Summary

Mickey Mousemay be hump as an expressly home - well-disposed physical body , but an upcoming horror game is taking a significantly dingy path with the character . deprave children ’s media as repugnance experience is n’t a new approximation at this point , with recent eld seeing a major trend of grim re - imaginings . In many cases , these impudent return can at last coil back around to feeling infantile in their brassy gambit for tending , but Mickey Mouse is one case where there ’s really some potential to make something interesting out of the material .

Playing around with Mickey Mouse has traditionally been a major no - go for unlicensed media , as Disney has notoriously spend 10 leveraging its litigious baron to protect the IP of its most cardinal fibre . extension of the United States right of first publication windowpane have ofttimes ( and infamously ) work on out in Disney ’s favor , keeping the computer mouse full insular for a much longer time than anyone would have predict when he was first introduced . With the dawn of 2024 , however , thecopyright on Mickey ’s first adventureSteamboat Williehas finally expired , and some creators were already poised to take advantage of the big shift .

While the BioShock serial is presently sleeping , an approaching indie FPS might be able to provide a similar experience with some original ideas .

A Big Daddy from BioShock next to the Mickey Mouse-like hero of Mouse, in a trenchcoat and holding a revolver.

Infestation 88 Uses Steamboat Willie Mickey For Horror

AlthoughInfestation 88is obviously take reward ofSteamboat Willie ’s unexampled public domain condition , theSteampage still seems careful not to poke the hornet ’s nest more than necessary . The name Mickey Mouse is never used , and a disavowal talks about the public domain and lack of any prescribed warrant . Disney still owns belated Mickey Mouse works and design as well as varying degrees of cosmopolitan trademark aegis on the computer mouse , so anyone who pushes their fate too far with a study seek to capitalize on the shift to public arena could still fall foul of some legislative action .

ToInfestation 88 ’s credit , it does n’t seem to be focusing on the introductory thingummy of an evil Mickey as the total vanity . Although the full extent of what theatrical role or myths might look remains to be seen , one screenshot show what is likely a take on the cryptid Mothman , which offers some indication of what direction other scourge could go in . Of course , it ’s Mickey himself who become the public eye in the banner image for the game , and developer Nightmare Forge Games is presumably counting on the character as the main merchandising buzz for the title .

Exclusive : Screen Rant presents a fun clip from “ Steamboat Silly ” , the last short in Disney ’s The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse serial .

steamboat silly exclusive

Steamboat Willie’s Mickey Mouse Actually Fits Horror

Although the most mutual range of a function of Mickey Mouse now might be a blandly chipper trope smiling , waving , and encouraging shaver , Disney ’s mascot come out out on a substantially dissimilar foot . InSteamboat Willie , Mickey is something of a terror , spending much of the unretentive violently harassing animals for the rice beer of cartoon gags . His initial sociopathic tendency toy into something likeInfestation 88 in a path that makes the projection feel more justified thanWinnie - the - Pooh : Blood and Honey ’s violent take on a consistently charming bear of very niggling brain , even if the fear factor in the game takes things farther than Walt Disney ever intended .

Steamboat Willieisn’t Mickey ’s only outing where he shows an edgier side , and some of the more interesting oeuvre have largely sidelined the cheery ideal of the character . Sanding Mickey down to his modern paradigm is part a product of sentence , and although Donald Duck quickly took over as the chief broker of mayhem , other other shorts maintain some ofSteamboat Willie ’s DNA . newsprint comics drawn and plotted by Floyd Gottfredson secern large adventure stories and noir - style mysteries , and Mickey ’s unflagging optimism did n’t overpower his keen eye for investigation or power to withstand his own in major conflicts .

Disney itself flirted with a darker Mickey Mouse TV plot inEpic Mickey , a project helmed byDeus Exdirector Warren Spector that cast aside the hero ( and Disney ’s early mascot Oswald ) into a decaying and corrupted vision of the Magic Kingdom . other construct nontextual matter exhibit that some dark element did n’t make the final cut , but the Thomas Kyd - favorable product that hit shelves still play with a markedly different atmospheric state and tone than most modern Mickey cloth . The idiot box series ofMickey Mouseshorts that began its running game in 2013 is another recent boundary - pushing illustration , thinly stepping into territory more remindful ofThe Ren & Stimpy ShowthanMickey Mouse Clubhouse .

Epic Mickey Background Epic Donald Foreground

Epic Donald , the twirl - off of Epic Mickey , was cancelled during development in 2012 , but recent gameplay footage and information has come to light .

Infestation 88 Might Not Live Up To Mickey’s Potential

For all the possibility about why Mickey Mouse is much better befit for horror than a character like Pooh , it ’s not all that likely thatInfestation 88does something especially meaningful with the material . At the end of the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , it ’s a mash - up of a recent genre trend and a uncomplicated subversive activity of a public domain character , which seems more like an engineered recipe for aid than the makings of a real warmth task . send too much religious belief in a basic payoff of an overplayedjoke about a horror version of Mickey Mouseisn’t a great thought , and anyone genuinely interested inInfestation 88might do good to waitress for review .

Regardless ofInfestation 88 ’s ultimate quality , it certainly wo n’t be the only study that attempt to cash in on the new access to Disney ’s iconic lineament . If " make it revulsion " has to be the fate of anything that hits public field , hopefully , something will at least mount to the challenge of doing it in an interesting and valuable way . plague 88might not be as far off fromSteamboat Willieas a first glance would intimate , but the bestMickey Mousehorror taradiddle might still be the short that first launched the mouse to stardom .

Source : Steam

Steamboat Willie and Mickey Mouse with a deformed and scary mouse in the center of the image covered in blood.

Steamboat Willie at the wheel of a steamboat

Mickey Mouse as he appears in Infestation 88, with a horror-oriented version of his Steamboat Willie look.