Small details of Epic Mickey: Rebrushed make all the difference

At 16, I was quite the artist. I would draw anime portraits of myself and some other people in my sketchbook whenever I took breaks from schoolwork, worked my community service hours, or went out to dinner with my family. My drawings never reached the professional level of Akira Toriyama, Yana Toboso, or Naoto Ohshima, but it was an excellent way to relieve adolescent stress, especially as an autistic high school student. I rarely took up painting because I feared leaving a mess everywhere unless it was for my art classes. However, there was one game that let me paint the world freely: Disney’s Epic Mickey.

Disney Interactive Studios and Junction Point released Epic Mickeyexclusively for the Wii in 2010 to experiment with motion-controlled gameplay. Being a fan of Kingdom Heartsat the time, I was drawn to Mickey’s adventure for its artistic elements. I would play like I was swinging around two paintbrushes with the Wii remote and Nunchuck (despite Mickey wielding only one paintbrush in-game). Repainting the environment and erasing enemies with thinner was just a cool concept for a Disney game at the time.

Nearly 14 years later, that game is being released on multiple platforms as a remaster titled Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed. The memories came flooding back when I fired it up on my Steam Deck. It excited my 16-year-old self to experience her favorite Disney game on a different console. It’s even more exciting to replay it with a fresh coat of paint courtesy of THQ Nordic and Purple Lamp Studios. While the game plays the same as it did in 2010, I noticed plenty of changes from the original Wii title, ranging from the obvious to the minuscule. Here’s how Rebrushed stacks up with its cult classic Wii predecessor.