Pap the
Disney Gamer's Highlights:
Disney Gaming in 2013

Happy New Year's
Eve, everyone! With only a few
hours left till 2013 is nothing
but a distant memory, it is the
time where we reflect on all the
great and bad things we
experienced in the year, while
hoping that the new year brings
us even better blessings. Disney
gaming in 2013 was all over the
place, in a good way of course,
with many great releases that
shaped the company in
significant ways. On today's
Gamer Tuesday article, we will
be taking a look at some of the
biggest Disney gaming news of
the year 2013, the stories that
took us by surprise and the game
releases that left an important
mark in gamers.
Let's start off
with the biggest Disney release
of 2013...
Disney Infinity
If there was one
Disney game that dominated the
mindsets of many Disney fans, it
was Disney Infinity. Taking
Skylanders' toy based gameplay,
and mixing in plenty of Disney
synergy, Disney Infinity was
announced at the start of 2013,
being developed by Avalanche
Studios, the same company that
developed the Toy Story 3 and
Cars 2 series of games. The
concept would be that players
would collect figures of various
Disney characters, then using a
special platform, the characters
would 'come to life' on the
screen, allowing the players to
control them through various
missions. The initial set would
include Sulley from Monsters
University, Mr. Incredible from
The Incredibles, an Jack Sparrow
from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Beyond the initial three
characters and their respective
game universes, players could
collect other figures and play
sets, such as the Lone Ranger
set and the Cars set. The
biggest selling point, though,
was the Toy Box mode, a mode in
which players could create their
own levels, share them with
other players and let their
creativity soar, hence the title
Disney INFINITY; those that
would invest in the game would
see nearly endless opportunity
and replay value.
Released in
August of 2013, Disney Infinity
went on to receive critical
acclaim from the gaming industry
and the fans, all citing just
how imaginative it all was. And
with the promise of new figures,
toy sets and features in the
future, Disney Infinity looks to
be a game that will continue to
rock the new year.
Junction Point
closes, Epic Mickey ends

Unfortunately,
with good events must come the
bad ones. In 2010, Junction
Point, alongside Disney
Interactive, released Epic
Mickey for the Wii. Overseen by
famed game developer Warren
Spector, Epic Mickey starred
Mickey Mouse as he encounters
the Wasteland, a world in which
the forgotten Disney characters,
memories, ideas and more live.
Its leader is none other than
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt
Disney's original creation, and
the first to be forgotten.
Together they had to team up in
order to restore order back into
Wasteland. The game received
mixed reviews, but was
successful enough to warrant a
sequel and a side game. Epic
Mickey 2: The Power of Two,
released on all major gaming
platforms, brought back Mickey
and Oswald as a new threat
invaded Wasteland. In Epic
Mickey: Power of Illusion for
the 3DS, Mickey is brought back
to the Castle of Illusion in
order to bring back the Disney
characters captured by the witch
Ezrabel.
Both of these
games sought out to both correct
some of the issues presented in
the first game, while also
hoping to turn Epic Mickey into
a huge Disney franchise that
gave more exposure to Oswald the
Lucky Rabbit beyond just
references and Easter eggs.
Despite their best efforts, Epic
Mickey 2 was a critical and
commercial failure. In January
of 2013, Disney Interactive
announced that Junction Point
had closed its doors, leaving
the future of Epic Mickey, and
Oswald, uncertain.
DuckTales:
Remastered is announced, woo hoo!
One common theme
in 2013 was re-imagining classic
Disney games in a shiny new
light, perhaps one of the
biggest being DuckTales:
Remastered. Announced in March
of 2013 at PAX East, and
developed by WayForward,
DuckTales: Remastered overhauls
Capcom's original DuckTales game
while still keeping the classic
gameplay that made it one of the
most beloved games of the NES
era. The graphics received a
huge upgrade thanks to the
implementation of hand drawn
sprites that emulated the look
and feel of the original Disney
series. In addition, the iconic
music received a tremendous
upgrade while respecting the
bouncy appeal of the original
soundtrack. The game's story
also received an upgrade, this
time featuring better plot
development and cutscenes that
brought back the original voice
talent.
Released in
August, DuckTales: Remastered
received warm reviews, even if
many seemed to agree that the
game had too many cutscenes, and
it felt like its tribute to the
Disney cartoon was too
effective.
LucasArts closes

Continuing the
trend of studio closings in
2013, one of the biggest and
most shocking studio closings
was that of LucasArts, the video
game development brand of
Lucasfilm. In 2012, Disney
bought the rights to the Star
Wars franchise, and the minute
that was announced, fans began
to wonder what would be in store
for the future. That came with
very bleak news that Disney shut
down LucasArts in favor of
internal development of future
Star Wars games, one of the most
drastic decisions Disney had
regarding Star Wars after the
buyout. Later on, it was
announced that Electronic Arts
would be in charge of the Star
Wars franchise in video game
form, and would later assign
their own development teams to
create the various games. The
news came as a huge blow in the
gaming industry as beyond Star
Wars, LucasArts had a reputation
for creating some of the best
original games ever. For many,
this began many questions
regarding just how ethical some
of the practices in this were,
and what other assets would be
liquidated in the Disney/Star
Wars acquisition. It left many
people both troubled and hopeful
for the future of Star Wars
games as Disney continues to
develop the next three films in
the series.
Fantasia: Music
Evolved is revealed... and then
hated
In the gaming
world, sometimes you have to be
clear as to what you want to
offer gamers, otherwise you run
the risk of alienating them long
before the product is even
released. Such was the case with
Fantasia: Music Evolved.
Revealed at E3 2013, Fantasia:
Music Evolved is a rhythm game
that gives players the control
of the music, using Disney's
animated classic Fantasia as the
starting point. On paper, it is
an ambitious game that seeks to
further strengthen Fantasia's
belief of combining music and
visual to create pieces of art.
But when the first teaser
trailer was revealed, and was
confirmed that it would have
modern day songs, fans began to
heavily criticize the game and
its ambiguous goals. Fantasia:
Music Evolved was revealed to be
a 2014 title for the Xbox One
and Xbox 360, and that it would
be using the Kinect camera. But
very little about the game has
been said since.
Kingdom Hearts
III is FINALLY announced!
After the
celebration of the tenth
anniversary of the first game in
the series, seven years since
its sequel hit the PlayStation
2, and countless of spin-off
games released on handhelds,
Square Enix finally made the
announcement that the third game
in the Kingdom Hearts series is
going to be a reality. Seemingly
a dream come true for those of
us who have been loyally
following the adventures of Sora
and friends, Kingdom Hearts III
promises to bring the Xenahort
saga to a close and tie up all
the loose ends left unsolved by
the previous side-games. Since
its announcement, Kingdom Hearts
III has only received two proof
of concept teasers, with Square
Enix stating that the game is
still very early in development,
and might not see release till
late 2015 at the earliest.
Despite how long it will take to
get to store shelves, Kingdom
Hearts III is brimming with
potential in many aspects, from
gameplay to Disney elements and,
of course, story.
Not all of the
news that came out of 2013 were
good, as you could clearly see.
But 2013 will leave us with
amazing games, and hope for the
future. Despite the closing of
LucasArts, there is still a lot
to look forward to as the first
series of Star Wars films are
released under the Disney name,
and if you guys have read my
dream lists, both Kingdom Hearts
III and Disney Infinity have the
chance of being the greatest
Disney games of this generation.
And with that, Gamer Tuesday
wishes you a happy and safe new
year, and may the new year bring
you lots of blessings, health,
prosperity, and of course, many
great Disney games.