Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Look here, I liked Duck Tales – cartoon and game alike – well enough when I were a lad, but do we really need to pillage every last dusty coin from the tomb of ancient videogaming? Disney’s already having the Castle of Illusion remade in spangle-vision, and now another anthropomorphic animal platformer is getting tarted up and resold to people who can remember when all this were fields. Previously only announced for the toyboxes, we now hear that Capcom will also be releasing Duck Tales: Higher Resolution Version on PC, which I guess is good news if you’re one of those who can’t stop fiddling with your nostalgia glans. Have a look, and a singalong, below.
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I played Castle of Illusion on the GameGear! Yes, I am that guy. It was on a school French exchange trip, and some friend who’d taken pity on my parent’s ongoing refusal to get me a console had lent me his brick-sized Sega handheld for the duration of the endless ferry and bus journey. I played as much of the Mario-aping Mickey platformer as the couple of dozen AA batteries I’d filled my suitcase with enabled me to, which is to say about 45 minutes. Apart from that, I remember nothing about the game. I think it had a lot of jumping? Apparently it (more specifically its Megadrive edition) retains a certain standing in the minds of console nostalgics, and as such many gentlemen and gentlewoman of a certain age seem entirely delighted that Sega are remaking it.
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Oh dear. Disney have told Game Informer that LucasArts studios are shutting down, although the name will remain to hold the licenses. They explained: “we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model.” This means Star Wars 1313 is a goner.

There’s clearly quite the story to be told here, but for such a once-mighty studio to have fallen unto complete abandonment must be one of the most catastrophic failures of management in gaming history. That or some kind of Lovecraftian curse. Yeah, maybe that’s it. Our thoughts are with those developers who are now out of work.

[Alternative headline: "LucasAren'ts"? Yeah? Big bucks, right here.]

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II was utterly masterful. Sure, it had more rough edges than a Sarlacc Pit who’s also a door-to-door woodchipper salesman, but the underlying tale mixed oppressive darkness, moral grays, and an eye for exactly what makes Star Wars tick to stirring effect. Personally, I think it far outstripped KOTOR 1, but to each their own. Naturally, though, I nearly grinned my face in half when Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart told me his Black-Isle-based collective is lobbying heavily to develop a new Star Wars RPG. “I would say it’s within the top three pitches we’ve ever come up with,” he told RPS during a recent interview. But wait, what about the EA-shaped Death Star hovering over The Old Republic? Well, Obsidian’s new tale is set in a very, very different time period.

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Sad news travels fast and although it’s taken a while for Disney to confirm, we’d already heard convincing rumours suggesting that Epic Mickey developers Junction Point had closed earlier today. Polygon have now received a statement from the House of Mouse, which reads in part: “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.” No mention of the poor sales and reception of Epic Mickey 2, which was initially due on PC, then delayed, and now perhaps cancelled. The staff numbered 160 early last year and hopefully those who find themselves without work today will find new projects and/or studios soon.

Edit: Eurogamer have confirmation that Spector will not be staying with Disney.

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Disney owns Star Wars now, so what better way to celebrate than with the most un-Disney character in the entire Star Wars universe? In fairness, Hk-51 isn’t HK-47 (who has already appeared elsewhere in Star Wars: The Old Republic), but they’re quite obviously cut from the same organic-life-loathing cloth. They probably also both loathe cloth, for that matter. Point is, don’t go into a frothy mouthed state of paralytic shock if your new companion combines the words “meat” and “bag” to form a phrase of a far more sinister nature. But the galaxy-spanning quest to secure an adorable HK-51 of your very own is only a small part of SWTOR’s upcoming update 1.5. The rest appears in a hyper-advanced eyeball stimulating holocron after the break.

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There short videos have been attempting to promote Epic Mickey 2 since we last looked at the game and here they are gathered in one place. I can’t believe Warren Spector has managed to incorporate quite so many Star Wars characters and settings into the game in such a short time since the acquisition. The AT-AT boss fight looks absolutely stunning. That’s all in my head, of course, but crossovers are surely inevitable. Kingdom Hearts is the obvious bet, but will Spector develop a Star Wars game? Alec says ‘Tatooine Underworld’. I’ll go with Deus X-Wing.

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Star Wars‘ universe is ruled by an all-powerful elderly man who’s known for controlling the masses with unspeakable technological horrors and shooting lightning out of his fingertips. I’m talking, of course, about George Lucas. However, in the most exciting twist the franchise has seen since “I am your father,” he’s now mostly out of the picture. Disney has officially purchased Lucasfilm – all technologies, IPs, and rights to every property – for $4.05 billion. We now live in a world where Pixar or Joss Whedon heading up a new Star Wars film is a very real possibility. But what does this mean for videogames? Could we finally get that Ewok tractor-driving simulator everyone’s been clamoring for? Or Grim Fandango 2 developed by the team that made Disney Princess: My Fairytale Adventure? We can only hope. So far, though, here’s what we know for sure.

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Sure, Epic Mickey 2 may be part of a diabolical scheme in which we play as one kind of rodent (mouse) while being another type of rodent (guinea pig) for Warren Spector’s goal of turning every videogame ever into a musical, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be great. I’m curious, at least, given all the fightin’ words Spector’s been throwing around about his game’s maturity and the industry’s lack thereof. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait too terribly long to find out whether or not the cyberbrain behind Deus Ex has finally short-circuited, because Joystiq brings word from Comic-Con that Epic Mickey 2′s PC version is launching day-and-date alongside consoles on November 18. Also, Disney released the sing-along sequel’s opening cinematic today, so you can even do a little judging right this very second.

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Speaking to Gametrailers, in a chunk of footage you can see below, Epic Mickey 2 lead Warren Spector explained that the fully-voiced cast for the new platformer will regularly feature characters breaking into song, in that time-honored Disney fashion. These songs will apparently explain things and further the story.

Spector also told IGN: “This time around, in the second game, I just wanted to take a baby-step to making the full-blown interactive musical game. This is not it. Gamers, you tell ’em there are songs in the game and they start getting panicked, but I just want to see if people will accept songs in games and, if they do, next time I’m going crazy.”
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The trailer for Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph, with its abundance of gaming cameos, seems to have won over all but the grumpiest of Earth’s residents. Even I cracked a smile, although I continued to smile as I watched grimly unnerving British horror film Kill List afterwards so don’t read too much into my facial expressions. I’m all but certain that there will be a Kinect controlled mini-game laden nightmare of a 3D platdeformation to herald the film’s November release, but right now you can play something better. Fix-It Felix, the arcade game that Wreck-It Ralph escapes from. It’s simple, Donkey Kongy and jolly good fun.