Okay, now that THAT’S out of the way, let me talk about what makes this game so great to me. It’s so dark. And I mean, DARK. How dark? Well, the Blot kills a character, you have a full assault on the Wasteland castle that results in its destruction, and there’s Toon Zombies. No, you read that right. There are zombie versions of the forgotten Disney characters that Mickey will have to face, and they are completely immune to both paint and thinner. Hell, their idle animation freaked the hell out me, seeing a proto-Goofy with a cracked neck and melting limbs as it limbers around the room. Oh, and the boss battle against The Shadow Blot itself? I haven’t been that scared of a Disney character before now, if only because of how big the guy is! His mouth alone could swallow one of the houses from Oswald’s Toon Town!

Unfortunately, the story isn’t that dark. It’s your standard “stranger in a new world becomes a hero” kind of story, that is more involving as a video game than it is as a feature film. Everywhere you go, you see the effects of Mickey’s mistake and your choices during the course of the game. But there comes a point where your actions don’t mean shit and the story takes over. That’s where the intimacy of the story ends up losing its grasp on you and it becomes your standard “save the world” faire. But I’ll be damn if I didn’t get laugh at Gus’s reaction to the Lonesome Manor, tear up when Oswald finally forgives Mickey, or have my mind blown when the game’s true villain is revealed. And thankfully, those moments are well deserved and not forced at all.

Because this is also a platformer game, there are tons of unlockables for you to collect. There are pins to collects based on your choices or on how skilled you are. Shops will sell you concept art, or you can hunt for them throughout Wasteland to see what Tomorrow City was originally going to look like. Probably the best unlockable in the game is done by collecting Film Reels. These will unlock two real-world cartoon shorts, one from both Oswald and Mickey’s film history. If you’ve seen them before, the fact that these shorts are on a video game disc and not on some collectible DVD is kind of cool. (Then again, I have the Oswald Shorts Collector’s Tin, so take that as you will.) However, to get a full 100% collection, you’ll need to play the game at least three times. I don’t know how true that is, because after my first playthru, I was able to find half of the film reels and 60 of the 100+ pins, and I know at least 5 of the pins can be bought from the stores.

There’s a reason why this game proudly points out on the box that it won Best Wii Game from G4 and IGN. Despite its flaws, it keeps the frustration level low and the fun rather high. It’s very entertaining to drown some enemies in paint and see them do your dirty work for you, and it’s just as gratifying as it would be if you decided to thin them out yourself. The puzzles are not too difficult, but will cause some headaches if you don’t think things through. And after the climax in the story, Disney goes to the dark side with their most child-friendly and iconic character in their ownership.

This ain’t Kingdom Hearts; this is something else. Something epic.

Loading Bar Rating: Full Price Game!

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