pop-up version of the opening cinematic. Not to mention how many people mistook the game as Kingdom Hearts III when it first debuted.
 * The Merch:
 * Showing up in Disney Theme Parks this year is a lot of merch featuring old Mickey (including at least one shirt featuring a shot of him from Gallopin' Gaucho, a short that fell into company Canon Discontinuity for having Mickey light a cigarette -with his foot- among other things). This game is why.
 * Of course, the whole "needing to make money from these properties in order to continue holding an extended copyright to them" thing probably helps, too. If Oswald becomes a regular member of the Disney crew, you can thank this game.
 * Disney's also planning some more directly Epic Mickey-themed merch, most notably books, a paintbrush-shaped Nunchuck shell, and an elaborate Wii Remote charger featuring sculptures of Mickey and the Shadow Blot. Disney seems a very confident in this game.
 * No Export for You: Inverted as the game has yet to be released in Japan, which is pretty odd, considering how much the Japanese love Oswald.
 * A Japanese release has finally been set for August 4, 2011, with Nintendo taking over publishing duties, something they have done with other Western-developed Wii games, with the subtitle of Mickey and the Magic Brush and some fixes to the camera issues.
 * Playing Against Type: OK, raise your hand if you expected the creator of Deus Ex to helm a Mickey Mouse game before this was announced. Chances are, only a few actually did. Less of a surprise if you were aware of Warren Spector's work on Steve Jackson Games' classic Toon! RPG.
 * Promoted Fanboy: Warren Spector is a pretty big Disney fan. And now he gets to write for the DuckTales (1987) comic book after he's begged to make a DuckTales (1987) video game.
 * Screwed by the Network: Despite Disney's Crazy Awesome status listed above, the finished game was originally supposed to be a late 2011/December 2011 release, but cut the development time by a full year, therefore the game technically isn't finished, which explains most of the problems.
 * What Could Have Been:
 * The "Scrapper" mechanic (where Mickey's appearance would change to reflect the player's moral decisions) has been... scrapped. Spector said that people didn't like having Mickey's iconic appearance tampered with. Instead, now his Fairy Companions turn blue or sickly green. To elaborate further, the change from the Scrapper/Hero system to Guardian system was made because then you'd have to worry less about people just trying to play the meter and instead make their own choices.
 * Word of God is that the leaked concept art was made of ideas rejected because they were too edgy for Spector.
 * An Alice in Wonderland level based on Alice's Curious Labyrinth from Disneyland Paris was planned but scrapped to avoid confusion with the Tim Burton film. It can still be seen in Yen Sid's model of the Wasteland. When Mickey spills the thinner into the Wasteland, one can see the Labyrinth model sinking away into nothingness, further explaining why it never appears in the game.
 * These concept arts say it all.
 * Several concept art shows that Minnie was originally going to be in the game.
 * Another storyboard shows Ursula as a villain in the story. According to the Art Book, Ursula would have lived inside The Jug, originally written as a separate location from Mickeyjunk Mountain attached to various machinery filtering out the thinner in the environment.
 * Potential bosses for Mickeyjunk Mountain included Chernabog and a robotic Yeti exo-suit of Oswald's.
 * A larger example comes from the decision why the game is a Wii exclusive. It was originally a XBOX 360/PS3 game, but when he was asked about a Wii version, Warren Spector decided he didn't want to it to make it a bogged-down port. So, they decided to make it a Wii exclusive... (it should also be noted that he's also a big Nintendo fan).
 * The Wiki Rule: The The Epic Mickey Wiki.