Spector focuses more on the reinvention of Mickey, the idea of making him a cool character as opposed to a stiff icon, than he does on gameplay mechanics. He notes that "painting" is about creation while "thinner" is about destruction, and how you use the two will affect Mickey and others around him. Being helpful, creating a lot, and embarking on sidequests to help others, will make you a Hero Mickey. You'll shine bright and have many friends; Spector shows a segment where, because the player has Mickey help a Gremlin find some lost friends, those lost friends create a path to another part of the area that would not be accessible otherwise. Heck, a Hero Mickey might even decide to help a boss character, thus completing a boss encounter without violence.

On the flipside, if you're more of a "gamer" as Spector jokes, a determined player who uses the gameplay mechanics as tools to improve yourself and progress through the game without having to deal with others (example: is there a bookshelf in the way? Just use Thinner to erase and be done with it), then you're likely to play a Scrapper. A more rough-and-tumble Mickey that doesn't have nearly as many friends in his corner, but is more powerful than his Hero version. There's also a Neutral option, but the core of it is that Spector, as in other projects he's worked on, wants to make sure you can progress through the game in the play-style that fits you.

It's extremely early, but from what Spector shows, I can see that Mickey moves and animates well. And yes, I do wish the visuals were a bit more HD-generation than what the Wii offers. Spector teases about other elements; he comments that "the game is a linear story" but doesn't offer more when asked about overall structure. When the Phantom Blot listens to Mickey's heart during the autopsy/examination, Spector slyly notes, "hearts are important, but I won't say why." The video demonstrates a sidequest where Mickey is asked to find more parts for Ro-Donald (my informal name for the Donald Duck doppelganger that Oswald has constructed to serve as his friend in the Cartoon Wasteland), but it doesn't show much beyond mission acceptance. Spector points out that Sketches are a secondary mechanic, such as using a TV sketch to distract enemies while a stopwatch slows time, but won't say more. He also notes that you collect tickets for economy, but won't say more about that either. He won't even explain what it means when something is "inert" as opposed to "painted."

The game is still a fair ways off, and it'll be a while before I actually see how paint, thinner, mission, enemies, and all that work together. But hearing how Spector talks about the game, and the sheer passion he has for both this title and Mickey himself, is enough for me to give it a closer look when Spector's ready to show more.