Disney has confirmed that the next major license to be given the LEGO makeover will be Pirates of the Caribbean. The game will be released on the DS, Wii, PC, PSP, PS3 and 360 in May 2011 to coincide with the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film – On Stranger Tides. However, the game will only go up to the third film, possibly because of the prospect of a sequel. Expect two-player co-op, Freeplay mode, over 20 levels and more than 70 playable characters. TT Games are developing it, the same development outfit that handled LEGO Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Batman, etc.

Disney has canned Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned. The game was going to be an action-RPG title taking on the key elements of the movie series. As a result of the game being cancelled, developer Propaganda Games is now in trouble. Disney has restructured Propaganda Games, with as many as 100 members of staff let go. One of the studio’s two teams has been given the axe. The other is still working on TRON: Evolution and that game’s post-release DLC.

Disney has slapped some US and European dates on the PSP version of Split/Second. It will be released in the US on the 16th November and Europe on the 19th November. The PSP release is being created by Sumo Digital, whereas the console versions were developed by Black Rock Studios.

Disney has announced that the US version of TRON: Evolution will be released on 7th December. The launch is ahead of the TRON: Legacy film, which will be hitting screens on 17th December. Evolution will be released on the DS, Wii, PC, PSP, PS3 and 360. A Collector’s Edition of the game has also been confirmed. It will cost $130, and it features a TRON light cycle model with a case to show it off. The case has a draw for you to put the game in (or to hide it).

Our dear Jereme has already previewed Epic Mickey but when Nintendo invited us to go and play lots of cool stuff with them, we were able to get our hands on the game itself for a much longer time period. After a mammoth talk and introduction from a designer on the game (whom was a rather nice chap), we managed to get Mickey under our control.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Platformers are not easy to demo at any event, especially one where you have to stand to play. They usually have intricate designs and bizarre objective placement to encourage exploration, but that takes time. Time events don’t have. Epic Mickey was a keen demonstration of this.

The demo focused on three levels from the full game. In the first, Mickey has to retrieve some bits and pieces for Smee in order to get Steamboat Willy up and running. This involves running around and helping other Peter Pan pirates and a shop owner out with their problems. One pirate wants to get off with a woman so wants something to woo her, one wants his missing treasure and the shop owner wants three masks. To get them, we had to do a bit of exploring.

This is where the game’s paint and thinner mechanic came in useful. We could thin out the back of a shop and have a nose about, and find some hidden game currency in a rock. The paint mechanic mainly came into play when we had to fix roofs and other broken things. A subtle shadow envelopes the area you can paint, which we believe is a nice addition for younger players whom might not have the gaming experiences of their older counterparts. However, acting like a kid and spraying thinner in all conceivable directions is a fun distraction, just like the age-old pastime of pissing about with paint in real life.

The gameplay seemed to be a bit too simplistic, with some artificial difficulty chucked in through hiding some objectives in pointlessly weird places. It seems the game wants to mainly trade on its design and looks. The animated cutscenes were solid (albeit without voice acting, and when quizzed about this, our host dodged a question about this being because of the Wii’s limited technical ability), as were the character designs. The environment in the first level was a bit cramped, but it was a solid introduction to the game. When we moved on to the Steamboat Willy level, though, our eyes did a double take.

It just looked amazing, completely like the old black and white Mickey cartoon. It was very short but served its purpose as a smile-raising distraction before the next level. The design, animation and music really came together here to offer something truly unique. Even something inconsequential like the random cow platforms brought a reminiscent tear to our old, world weary eyes. We hope the other intermediate “travel” levels in the game are this good.

The next level was interesting in that you get to decide the fate of the aforementioned pirates. You could either let them continue to be made into robots, shut down the machine (and let the pirates be turned back into normal pirate gits) or blow it up (and keep the pirates as robots). We liked that the game didn’t pressure us into doing anything here and being pressed for time, we pushed on for the main objective of getting out of dodge. That meant releasing the anchors of a ship, which had become stranded on the island.

A brief bit of exploration led to the discovery of the anchors and getting rid of them required a bit of thinner. There were some interesting uses of the thinner in other places too: using it on lookout towers at the top of a ship’s mast allowed them to become handy platforms. It’s worth noting that the sea in this part of the game was polluted with thinner, which can hurt Mickey and enemies.

Talking of which, this was the first environment to contain enemies. We were told that as with everything else throughout the game, Mickey would come up against enemies from all different Disney properties. The ones in this level mainly consisted of those tall gits from Fantasia, and some short stocky things from something we have no idea about. What’s interesting about the fight mechanics in this game though are how you can deal with your combatants. You can use thinner on them to destroy them, or use paint on them to make them become allies. If you do that latter, they stay in their small area and fight for you. There’s also a Mario-esque spinning move, activated through waggle.

To conclude then, Epic Mickey is shaping up fine. There needs to be a bit more challenge in the gameplay to make it rewarding for adults, but kids should love it. The Warren Spector factor is apparent with some of the choices you can make in-game and with the overall presentation, but it seems Disney are restraining his vision. Hopefully the full game will have more epic segments and set-pieces.

Disney has purchased social game developer Playdom for $563.2 million. That figure could rise to $763.2 million based on future performance. Playdom is responsible for Facebook games Sorority Life and Social City. Disney thinks they have around 42 million players a month. That’s considerably behind FarmVille (200 million players), but still a great deal of people that Disney wants to get their hands on.

We’ve said it for a very long time; movie-tie in games suck. No matter which way you try to spin it, movie-tie in games usually end up flopping out. There are ones that are so bad you wish they never saw the light of day, (I’m looking at you Iron Man). There are some rare exceptions though that makes you wish studios would take note. What may come as a surprise to some is that these are games based off of kids movies and to top it all off; Disney/Pixar movies at that. Read more below for the rest of the review.

So, this brings us to Toy Story 3, a game and movie that continues the adventures of Buzz, Woody and the gang. It would be wrong to give away the story here, so I’ll leave that up to you if you decide to venture and watch the film, a great film mind you. Of course, you must be wondering where I can possibly go next in this review. Well, I’m here to talk about the game itself obviously. There are plenty of areas to explore and play through in places like Andy’s room, or even the Sunnyside Day Care Center. Every area in the game is completely open to the player’s decisions and leaves you with plenty to do. With a lot of small unlockable items dropped everywhere it’s not too hard to let curiosity get the best of you. It’s easy to run around and soak in the space around you. The items range from coins too items you can use to customize your world in the Toy Box.

Toy Box mode is where the game really gets its high marks. It’s a place where you can run around at will and do whatever you want. Something I’m sure the kids will enjoy especially. There are big open spaces for running around and completing side missions and lasering your next victim. In the Playstation 3 version of the game you’ll be able to play as the evil Emperor Zerg figurine.  In this expansive world of the Toy Box you’ll be able to customize everything from the toys themselves to the buildings around you. You can add things like a barbershop or even a jail. As the Sheriff of the town you’ll also have the task of running around and drop kicking any masked robbers you find in the streets. You can collect gold from completing missions or digging around the world of course to buy more stuff.

Now, there is one thing that irked me about the game which I’m sure I’m not the only one that noticed. There are a few times during certain levels, particularly in tight levels where the camera gets in odd angles. There were plenty of moments where, thanks to the camera, I fell to my death whether it is off a ledge or into the barrels of space. However, thanks to this being a kid’s game you’ll have plenty of lives to finish the job. You’ll end up right back where you started. When it comes to the games presentation, you’ll notice it looks almost exactly like the movie. All the toys are about as close to their counterparts in the movie as you can get. However, the voices though might be a little irritating to those who like a sense of authenticity with movie licensed games. You won’t find Tim Allen or Tom Hanks reprising their roles in the game unfortunately save for the less minor characters. Toys like Slinky and even Ham the piggy bank are both reprised with their original actors.

There is enough material in the game to give experienced players a good challenge. The difficulty curve is too extreme for the little ones either, so you can always hand over the controller to split the gaming time. The levels are certainly designed to give you some thought with each puzzle that comes your way. There are only three characters to choose from for your adventure for most of the maps: Woody, who also has an ability to swing to multiple locations using his pull cord, Buzz Lightyear who has some lasers in his arsenal and Jessie who is the more nimble of the bunch helping you reach high points in the maps. There isn’t much of a reason for you to go back and replay certain levels, as most of them are pretty straightforward save for the areas you get stuck in.

Verdict: Overall, Toy Story 3 is a game that you can enjoy with your kids and family in tow. The difficulty is skewed so that even the most light-hearted gamer can get a handle on it and enjoy it till the end. It’s certainly a recommendation for a rental and up to you if you decide it’s worth the full purchase.

It is being reported today that the Walt Disney Company on Thursday has officially acquired Application developer, Tapulous in a non-disclosed deal. Tapulous for those who don’t know is a start-up company that develops music based game applications for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The developer is based in Palo Alto, California and is noticed as one of the more successful developers for Apple’s App Store.

“We have been very successful on the iPhone,” said Bart Decrem, chief executive and co-founder of Tapulous. “We have been thinking, ‘How do we position ourselves to succeed?’ And after several conversations with Disney, we could see that we have a shared vision of the future and the iPhone as a mobile platform.”

Via: The New York Times

While I wouldn’t call myself much of a fan of Disney aside from being a fan of a few of their movies, but Epic Mickey is looking pretty epic so far. The game itself is pulling from a history of over 80 years of Disney characters and Mickey Mouse history in general. For me, the many references in the game would probably go right over my head and would be pretty hard to find something for me to latch on too. For instance, the world of Epic Mickey starts off with Steamboat Willie, a cartoon from 1928 in which Mickey made his first appearance. This is where the adventure kicks off and you can read more about below.

It’s hard to imagine that you could take a character like Mickey Mouse and give him so many depths in terms of story-telling. He’s been hard to come by in the video game industry but with releases like the Kingdom Hearts series and now the upcoming Epic Mickey, Mickey Mouse is making a return for gamers. Releasing exclusively on the Nintendo Wii this Fall, gamers will be able to paint their way through the long and forgotten world of Disney characters. Warren Spector and his team over at Junction Point Studios are having re-born Mickey in a way that you can attach to him and feel for the character. Mickey is thrown into the world of Wasteland and must find his way back home. Wasteland is the world of forgotten Disney characters from the many years of Disney cartoons and movies.

You’ll fight through the world using paint and thinner. With these two options in mind, you can paint the world around you and restore objects that are outlined and use the thinner to erase characters and objects in your. Keeping this in mind as well, play style will matter, so as you venture through the world you will affect the story as you progress through the game.  You’ll be advancing through the story by completing various side quests that will also change the way each character views you. Whether you decide to help them along the way or ignore them. To advance through the game, players will go through film screens or portals if you will. These turn into mini-games inspired by the old Disney cartoons, like Steamboat Willie, Disney’s first cartoon.

There are two parts of levels to adventure through that you’ll discover in the game. One is the upper level and lower level; this is how you’ll advance to various parts of the game. The upper level is the more challenging part to keep you on your feet. The lower level is the easy parts of the mini-games to get you through to the next section of the game. There are plenty of collectibles to keep you busy as well. One of things that was mentioned for instance was various old Disney pins that you can find around the world. Also, the games currency is the old Disney tickets that you can use to buy things with. Warren Spector mentioned in his discussion that there were A, B, C and D tickets in the old Disney parks given out which you’ll notice in the game. It was mentioned vaguely that some of Mickey’s friends will appear in the game in some form, but that you’ll just have to wait and see. Also mentioned was that no one was going to have a voice in the game and Spector’s quote was “If Oswald didn’t talk, no one was going to talk”. In which this rings true considering over the years, none of the old Disney characters ever had a voice in the old cartoons and movies.

Disney Epic Mickey is a new tale for the Disney icon, Mickey Mouse. Taking the game exclusively to the Nintendo Wii is a bold choice for Disney. Using the power of the Wii Remote you’ll be painting and controlling Mickey through your adventure. Disney Epic Mickey will be hitting store shelves this Holiday 2010.  Check back to TheNPCs for more coverage on Epic Mickey.

Warren Spector has unveiled that 275 people are working on Wii exclusive Epic Mickey. “When you have a project this ambitious, you have to go big!” he said. 115 of those are working at Spector’s studio Junction Point, with the rest from outsourcing. Other firms all over the world are working on art assets like cut-scenes and level environments from the game. Epic Mickey will be released this autumn. It was demoed at Nintendo’s E3 press conference last week.

Warren Spector and Adam Creighton took to the stage during Nintendo’s E3 Press Conference to show off some gameplay from Epic Mickey. The game is in development at Warren Spector’s new outfit; Junction Point Studios. It will be published by Disney Interactive Studios (duh), and will be released this Christmas, exclusively for the Wii.

The gameplay shown on-stage looked at the drawing and erasing mechanic (you can draw and erase stuff in the gameworld to help you), as well as a hub world and a Steamboat Willie side-scrolling level that looked stunning. Here is a video of the game in action:

DLC for Split/Second has been confirmed. The Hyper Car Pack will contain three “super-high performance” cars and are said to be “among the most powerful” in the game. Play is offering a free downloadable code for the content if you pre-order the game with them. The game is released on 21^st May on PC, PS3 and 360.

The upcoming Hollywood explosive racer from Disney, Split Second is now available in demo form on Xbox Live. You’ll be able to experience the Airport Terminal level which I got the chance to play at the most recent event of PAX East in Boston, Massachusetts. The game is set in a fictional TV show with an entire city as your track. You’ll be able to trigger explosive events to get ahead in the race.

The download clocks in at a total of 800 MBs. The demo is exclusive to Xbox 360 until May 11th when it will hit the Playstation Network on PS3.