Feast your eyes on these first screens of Disney’s Epic Mickey on Wii.

Disney describes the title as an adventure-platformer and promises “light role-playing elements”, with players controlling a mischievous Mickey Mouse in a form that’s directly inspired by his very earliest animated outings. Meanwhile, a summary of the action is just as foreboding as earlier artwork suggested.

In short, Mickey is trapped in a warped version of the Disney universe called the Cartoon Wasteland, where an evil villain called Yen Sid rules and zombified versions of familiar Disney faces roam freely. Mickey’s quest is to redeem his fellow cartoon characters – including his resentful half-brother and, er, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This he does using the basic tools of animation; daubing paint or paint-thinner to solve puzzles, defeat enemies and so on. The gameplay itself is fairly open-ended, allowing players to create their own paths and ask themselves such ponderous questions as “What kind of hero am I?”

All very intriguing, we’re sure. Moreso since Epic Mickey comes from the dark mind of Warren Spector – the same guy responsible for Deus Ex, Wing Commander and Thief: The Dark Project. Unfortunately we’ll have to wait until autumn 2010 to play the game, but at least that means lots more screens and info in the interim. More soon, then...