This has been percolating for about a week now, but it’s official – Epic Mickey creator Junction Point Studios has been shut down by parent company Disney, putting Warren Spector and about 140 others out of work. Coming as it does so quickly on the also-anticipated-but-also-sad THQ fire sale, one can’t help but feel that attrition seems awfully high for early 2013. Hopefully it’s not a harbinger of things to come.
I struck out pretty much as early as possible today to take in Disney’s latest, Wreck-It Ralph, partially because I was excited and partially because I wanted to get there before schools got out and the weekend commenced. I thought I’d do a little review, and also consider how the movie, which features an uncountable number of video game character cameos, fits into our recent troubles of game culture perception. Because, you know, that’s kinda what we do here, and I, for one, wouldn’t mind a little not-terrible news out of the gaming periphery.
I shall endeavor to keep the spoilers to a minimum, but there might be a few.
I suppose poor taste is subjective. GamePolitics reports that Disney (!) has applied to trademark the phrase SEAL Team Six for – get this – “entertainment and education services, toys, games, and Christmas stockings, ornaments and snow globes.” Because nothing rounds out your snow globe collection like a team of optimized killers putting a cap in Osama bin Laden from deep inside a liquid-filled globe of yuletide cheer. Commercialization is apparently a cornerstone of Democracy, …
As those who tap the forums already know, I had LASIK a couple of weeks ago. It’s kind of an amazing procedure. Totally painless, though you do feel… something, something unpleasant, but “pain” is the wrong word. It’s more like you’re aware of being sharply uncomfortable for a few seconds. Admittedly the smell of your own burning eye flesh is disconcerting, but it doesn’t hurt.
For the next eight hours after surgery, though, your eyeballs feel like they’re being rolled in a slurry of sand and lemon juice. A great, noble, self-sacrificing friend of mine took me to the surgery, then took me home, then narrated a game of Civilization V to me (I’d been told not to open my eyes) while I fidgeted and growled and pawed at my liberally running eyes as they lay protected beneath the silly plastic shields they’d made me wear.
Shack and others are reporting on what may or may not be revered designer Warren Spector’s next effort, codenamed Epic Mickey. Since Spector’s Junction Point studio was acquired by Disney, everyone sort of assumed he’d be making a mouse-themed game (assumed, but hoped it wasn’t true), and now it’s semi-official. According to Shack, the game will be Wii-only, and tells the story of obsolete Disney characters seeking to destroy Mickey Mouse. I’m not sure about …
Review by Toger Developer Gotham Publisher Disney Interactive Released January 11, 2010 Available for GameCube, Gameboy Advance, PS2, PC (sort of, see below) Verdict: 4/5 Thumb Up “Puzzles in PBG are pretty easy—after all, this is a children’s game. The narrator tends to give out huge hints on what you’ll want to do next or what you’ll need to look for in order to accomplish a specific task. Just the thing for a small …