Mickey is EPIC and he’s back. Epic Mickey 2 is a platformer with an uncommon element, a magical paintbrush! BUT, not just any old enchanted brush. When you play as Mickey, the brush let’s you paint the world to solve puzzles, create items, and make friends. With the thinner option, you can destroy the paint world in order to solve puzzles, decimate items, and deconstruct your pals. This isn’t a game per se where you are trying to read the designer’s mind on how to try and solve that puzzle in the ONE way that it is designed. In Epic Mickey 2, you’re constantly making choices. It’s all about you deciding what’s important and about how clever and creative you are.

In Epic Mickey 1, Oswald was one of the characters that needed Mickey’s help against the Blot. This time, Oswald actually teams up with Mickey as a co-op player. At any point during the game, a friend can fire up a second controller (locally or online) to render some assistance as Oswald. If you played EM1, most of the original gameplay mechanics stayed the same for Mickey: using the two different types of paint to create and dissolve items throughout the world. However, now with your partner, Oswald, you can use his electric remote to shock and paralyze enemies or even to revive Mickey when he dies to stop from being reset back to a checkpoint. It DOES take two to make a thing go right.

The ‘Sorcerers Apprentice’ level that we played through was a fitting homage complete with the walking brooms and the starry night sky scene. The colors were bright, the edges smooth and the world felt tangible. If you enjoyed the first game at all, Epic Mickey 2 doesn’t look like it will disappoint. The release date is set for November 18th.