

Spector’s peculiar combination of cold mechanics and warm Disney familiarity returns, and when it works, it sings: a door that requires you to pull a wooden Snow White and Prince Charming into an embrace is the sort of touch that lingers, as is a complex mechanical system activated by characters from Disneyland’s Main Street Parade. It’s a particular joy stumbling across a visual nod to a film or dusty old short you forgot the moment you hit puberty. References to Disney properties are everywhere, from old favorites like Pete’s Dragon to modern classics like The Nightmare Before Christmas. The game is again a journey of discovery through a world built from discarded Disney memorabilia and broken down animatronics, a heaving, twitching place that should be a delight to nosy around in for the Disney enthusiast. This time, he’s got a permanent partner in Oswald the Lucky Rabbit the more charming of the two by the width of a detachable arm. The newly-reformed Mad Doctor calls for a hero, a magical television is built, and voila! Mickey Mouse is again on a repair mission, armed with his trusty paintbrush that enables him to paint or thin out parts of his environment.

Never a place to relax for long, Wasteland is now plagued by earthquakes, returning it to a pile of rubble and sputtering machinery. Epic Mickey 2 returns us once again to the Wasteland, the sprawling home to rejected or long forgotten toons from Disney’s considerable back-catalogue.
