Junction Point Studios, the developer behind the Epic Mickey series of platformers for consoles, has shut its doors and terminated all employees.

A Disney spokesperson confirmed the closure with a statement sent to GamesBeat:

It was with much sadness that we informed our teams today of changes to our games organization, which include the closure of Junction Point Studios. These changes are part of our ongoing effort to address the fast-evolving gaming platforms and marketplace and to align resources against our key priorities. We’re extremely grateful to Warren Spector and the Junction Point team for their creative contributions to Disney with Disney Epic Mickey and Disney Epic Mickey 2.

Junction Point developed just two games: Disney Epic Mickey and last year’s sequel, Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. While the original sold over a million copies, the sales of the sequel are disappointing. Game-sales tracking firm The NPD Group told GamesBeat that Epic Mickey 2 sold over 529,000 copies in its first two months. (We originally reported a number from the L.A. Times that had it at 270,000 in sales for one month).

Famed game designer Warren Spector founded the studio in 2005. Spector made a name for himself with first-person titles that incorporated role-playing elements, like the original System Shock and Deus Ex. It was a surprise to many when Disney bought his studio and put it to work on a Mickey Mouse game.

Leaked concept art showed up online before Disney even announced the original Epic Mickey. Those early images, like the one above, revealed a darker, grittier world than the one Junction Point would ultimately create.

Disney has been shifting its gaming business toward less hardcore experiences. The media giant recently revealed Disney Infinity, which allows consumers to buy a potentially endless supply of characters and accessories that can all play together.

Warren Spector commented on the closure of his studio on Facebook. “Yes, it’s true,” Spector wrote. “The Junction Point journey is over. To all those who’ve asked, or want to ask, I’m sad but excited for the future. JPS had a good eight year run. I got to work with some amazing people on some amazing projects. I’ve had some of the most magical times of my life, fulfilling several life-long dreams. I’ve gotten to know Disney fans and Disney cast members, gotten hands on with Disney’s history, walked where Walt walked. Magical really is the only word.”

You can read his full statement here.

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Remember all the way back in January, when we looked at all the games that were coming out in 2012 and thought, “Holy crap! This is going to be the Best Year Ever (for gaming)™!” Well, this is December, and some of us are looking back to those wide-eyed, optimistic past versions of ourselves and wondering why they ever looked forward to some of the stuff we got in 2012. Sure, some of those anticipated titles lived up to our expectations, but in a lot of cases, that optimism was just the first step on a journey of regret and nonstop head shaking.

Here are some of our picks for the most disappointing games and events of 2012.

Assassin’s Creed III

Contributor Rus McLaughlin

Occasionally, a little time and distance softens the heart, and you remember things more fondly than what you actually felt at the time. I, on the other hand, despise Assassin’s Creed III more now than when I gave it a midrange score back in October. Oh, my man-love for its naval missions continues unabated, but I indulge in those behind the back of the main game and its sloppy mechanics, frustrating chases, and worthless side missions. I’m gratified that it doesn’t whitewash our nation’s origins as some altruistic crusade for peace and freedom (often spoken of in earshot of working slaves), but Creed “concludes” its overarching, modern-day plot with a firm middle finger to its most loyal fans. At least it finally settled one lingering question: Desmond is indeed as pointless and useless a diversion as we always suspected.

The delays

Contributing editor Stephanie Carmichael

Most of the games I was looking forward to all year are now coming out in 2013. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (or whatever we’re calling it now) are the handful I’ve been most itching to play. Other titles like South Park: The Stick of Truth, Devil May Cry, and Aliens: Colonial Marines have experienced delays as well. I guess I can’t complain too much. More time in development means a better chance of getting these games right, but it also means I’ll be burning a big hole in my wallet come spring.

Capcom continues to lock content in game discs

Contributor Samir Torres

F*** you, Capcom!

Twisted Metal’s online multiplayer

Intern Giancarlo Valdes

As a huge fan of the Twisted Metal games since the original PlayStation days, I was ecstatic when I finally got my hands on the PS3 reboot earlier this year. The folks at developer Eat Sleep Play did a fantastic job of bringing its unique brand of vehicular combat to a new generation of consoles with its campaign mode, and playing these levels with a friend in local multiplayer was fun, too. But going online was a different story: Starting from launch day and lasting for weeks, a host of problems made it almost impossible (for me at least) to stay connected to a match. The developers deployed various updates to fix these problems, but I had already moved on.

Disney Epic Mickey 2

Contributor Rob LeFebvre

After hearing, yet again, legendary designer Warren Spector’s “big picture” idea of games needing to be open-ended, with multiple paths, as well as not judging players for their “playstyle,” I really think this game was a huge disappointment. It changed very little from the first installment and was just another mess of control, camera, and barely comprehensible storyline. As with most things disappointing in life, the real problem was going into it with such a high set of expectations.

Endless Space

Copy editor Jason Wilson

We saw a couple of space-themed 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) strategy titles this year (Genesis Wars, Legacy of Pegasus, the final “all clear” for Sword of the Stars II). But the one that many space strategy fans were looking forward to was Endless Space, a game that turned out to be style over substance. Endless Space sports a good-looking user interface and some kick-ass ship designs, but it commits one of the biggest errors that any single-player strategy game can make: The A.I. isn’t good at its game. Your foes don’t do a good job of using its systems — like combat — against you, ultimately providing a limited challenged against a skilled player. And for the demanding fans of strategy games, this is a tactic that just doesn’t work.

Mass Effect 3′s ending

Intern Jason Lomberg

From an artistic standpoint, my biggest disappointment was that developer BioWare pulled a George Lucas and “fixed” the ending. That’s not how it should work — you don’t “fix” art.

A piece of art represents the succinct vision of its creator. It’s also a product of its time and, therefore, a cultural artifact. The best films – like Star Wars – engender a certain timeless quality, but even so, it’s not hard to discern that Lucas’s masterpiece reflects the norms and attitudes of the ’70s. By mucking with his own creations to “update” the special effects or modify story elements, Lucas is destroying a piece of history. This is why fans reacted so negatively to Star Wars: Special Edition (and the innumerable “updates” before and since), and it’s why BioWare should not have changed the Mass Effect 3 ending. For gaming to take its rightful place among other artistic media, it shouldn’t be so malleable and subject to “revision.” Numerous gamers took issue with the game’s ending – and I’d be hard-pressed to disagree – but we should criticize ME3 as a piece of art, not a software program that its makers can patch. We should analyze the creator’s vision and not treat it like a technical glitch.

Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation

Intern Mike Minotti

I was excited to have a real Assassin’s Creed experience on a portable system, and I was hoping that such a game could be a great showcase for the PlayStation Vita. Sadly, Liberation was a boring, uninspired slog through the bog hampered by technical problems and an empty open world.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

Intern Evan Killham

Developer Level-5′s series of puzzle-driven adventure games sold me both a Nintendo DS and a 3DS. I love everything about them: the full-on animated cutscenes, the stories, and even the bizarre idea of a universe in which brain-teasers work as a sort of social currency. But I’m not sure what happened with the franchise’s fifth installment. The plot and style are as good as ever, but the riddles in this one are inexplicably obtuse at times (I’m convinced that one challenge’s “clever” solution is not a valid answer to the setup) and blatantly not puzzles at others. A maze, for example, is not a puzzle by my definition, and this Professor Layton contains several of them.

Miracle Mask is the first Layton game that has felt like a chore.

XCOM’s lack of longevity

Contributing editor Rob Savillo

A game about saving the world from an alien invasion is probably beyond cliché at this point. You’d think that such a premise would doom the entire experience to a single playthrough, never to be touched again. But this wasn’t the case with the original X-Com strategy games, where I felt like anything could happen at any time. My first encounter could be the extraterrestrial menace terrorizing an urban populace or a dogfight with high-flying UFO that segues into a ground assault or even a struggle for survival within the supposedly safe confines of my only operational headquarters! Add in a healthy dose of pseudo-randomization, and X-Com felt fresh over and over no matter how many campaigns I played.

But Developer Firaxis’ recent reboot, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, unfortunately starts to feel all too similar all too quickly. Even during your first game, you’ll see the same premade maps again and again. Some missions feel scripted (even featuring monster closets!) and like long, narrow hallways (I don’t ever want to play the final stage again because it’s such a boring slog). I’m convinced that Firaxis doesn’t really want me to play another campaign, which is crystal clear because the game forces me to listen to the same unskippable explanatory voiceovers with every new start.

After well over 100 hours, I’m just about done with XCOM. And it shouldn’t have been this way.

Zynga’s belly-flop

Editor-in-chief Dan “Shoe” Hsu

Zynga was supposed to be the next big thing in gaming, but then it flopped … hard. Its stock became the joke of the industry (currently: $2.39, down from $9.50 at the initial public offering and a peak of $14.69 back in March, and rather than make a bunch of new Silicon Valley millionaires, it had to lay people off. Not many people are rooting for the company that regularly spams Facebook walls. But when the guys leading the charge for social gaming fails that badly, it’s a very bad sign for the health of the business as a whole.

Nearly everything Resident Evil

Intern Jasmine Rea

This year, I found myself sympathizing with legions of Sonic the Hedgehog fans because at our core, we are far too loyal for our own good. Like them, I go into every Resident Evil game with the same naive hope that the series isn’t spiraling the drain. Operation Raccoon City and Resident Evil 6 were nearly enough to make me give up on playing any console-based entries in the series. Poor execution, tedious gameplay, and wretched quick-time events have finally broken me. I’ll go into 2013 with a dull ache for another Resident Evil: Revelations, but I doubt I’ll get that.

Will I buy the inevitable Resident Evil 7? Of course I will, and that’s why gin exists.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Disney Epic Mickey 2 is a beautiful, nostalgic, and visual delight full of classic Disney sights and sounds. It’s a musical, a multiplayer cooperative game for two players, and a loot-gathering role-playing game. It’s also, sadly, kind of broken.

The title, reviewed here on a Xbox 360, starts off exceedingly well. The Wasteland is once again in need of its hero, Mickey Mouse, and a newly reformed Mad Doctor joins forces with the inhabitants to call to Mickey once again through a magic television set. Oswald, the mute focus of the first Epic Mickey game for the Wii, is waiting to join the adventure. This time around, he’s got as many speaking parts as all the other characters, including Gus the gremlin, voiced by Cary Elwes of Princess Bride fame.

Epic Mickey 2 was made available on the Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC/Mac on November 18, 2012.

Everything begins with a mad dash through Dark Beauty Castle, down Mean Street North and South (the in-game analog to Main Street from the Disney theme parks), and on to OsTown, which is really Toontown in disguise. Earthquakes have been plaguing the town, wreaking all kinds of havoc. It’s up to Mickey and his pal Oswald to track down the source of all the problems and save the toons once again.

What You’ll Like

The lush graphics do not disappoint
The high-definition output of the Xbox 360 version makes the original Epic Mickey for the Wii unappealing and unattractive. Everything is sharp, bright, and simply gorgeous, inviting a closer look at the environment and the various characters and enemies in the game. Each and every land in Epic Mickey has a unique feel, with environments drawn lovingly from the huge oeuvre of Disney visual lore. You’ll see enemies based on the little robot from The Black Hole, The Little Mermaid, and even a boss level with Pete’s Dragon. Anyone who’s seen a Disney film will find something unexpected around the corner while playing through.

The stylized, grainy, two-dimensional cutscene story segments that take place between larger lands and episodes are whimsical and delightful to watch. Even in segments without much story, my whole family looked forward to setting the controllers down, leaning back, and soaking in the vivid colors and retro animation style of the interstitial movies.

It truly is about player choice
Warren Spector calls it play style, saying that he never judges players. Since Mickey has the power of paint and of thinner, the environmental puzzles in each thematic land typically have a couple of different solutions. You can thin enemies, hit them with an up-close spin kick, or you can paint them, which gives them little blue hearts above their heads and makes them friends.

While my children played through some of the game on their own, thinning enemies and painting environments, I stuck to pure painting. My game was much different from theirs, ultimately. The quests and interactions I had with some characters and quest givers, most notably the ghost in Bog Easy and Blot Alley, were distinct from the ones my kids reported with the same characters.

There’s a lot to do here
Visiting all the nooks and crannies of lands like Autopia, the Train Tunnels, Fort Wasteland, and the rest will take a lot of time, but it’s well worth it. You will uncover hidden paths and passages, side quests aplenty, and tickets and pins to collect, each enriching the main gaming experience. I’m certainly going back to play through the game at a much slower non-reviewer pace to see all that’s on offer.

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Nintendo wants the Wii U launch on Nov. 18 to be the video game event of the holiday season. Scott Moffitt, the company’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, is the man in charge of making that happen.

The Japanese giant has a lot at stake when it comes to the Wii U, which some have criticized as a not-quite-next-generation console that is about as powerful as Sony’s six-year-old PlayStation 3. Nintendo began advertising the system in earnest last week to convince gamers otherwise. We spoke with Moffitt about Nintendo’s approach, the ad campaign, and its timing.

Here’s a transcript of our interview.

GamesBeat: Tell us about what’s in motion right now. What’s happening as you lead up to the launch?

Scott Moffitt: We’re in the final countdown stage. We’re watching the imports every day, when the boats come in, to make sure we’re getting the product we’re anticipating. We started our marketing in earnest a few days ago. We’ve been building interactive kiosks in stores. We’ve got about 5,000 of those, so people can experience the system for themselves. That’s important for a complex product like this. We went live with advertising last week in social media and really in earnest over the weekend with some cinema. There’s a lot going on.

GamesBeat: The ad campaign seemed like it came late. What’s the thinking behind the timing of the ads?

Moffitt: The timing is almost to the day the same as we used for Wii. We weren’t trying to copy that plan exactly, but it just happened that way. We put a media plan together. We wanted to build awareness quickly, so it’s multi-touchpoint. There will be messages coming at people from every direction. We thought that Wreck-It Ralph was a good place to have some cinema. That’s where our advertising premiered over the weekend.

It’s not like a hardcore game where you need to release your advertising five weeks ahead of a game launch. For us, it’s fine to be closer to the launch. I think that makes more sense. The other factor, candidly, is that with an election campaign this year. There was less media available prior to when we bought, and it was much more expensive.

GamesBeat: Being virtually sold out added complexity to everything, right? If you convince more people to buy something this week, they’re not going to get it. They can’t even order it, right?

Moffitt: Right. Frustration can build up. That wasn’t really part of the plan either, though. We buy through an up-front process like a lot of big advertisers, so we committed to these media buys long before we knew that we were going to have a sold-out situation to pre-sales. We hoped we would be sold out, that pre-sales would be brisk. But we didn’t have the luxury of waiting to see that to know what our major plans would be.

GamesBeat: Have you guys made any projections on sales? I remember some analysts saying 4.5 million sales would be likely for the holidays.

Moffitt: What we’ve said is we’re capable of shipping 5.5 million units between Nov. 18 and March 31, the end of our fiscal year. That’s a global number. We’ve not broken it out by time period, so how much of that is week one, how much is holiday, we can’t say. Similarly, we’ve not disclosed how much of that will be in each region. The U.S. will clearly have the longest selling period, because we’re the first market to launch.

GamesBeat: If I tried to place an order, supposing some retailer had pre-sales still open, how long would it take at this point before I might get one? Is it well into the new year?

Moffitt: No, not at all. We’ve been through these processes before. We want product to be available on day one in stores throughout the country. If you line up or get there early, you should be able to get product on day one. GameStop has not sold all of their day one allocation. They’ve sold what they were making available for pre-sales. Those are two different numbers. Now, a lot of what we gave them, they’ve sold to pre-sales, but, like every retailer will, they’ve held some back so they have product on day one for consumers that come in the door.

We have said that we’ll have more Wii U units on store shelves in week one than we did for Wii in 2006. We’ll also have replenishment much more frequently during the holiday than we did for Wii. Having said that, though, we’re guessing there could be shortages. It won’t be there every day. Shipments coming in each week could sell very quickly.

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See what it’s like to play as Luke Skywalker’s new boss in the demo for Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.

The sequel to the Nintendo Wii’s Mickey Mouse platformer, Epic Mickey, is available to download today on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Disney plans to release it on Nov. 18 for the Wii, 360, PS3, and Wii U.

Epic Mickey 2 picks up where the first left off. It follows the Mickey Mouse on his adventures with his former nemesis and current best bud, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Mickey again has the power of paint and thinner which allows him to fight enemies, paint objects, and erase others.

The Power of Two subtitle refers to the expanded cooperative mode that combines the forces of Mickey and Oswald. Read our full preview here, and look out for our review in the coming days.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This morning, Nintendo finally announced the price and launch date for its upcoming Wii U video game console as well as its new TVii feature that lets you use it as a Netflix/Hulu/Tivo/whatever box. Of course, you can also play video games on the Wii U, and we have the complete list of the system’s launch window games, as well as screenshots of many of them.

The Wii U console is in stores Nov. 18, with the basic version costing $300 and the deluxe $350; for specifics on each package, see our story from this morning.

Now, the system’s “launch window” extends from when the Wii U comes out all the way until March of next year. That means a few of these might not actually be available in 2012, but Nintendo still includes them in the “launch window.” It makes sense if you try not to think about it too much.

Either way, check out the list and gallery below to see all of the games you’ll be playing on your hot new Wii U … at some point within the next six or seven months.

• Funky Barn
• NBA 2K13
• 007 Legends
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II
• Transformers Prime
• Wipeout 3
• Skylanders Giants
• Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013
• Rapala Pro Bass Fishing
• Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
• Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game
• Ben 10: Omniverse
• Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade
• Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
• Mass Effect 3
• Madden NFL 13
• FIFA Soccer 13
• Trine 2: Director’s Cut
• Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
• Zumba Fitness Core
• Jett Tailfin
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U Edition
• Tank! Tank! Tank!
• Nintendo Land
• New Super Mario Bros. U
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge
• Sing Party
• Lego City: Undercover
• Wii Fit U
• Game & Wario
• Pikmin 3
• The Wonderful 101
• Aliens: Colonial Marines
• Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
• Nano Assault Neo
• Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper
• Darksiders II
• Wheel of Fortune
• Jeopardy!
• Toki Tori 2
• Assassin’s Creed III
• Just Dance 4
• Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth
• Rabbids Land
• ESPN Sports Connection
• Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013
• ZombiU
• Rayman Legends
• Scribblenauts Unlimited
• Game Party Champions
• Batman: Arkham City — Armored Edition

The gallery is below, but if you prefer your pictures to move and have sound, take a look at these Wii U launch trailers.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The team of heroes that make up the GamesBeat squad have disassembled after conquering another Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. If you’re looking for full coverage, head to our E3 hub. For now, we’ve returned to our families who have asked us for our thoughts about the show.

Here is the list of GamesBeat’s ten favorite family games of E3 2012:

Nintendo Land
Wii U – Nintendo
Holiday 2012

When the Wii launched in North America, Nintendo included Wii Sports with the system and marched in a golden era of family gaming. The big publisher is hoping that Nintendo Land will have a similar effect. The minigame collection will feature Zelda and Animal Crossing themed events that showcase the functionality of the Wii U GamePad.

In Luigi’s Ghost Mansion, for example, four players control ghost hunters while the person holding the GamePad controls a specter. The hunters try to weaken the ghost with their flashlights, while the ghost tries to weaken the players by sneaking up behind them. The rest of Nintendo Land follows this same pattern of asynchronous multiplayer where the player with the GamePad takes on an entirely different role in relation to the others with standard Wii remotes.

Game & Wario
Wii U – Nintendo
Holiday 2012

Not content with a single minigame collection, Nintendo is also working on Game & Wario. The yellow Mario villain is bringing his warped sense of style to the Wii U with a horde of small games that take advantage of the GamePad. Events like “Arrow” will have players firing a bow from the touchscreen at enemies on the television.  In “Shutter,” gamers will use the GamePad to take pictures of on-screen criminals before a timer runs out.

If you like your minigames with a bit more quirk, then your family may prefer this over Nintendo Land.

Dance Central 3
Xbox 360 – Harmonix
Quarter 3 2012

Everybody dances. Sure, maybe your dad shouldn’t (Pops, we don’t want to see you do the alligator again!), but everybody loves getting down. Which explains why so many people love controlling their music games by busting a move. Dance Central, the Xbox 360 Kinect’s marquee game, returns for a third attempt. This time, developer Harmonix is including a story mode which will have dancers traveling in a time machine to fix historical dance steps. Does that sound crazy? Well, free your mind and your butt will follow!

Just Dance 4
Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/Wii – Ubisoft
October 9, 2012

Want to shake your money-maker but don’t own a Kinect? Well, Just Dance 4 is available on Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The sound track will feature over 40 hits. Confirmed songs include Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass,” The B-52′s “Rock Lobster,” and Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West.”

New Super Mario Bros. U
Wii U – Nintendo
Holiday 2012

A new Nintendo system used to guarantee a new Mario game. While that is no longer a certainty, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the Wii U is launching with a followup to one of the Wii’s best-selling games. Four players control Mario, Luigi, two toads, or their own Mii with the Wiimotes while a fifth player aids by creating blocks and stunning enemies using the GamePad’s touchscreen. Although, reports from our team on the E3 floor suggest that they had more fun when they were using the GamePad powers to impede and annoy the other players.

Rayman Legends
Wii U – Nintendo
Holiday 2012

Many fans and critics consider Rayman Origins to be one of the best games of 2011. This Wii U sequel will bring a lot of the same platforming elements into an equally colorful world. Legends ups the family friendliness by including a fifth playable character controlled with the Wii U GamePad’s touchscreen. While up to four other players can run and jump around the side-scrolling environments, the GamePad player can tap on the screen to activate objects and mop up collectibles.

Scribblenauts Unlimited
Wii U – 5th Cell
Holiday 2012

The main character from the previous Scribblenauts has a new world to explore. This time, instead of a bunch of self-contained levels, the magic-notebook wielding Maxwell will have a much more open world to explore. For the unaware, Scribblenauts allows players to summon a seemingly endless variety of creatures and objects simply by typing in the word. Unlimited allows players to combine multiple objects into one hybrid. Just be careful. I’m pretty sure that combinations such as “winged bears” and “walking snakes” are harbingers of the apocalypse.

LEGO City: Undercover
Wii U/3DS – TT Games
Holiday 2012

Lego has locked itself together with TT Games and publisher Nintendo to make a Grand Theft Auto clone based on the building-block company’s most popular play set, the city police station. Players will take the role of undercover cop Chase McCain who will be busting criminals all across Lego City. McCain can swap out his own parts to become other characters and gain new powers.

Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
Wii/Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 – Junction Point Studios
November 18, 2012

Disney’s world-famous Mickey Mouse returns for a second adventure on the Wii. This time, the classic character is expanding his digital presence to Microsoft and Sony’s consoles. The first game suffered from a poor camera and a complete lack of voice acting. Lead developer Warren Spector claims that they’ve fixed the camera and that the game will be fully voiced.

Since the end of the events in the first game, Mickey has teamed up with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit (who was a villain in the first game) to help save Wasteland, which is Oswald’s home. If Spector’s tam at Junction Point has truly fixed the camera, then this could be one of the best family games of the year.

Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion
3DS – Dreamrift
November 18, 2012

Disney will release a portable adventure starring the round-eared rodent for the 3DS on the same day as the console counterpart. The title will be a tribute to the Sega Gensis game Mickey Mouse: Castle of Illusion, which many fans believe is the mascot’s greatest video game. Power of Illusion will be a side-scrolling platformer that takes place after the events of the first Epic Mickey. The “illusions” of other Disney character will make an appearance including Captain Hook, Peter Pan, and Beast from Beauty and the Beast.

Please vote for your favorite in our poll and explain your view in the comments.

GamesBeat 2012 is VentureBeat’s fourth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. This year we’re calling on speakers from the hottest mobile, social, PC, and console companies to debate new ways to stay on pace with changing consumer tastes and platforms. Join 500+ execs, investors, analysts, entrepreneurs, and press as we explore the gaming industry’s latest trends and newest monetization opportunities. The event takes place July 10-11 in San Francisco, and you can get your early-bird tickets here.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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