"Epic Mickey" designer Warren Spector recently confirmed that a sequel is coming this fall -- but what many didn't know is that "Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two" will be a musical.
Not long after the confirmation, Disney Interactive Studios released the following announcement trailer:
The new game is slated to be "the first musical comedy game in the history of video games," according to Spector, a quote that Destructoid and many other outlets have picked up on.
Spector says much of the story will be told through song, which will bring the game even closer to the source material, given that virtually all animated offerings from Disney are highlighted by musical numbers.
The second game will pick up where the first game left off, and has Mickey revisiting Wasteland, a place where characters and locales from the earliest of Disney cartoons, dwell.
The same gameplay mechanic from before, the magic paintbrush, also returns. It allows the player, as Mickey Mouse, to either draw or erase objects, with the aid of paint and thinner, respectively. But the sequel mixes things up a bit by adding a second character, one who is always present.
This other face is Oswald the Rabbit, who was the unofficial Disney mascot until Mickey came along back in the day and stole his thunder. In reality, Walt Disney lost the rights to produce Oswald shorts, but those rights have since reverted.
The rocky relationship between Mickey and Oswald was one of the primary plot devices of the first game; it would seem that both characters have come to terms with each other for their new adventure. And having a second character at all times allows a second player to jump in and out of the action with no disruption to the proceedings.
Another big change is how the sequel will be multiplatform. "Epic Mickey 2: The Power Of Two" is slated for both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.
In the case of the PS3 version, Move support will be built in, so it can play in a similar fashion to the Wii's used of the remote and nunchuck combo, which has been carried over. A 3DS version, "Epic Mickey: Power Of Illusion," is also in development.
No solid release dates have been given, but all the various versions of "Epic Mickey" is expected to arrive later this year.
Matthew Hawkins is an NYC-based game journalist who has also written for EGM, GameSetWatch, Gamasutra, Giant Robot and numerous others. He also self-publishes his own game culture zine, is part of Attract Mode , and co-hosts The Fangamer Podcast . You can keep tabs on him via Twitter , or his personal home-base, FORT90.com .