While Epic Mickey certainly isn’t a failure (Metacritic has it sitting pretty at a respectable 76 average), the game has its fair share of issues, and some pretty major ones depending on who you ask. However, if you ask the game’s creator Warren Spector, these issues are overblown by critics who just didn’t seem to get it.
Speaking to MTV, Spector addressed the major issues that the press had with the game, namely the game’s finicky camera. “Third person camera is way harder than I even imagined it could be. It is the hardest problem in video game development,” Spector said. “Everybody gets it wrong. It’s just a question of how close to right do you get it.”
However, he went on to say that Epic Mickey is not a platformer, and therefore shouldn’t be held to the same standards when it comes to token devices like the third person camera. “What I try to be completely clear about is that this is not a platforming game. This is a game that takes platforming elements and adventure game elements and role-playing elements and merges them,” Spector said “So we couldn’t tune the camera perfectly for platforming or for action adventure. It’s a very different camera style. What we did is try to find the best compromise in the moment and give the player as much manual control as we could. So we took the hardest problem in third-person gaming and made it harder by trying to accommodate two different playing styles.”
“And I will go to my grave, imperfect as it is, proud as hell of my camera team,” Spector continued. “If reviewers want to give us a hard time about it because they’re misunderstanding the game we made, it’s not for me to tell them that they’re wrong, absolutely not. But I wish people would get it out of their head that we made a ‘Mario’ competitor, because we didn’t.”
What do you think? Is the camera in Epic Mickey truly hosed, or do critics just not understand?
via MTV
It’s very nice he addressed the issues, but I’m not quite sure if bashing reviewers is the way to go. After all, whether you “get” the game or not, camera is troublesome. How can any game or style justify slightly broken camera? Testers should go through the game, every corner, spin the camera around and ensure that problems don’t occur. This is kinda the basics of game development.
So, I’m a bit disappointed by the tone towards reviewers and also gamers who probably point out the same problem.
People who enjoy it, will do so despite the scores or what others say about it. I’ve got a feeling that he doesn’t “get” true gamers. :P
Nah, as much as I’ve heard, the game is great and very enjoyable.
there is no excuse for bad camera. PERIOD IN ALL CAPS.
I have a lot of respect for Mr. Spector. After all he’s a legend in his field, but I don’t think it’s wise of him to attack critics views of the game.
If the camera is broken, it’s broken. Wonky camera systems don’t get a pass anymore. These are the kinds of issues that plagued gaming during the PS1 and N64 era. If you look at the top third person games on the market you can see that they all have great camera systems for the most part. While I think it’s kind of him to stick up for his team, Mr. Spector should know that gamers would expect much more of a game coming from him.
These comments remind me of Denis Dyack’s “Too Human haters just don’t get it” speal. Taking an arrogant position over your fans is never a good idea.