Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is a fresh coat of traditional paint

THQ Nordic excited Mickey Mouse fans when the publisher announced that it had begun work on remaking Disney Epic Mickey for a new generation. The original game was released on the Nintendo Wii, meant to be a showcase for what third-party publishers could do with the Wii's unique controls. This year, however, Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed will be released on modern platforms and, if our hands-on during the Nintendo Partner Showcase at this week's Game Developers Conference was indication, it should make that transition smoothly.

First revealed during the Nintendo Direct February 2024 Partner Showcase, Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed tells the tale of Mickey Mouse making a giant mess out of a whole lot of spilled ink. Now he's being made to pay by getting sucked into a dystopian world known as the Wasteland. Armed only with a single brush, Mickey must find his way home by saving the Wasteland and confronting the forgotten mascot, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

The demo sequence from GDC took Mickey through Gremlin Village. The visuals are close to the spirit of the original game, but look much smoother through the use of newer hardware. Game mechanics are largely the same, as evidenced by some of the game's objectives. We were still shutting off valves, platforming across emerging platforms, and confronting a variety of cartoonish enemies. Those who hated the waggle-based controls of the old Wii version can rejoice, because the game's combat shifting to the controller's shoulder buttons feels totally intuitive, as if that was always how it was meant to be played.

Going through the demo was also a nice reminder of Epic Mickey's interesting morality system. Mickey can attack in two different ways. He can attack with paint to try and pacify foes or he can attack with thinner, which is arguably more effective and works faster, but is much crueler since it essentially ends an enemy's existence. The mouse's methods will help determine the game's ending with Epic Mickey featuring multiple.

Those who missed out on the old Wii days, but want a competent platformer starring Disney's most recognizable mascot will want to keep an eye on Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed. The folks at Purple Lamp are working as the game's developer and are no stranger to bringing classic games to a new generation, having previously put out SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated. While our hands-on was with the Nintendo Switch version, the game is also set to release on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox later in 2024.

This preview is based on an early Nintendo Switch version played on-site at the Nintendo Partner Showcase in San Francisco, CA during the Game Developers Conference 2024. It may not be representative of the final product.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?