During an interview with the Official UK Nintendo Magazine, Warren Spector revealed that Epic Mickey – the most promising looking Wii-exclusive in a long, long time – was originally for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. To quote:
“The reality is that we started Wii development in 2008, but before that we were a PC, PS3, and 360 title.”
“It’s burned in my brain – Graham Hopper [Disney Interactive boss] pulled me into my office one day and said ‘What does it take to deliver on the goals we have for this product? And I said, well, you need enough time and enough money to be competitive. And it’d be awfully nice if we could focus on one platform.”
“At that time we were talking about a Wii port and I was begging people – no, we can’t just port to the Wii, it’s not going to work. It needs to be its own game. A lot of the design ideas just won’t work on the Wii, we need to give the Wii its dues. Graham looked at me and said ‘What do you think about a Wii exclusive?’ And I went ‘Holy cow – yeah!'”
“They walked away from three other platforms – no other publisher on the planet would have done that. It was a magic moment for me. No-one has even mentioned other formats since that point.”
The game itself looks like a combination of Okami and a Tim Burton movie, set in a world of forgotten Disney characters who have become jealous of Mickey’s popularity. There’s some screenshots and art-work here. Robotic Donald Duck looks deeply disturbing.
