At 16 , I was quite the artist . I would draw and quarter anime portraits of myself and some other citizenry in my sketchbook whenever I took breaks from school assignment , worked my residential area service hour , or go out to dinner with my family . My drawings never reach the professional spirit level of Akira Toriyama , Yana Toboso , or Naoto Ohshima , but it was an excellent way to allay adolescent stress , particularly as an autistic high school student . I rarely took up house painting because I fear leaving a mess everywhere unless it was for my art course . However , there was one plot that let me paint the world freely : Disney’sEpic Mickey .

Disney Interactive Studios and Junction Point releasedEpic Mickeyexclusively for the Wii in 2010 to try out with movement - controlled gameplay . Being a fan ofKingdom Heartsat the time , I was drawn to Mickey ’s adventure for its artistic component . I would play like I was swinging around two paintbrushes with the Wii remote and Nunchuck ( despite Mickey wield only one paintbrush in - game ) . Repainting the environment and erasing enemy with diluent was just a nerveless construct for a Disney game at the time .

near 14 years subsequently , that secret plan is being relinquish on multiple platforms as a remaster titledDisney Epic Mickey : Rebrushed . The memories came flooding back when I fire it up on my Steam Deck . It excited my 16 - twelvemonth - honest-to-goodness self to experience her favorite Disney biz on a dissimilar cabinet . It ’s even more exciting to play back it with a fresh coat of pigment good manners of THQ Nordic and Purple Lamp Studios . While the game toy the same as it did in 2010 , I acknowledge plenty of changes from the original Wii title , ramble from the obvious to the minuscule . Here ’s howRebrushedstacks up with its cult classical Wii precursor .

Reworking the Mickey code

The visuals are the most notable change inEpic Mickey : Rebrushed . While the original game had bright lighting and unrefined structure , the artwork in the remaster are exquisitely detailed , with the lighting dim to match the dark ambiance of Wasteland and the tone of the storyline . The opening cutscene evince as much , with the candle lamp lighting up Mickey ’s bedchamber and Yen Sid ’s workshop . Gameplay - knowing , you’re able to literally follow the paint teetotal when you paint a toon wall , topiary , building , or any other toon object . I saw rouge bead slither down anything I paint upon a tightlipped looking at — something I could n’t do in the original game .

Purple Lamp Studios also offer theirplayers with more agencyto forward motion through the biz proactively by add more alternative to create their own way through the projector level , new area to explore , new secrets to reveal , and fresh collectible to gather . They even improved the restraint outline . The crosshair for Paint and Thinner stays in the midsection of the screen no matter which direction you ’re bespeak the paintbrush or else of floating around like in the Wii variant . When you employ Paint and Thinner , you simply press the right and pass on induction , respectively , in stead of using a D - pad button for Paint and the left bumper for Thinner . You do n’t even have to shake your controllers to set your defender on your enemies any longer ; just press the left bumper ( Thinner guardians ) or right bumper ( Paint guardians ) .

The ascendency have improved to the point where Mickey can now go for his life aside from Splatters and other Blotling baddie . weight-lift down the left analog pin let Mickey lead a little faster , and fight the B clit allows him to dash , get him out of hurt ’s mode . Speed would ’ve saved some players ’ lives in the Wii version , so I ’m well-chosen to see it get some attention in the remaster .

Mickey ’s health gauge gets a modern upgrade here , with his head no longer being portray as a sketchbook doodle , but a 3D one . The hearts are no longer little white ones inside a pinkish Mick symbolization ; they ’re just regular pink fondness . The hearts on Mickey ’s health standard of measurement have been changed from cherry Zen to red hearts , adding to the mouse ’s cartoony personality . The guardian gauge below the health gauge has also been update to make it so that the meter for the Paint guardian go properly , while the Thinner metre goes left the more poppycock you erase to attract respective guardians . The original secret plan had the Paint and Thinner meters going powerful , irrespective of which one you use .

Fine change like that seem throughout if you face for them . The load / save symbolic representation is no longer the Mickey ears drip with paint . Instead , it ’s just a regular Mickey Mouse symbol with rouge and thinner circling it . The detail that specially delights me is the loading screen , which shows off the plot ’s conception artwork of locales such as Dark Beauty Castle and Mean Street framed by black key dripping on both side or else of exhibit the art in postcard .

Subtitles now pop up up when Yen Sid narrate the opening cutscene , which did not take place in the original game either . subtitle appear in invigorate cutscenes throughout the game — there was n’t much representative acting for Mickey , Oswald , and other characters save for mumbles and yelps — and it ’s a humble , but helpful touch modality that adds some handiness ( this is something I wish I see in the Wii version all those long time ago , as I be given to watch everything with subtitle due to a processing delay unique to being on the spectrum ) .

It would have been easy to simply slap a new coat of paint on the original plot and in haste kick it out to make some nostalgia money . That Purple Lamp was willing to retool the plot with so many all right item shew how serious Disney was here in making sure this was n’t a quick Johnny Cash grab . Warren Spector ’s return as creative director lay down the remaster even more telling . Not many multitude who produced the original games get convoluted withremakes , let alone remasters .

PlayingEpic Mickey : Rebrushedis reminiscent ofSpyro Reignited Trilogy , where every character and plus was given a full - blown refresh 20 year after the original PlayStation titles were released with polygonal computer graphic . Epic Mickeyonly released 14 years ago , so the game ’s upgrades are modest by comparison . However , just likeSpyro Reignited TrilogyandCrash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy , Epic Mickey : Rebrushedhas been made for every console , so that whoever did n’t get to see it on the Wii the first sentence around will now able to play it on their preferred platform . For those who did play the Wii version , such as myself , the remaster is like looking at a Monet painting with fresh eyes .