Nintendo Power magazine has revealed that Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion is a 2D platformer that features hand-drawn sprites and scrolling backgrounds, and follows on from Castle of Illusion on the SEGA Genesis.

"Power of Illusion is being put together by DreamRift, the studio behind 2011's Monster Tale for the Nintendo DS. The game, which is its own side-scrolling, platforming title (instead of a mere port of The Power of Two), is a follow-up to Epic Mickey, but more interestingly, it's also a follow-up to Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, a 1990 game for the Sega Genesis!

Power of Illusion will make heavy use of the Nintendo 3DS's stylus. By tapping the item icons exist in every level, you'll be able to "paint" (trace) those items into existence, including cliffs, cannons, and floating platforms. The more precisely you trace, the better for Mickey. A flawlessly-painted canon will only damage Mickey's enemies, for instance, but if you mess up the painting, the canon will be a danger to everyone in the area.

Sometimes you'll need to erase objects, which is done by spreading thinner. Again, the stylus comes into play here.

The hand-drawn sprites in Power of Illusion are extremely compelling, and, thanks to scrolling parallax backgrounds (a heavily-used graphic technique in the days of 16-bit gaming), reportedly look great in sterescopic 3D. Even better, every level in the game is based on an animated Disney adventure, from "Sleeping Beauty" to "Tangled" and lots in between.

As a final declaration of oldschool love, every character that Mickey saves in Power of Illusion will take up residence in the fortress that Mickey uses as his home base, a confirmed nod to the esteemed Suikoden RPG series. Sometimes you find references in the unlikeliest of places, but that's part of what makes video games fun. Right?

There's no release date set for Power of Illusion (Fall 2012 is a general target), but expect lots more information on this game as the weeks march on like Mouseketeers."

Source

I now have more interest in this game than the console versions. Love to see this game running in 3d. Even Mutant Mudds  parallax layers looked great.

!!!! Really? ... I hate Micky Mouse but I loved Castle of Illusions. Edit - It has sprites! Hellz yes! .. ugh now I have to pay attention to Epic Micky

I wonder if I now should get that game for my son. I have Castle of Illusion. And he will play just about anything.

Mike from Morgantown

We may have a winner here.

I was all "oh, now that's a great change from the first screenshot released yesteday", but then I saw that is the only illustration of the bunch...and the others continue to look like a Super Nes game.

Where is the love for the awesome SNES games Mickey Mouse and The Magical Quest? Now a sequel to that game I would be interested in.

Ok, so where´s the sequel to Ducktales??...I want it damnit!

I'm interested in Epic Mickey 2 but Power of Illusion is a sure Day 1 must-have. Hopefully they'll make Epic Donald once EM2 is done and then make a sequel to Quackshot for 3DS.

I always liked Mickey Mania more.

Now you're talking. Quackshot + Duck tales - epic games full of exploration and non linearity = epic win.

But I'd prefer some japanese company to make them, like the originals.