Disney Interactive Unveils New Game, Console Plans

Disney’s never been much of a name in gaming. Disney Interactive is the only branch of the company that has reported consistent losses. In the past few years, Disney hasn’t even put that much of an effort into console gaming, choosing to focus on simple games played on websites like Facebook or on mobile devices. But that might be about to change. Gaming website CNET reports that Disney’s taken out a patent for a gaming console that employs augmented reality. This isn’t the first of Disney’s augmented reality patents; late last year I blogged about one involving images projected over … Continue reading →

Disney Interactive Teases Big Game Releases for 2013

“Cars 2: The Game” made even less of an impression than the film As much as I’m a big Disney fan and a big video game fan, I’m not into Disney Interactive. That’s the company’s video game arm. So when a Business Insider article reveals that CFO Jay Rasulo hints that 2013 is going to see two big titles come out in the first half of the year, my response is a resounding “meh.” The first title is “Epic Mickey 2,” due out at the beginning of 2013. I enjoyed “Epic Mickey” and the details I’ve seen for its sequel … Continue reading →

Two “Epic Mickey” Sequels in the Works

It seems that despite some gamers’ somewhat reserved opinions (including my own) Disney Interactive has decided that “Epic Mickey” was, well, epic enough to deserve not one but two sequels. In fact, “Epic Mickey” will follow in the footsteps of the other most famous, or at least the most popular, Disney video game: “Kingdom Hearts.” After KH’s release it was succeeded by two more games: a proper sequel out on its same platform, the PlayStation 2, and a smaller game bridging the two larger ones made for Sony’s handheld device. Gaming website IGN has details on the two games. The … Continue reading →

Gaming on Disney Cruises

Gamers aren’t really the type to go on cruises. I don’t want to stereotype too much, but given that I can count myself among gamer ranks I feel like I can speak to some shared experiences. We gamers need our space, sometimes preferring solo games or multiplaying via the web to actually spending time with people in real life. Even those of us who like hanging out with our friends might be put off by being stuck on a ship in the middle of the ocean along with the massive crowds of strangers that are an inevitable part of cruises. … Continue reading →

Obscure Disney History in “Epic Mickey”

Who are you again? “Epic Mickey” was a video game that, while enjoyable, suffered from multiple problems. One of them was that it perhaps catered to too narrow of an audience. It was chock full of Disney history – and I mean old school, black and white short cartoons Disney history – but it was a video game. How many gamers also get a thrill from references to Mickey’s most obscure cartoon companions? I imagine that there isn’t too much of an audience overlap. Of course that’s not to say that no one enjoys the two; the game’s developer himself … Continue reading →

Epic Mickey: Fun, But Not “Epic”

“Epic Mickey” for the Wii is a fun game that, despite its enjoyable game play, still manages to be mostly a tale of wasted potential. I say this from two points of view: both as a gamer thrilled by the early edgy concept art, and as a blogger for a family website determining its appropriateness for children. Nothing in “Epic Mickey” should frighten either the kids playing the game or their parents questioning its suitability. It’s not too scary or violent; in fact, the morality system allows for a non-violent option when facing enemies. Mickey wields a paintbrush and with … Continue reading →

Explore the Disney Universe

One of my favorite party games is called “Smash Brothers.” It’s a Nintendo game wherein players control various famous characters from across the company’s franchises in a series of knock-down drag-out battles. I find getting to control Yoshi one minute and Link the next more enticing than Nintendo’s other common multi-player games, such as any of the sport or arcade games featured on Wii Play. Anyone who’s read my Disney blog for a while knows that my favorite video game is “Kingdom Hearts,” and no small part of that is because during it I get to play and interact with … Continue reading →

A Personal History of Disney Video Gaming

I’ll admit that next to reading, video gaming is one of my primary hobbies. My love for Disney has always been a part of my video gaming experience. In the early 1990s I had single-game bright plastic colored handheld devices. One, bedecked in perfect princess purples and pinks contained a “Beauty and the Beast” game wherein, as Belle, I had to race to Beast’s castle ahead of Gaston in order to warn the Beast of the advancing mob. My other game, in frankly lurid shades of orange and turquoise, tied in with the Disney afternoon kids show “Rescue Rangers.” Disney’s … Continue reading →

Epic Mickey

One of the things I like best in a video game is a good story. Developers make use of advanced computer technology to program sometimes 20-minute-long animated movies to appear throughout certain video games, especially at the beginning and end, to make the experience as much about hearing a story as about playing a game. And those are my favorite games. Foremost of them all, in my opinion, are Kingdom Hearts I & II, which fuse the world of respected Japanese gaming franchise Final Fantasy with Disney. The player’s character travels to various Disney locales like Atlantica from “The Little … Continue reading →