On paper, it might threaten to break the flow of the game, but in reality in merely builds the rhythm: this is a puzzler as much as a platformer, and it encourages you to use both logic and timing. It's tightly controlled, with the interactive pieces shown in ghost form on the bottom screen, but there's a pleasant arcade flourish to things, too, as you're graded on how well you match the outline to add or remove each item.īy the second or third level, you'll be switching between screens every ten seconds, adding cannons that will propel Mickey right across the map, and removing hazards as well as simple obstacles. This is where the paint and paint-thinner come in, as you erase junk that's blocking Mickey's path, and draw in ledges that will help him over long jumps. It's all gloriously pretty, using the stereoscopic 3D in smart, understated ways, but that's only half the game - the top half, as it turns out, since a jab of the 3DS' touch screen allows you to pause the action and meddle with the environment. A few minutes later, Aladdin gets his turn, with stages set in the streets of Agrabah, where pendulum blades swing from awnings and good old quicksand is on hand to keep you moving along at a decent clip. Early levels channel Peter Pan, for example, sending you racing over the midnight skyline of a sleeping London, leaping from chimney pots to spars of cloud, and eventually heading on to the jungles of Neverland. The plot, such as it is, sees Mickey exploring the shifting chambers of the Castle of Illusion on yet another quest to save Minnie it's just an excuse, and a fairly bare-bones one, to bottom-bounce your way through decades of classic Disney fare. Power of Illusion's shaping up to be far from your average 3DS tie-in, in other words – nostalgic and creative by turns. In truth, of course, it's both of these things, retaining the paint and paint-thinner mechanics of Warren Spector's series, and the delicate 2D art and side-scrolling action that made the famous mouse's 16bit incarnations such wonderfully sumptuous charmers. Instead, think of it as a long overdue sequel to Castle of Illusion, the lavishly crafted Sega game from 1990.
Don't think of Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion as a mere handheld companion to Epic Mickey: The Power of Two, which hits the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 this November.
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