Warren Spector: Epic Mickey Inspired by Zelda, Mario and Deus Ex

In a recent interview, legendary designer Warren Spector gave some details on his latest creation, Epic Mickey. The main sources of inspiration for the title were, according to Spector, the Legend of Zelda, Mario and the developer's own Deus Ex series. This resulted in three types of locations in the title: quest maps, travel maps and action maps.

“I started this project wanting to merge the best of adventure games such as Zelda, platform games such as Mario, and my own games such as Deus Ex,” he told Edge. “The quest map is where you talk to people, learn about quests and get clues about how to solve them. You also learn about optional quests that can be carried out in the action segments. The action map is a place where you go and actually use what you have learned – it’s all action all the time, and you expect to encounter enemies, and maybe even some friends.”

The travel maps are inspired by old Mickey Mouse cartoons and will have players guide Mickey in 2D platforming levels. He also talked about the Deus Ex influences on the game. As it seems, the player's actions will be tracked and all the characters will respond in different ways to them, adding that “If Deus Ex fans don’t give this a chance, shame on them. Because it’s Mickey Mouse? Give me a break. The gameplay they know they love will be there. And I hope the gameplay and this character will make the game equally appealing to people who’ve never heard of JC Denton.”

Furthermore, there will two gameplay mechanics: primary and secondary. The former involves the paint and thinner gameplay and has gamers adding and erasing parts of the world or characters. There will also be different sketches that can be transformed into real items in the world, like the tools from the Zelda titles. Epic Mickey is set to launch sometime this holiday exclusively for the Nintendo Wii.