Polygon reported the Epic Mickey crowd at D23 walked away with a fresh Oswald announcement on Disney Plus and no new PC game to look forward to. Rebrushed shipped last year, and there’s no sequel on Purple Lamp’s slate that we can point to. These Epic Mickey alternatives for PC cover the same ground on desktop: cartoon-styled 3D platformers with real collectathon loops, mascot leads with tight moveset, and worlds that reward wandering. Every pick runs on Windows and most run on Steam Deck out of the box.
We looked at what people who liked Rebrushed picked up next on r/3DPlatformers and Steam curators. Seven made the list. The order is closest-to-Epic-Mickey first and most-different last.
Quick comparison
| Game | Best for | Approx. price | Style | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Hat in Time | Closest Epic Mickey feel | Around $30 | Cartoon platformer | Chapter hub with wildly different tones |
| Yooka-Laylee | Old Rare collectathon energy | Around $20 | Mascot platformer | Every world expands like Banjo did |
| Psychonauts 2 | Story-driven collectathon | Around $40 | Character platformer | Best writing in the genre this decade |
| Rayman Legends | Precision 2D-ish | Around $20 | Side-scrolling platformer | Music levels that sync every jump |
| Kena: Bridge of Spirits | Prettier action-platformer | Around $30 | Action-adventure | Combat that punches above weight class |
| Super Lucky’s Tale | Family-friendly linear | Around $20 | Linear 3D platformer | Kids can finish it, adults will too |
| Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart | Big-budget setpieces | Around $60 | Third-person shooter-platformer | Weapons and dimensional swaps |
Why Epic Mickey players keep looking
Rebrushed is a good remake of a game whose sequel never got the fix it needed and whose franchise never got a third entry. The conversation on r/EpicMickey when the Disney Plus announcement dropped repeated a few things:
- The paint mechanic is unique but not deep. Painting and thinning worked as a hook, not a system that grew across a full 40-hour game. The rest of the design has to carry a full playthrough.
- The camera is the recurring complaint. Even Rebrushed’s rebuilt camera is fussy in tight rooms. Modern 3D platformers with better cameras (A Hat in Time, Yooka-Laylee) instantly feel like an upgrade.
- Wasteland is huge but repeats. The main hub structure is charming and inefficient. Newer collectathons reward exploration more directly.
- The Nintendo-Switch-first sequel never happened on PC. Epic Mickey 2 shipped multi-platform but the third entry stayed unmade. Fans looking for a PC follow-up have to go outside the franchise.
Each pick below hits at least one of those, ordered closest-in-spirit first.
A Hat in Time, closest to the Epic Mickey feel
A Hat in Time is what Gears for Breakfast made after saying “Super Mario Sunshine, but small”. Six chapters, each one a full art-direction and tone shift, from a mafia-run city to a haunted forest to a murder mystery on a train. Traversal is fast and forgiving, collectibles are readable at a glance, and the whole thing runs comfortably on modest hardware. Rebrushed players report it lands closest to what Epic Mickey was trying to be, minus the paint gimmick.
Where it falls short: Short main path (10-12 hours). Two of the six chapters lean on gimmicks that some players find gimmicky rather than fun.
Pricing:
- Paid: Around $30 on Steam, regular sales to under $10
- vs Epic Mickey: Better camera, tighter controls, less unique gimmick
Migrating from Epic Mickey: Controller layout is close enough that you will not need to rebind anything. The difficulty settles faster.
Bottom line: The first game to try after Rebrushed. Almost every Epic Mickey fan sticks with it.
Yooka-Laylee, best if you miss Banjo-Kazooie specifically
Yooka-Laylee was Playtonic’s Kickstarter promise to bring back the Rare collectathon. Five expandable worlds, dozens of Pagies (the collectible), and a moveset that grows the way Banjo’s did. The design blueprint is 1998, and if you loved Epic Mickey partly because it felt like a big colourful playground, this is the same species. Playtonic’s 2019 follow-up Impossible Lair went 2D; the original stays the closest match.
Where it falls short: The camera lives up to the era it is imitating. The transformations aren’t as tight as they were in Banjo. Some collectables feel like padding.
Pricing:
- Paid: Around $20 on Steam and GOG, often $5 on sale
- vs Epic Mickey: More explicit collectathon, weaker camera, fewer cutscenes
Migrating from Epic Mickey: Similar map-and-collect loop. Yooka’s moveset is bigger, so budget an hour to internalize the double jump and flap combo.
Bottom line: The right pick for the “wandering a big cartoony world looking for shiny things” itch.
Psychonauts 2, best story-driven collectathon
Psychonauts 2 is Double Fine’s sequel to the cult 2005 original and probably the best-written 3D platformer of the decade. Each level is inside a character’s mind, so every world has its own metaphor, palette, and mechanic. The traversal is smooth, the writing is often laugh-out-loud, and the collectathon layer sits underneath a story that lands emotionally. It skews older than Epic Mickey in what it wants to talk about.
Where it falls short: More expensive than the others here. The combat is the weakest system in the game. Load times are longer than they should be on a spinning disk.
Pricing:
- Paid: Around $40 on Steam, GOG, and Xbox PC, in Xbox Game Pass on PC
- vs Epic Mickey: Deeper writing, tighter camera, more expensive, less kid-friendly
Migrating from Epic Mickey: Different tone (dry, absurd, adult-adjacent) but same “hub plus themed levels” structure.
Bottom line: Play this if you want a 3D platformer that trusts you to notice its writing.
Rayman Legends, best 2D companion piece
Rayman Legends is a side-scrolling platformer, not a 3D one, but Ubisoft’s platforming engine here is the smoothest in the genre. Sixty-plus main levels, music levels that sync every jump to a cover of Black Betty or Eye of the Tiger, and local four-player co-op. If Epic Mickey’s platforming stretches (as opposed to the paint puzzles) were what you liked, Rayman does that better than almost anything else.
Where it falls short: No 3D. Some players do not consider it a “real” alternative to Epic Mickey for that reason. Post-completion content lives in daily challenges.
Pricing:
- Paid: Around $20 on Steam, GOG, and Ubisoft Connect, often $4 on sale
- vs Epic Mickey: Different perspective, tighter controls, no exploration layer
Migrating from Epic Mickey: Zero learning curve; the controls read on their own.
Bottom line: The best pick if what you actually liked in Epic Mickey was jumping around, not the collectible search.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits, best if you want it prettier
Kena: Bridge of Spirits looks like a Pixar short and plays like Zelda-lite with a Rot companion system. The world is small, the combat is real (parries, staff strikes, spirit bombs), and the platforming is more traversal than puzzle. Rebrushed fans who came for the visual charm rather than the collectathon end up here.
Where it falls short: Shorter main quest (10-14 hours). Bosses have a difficulty spike that catches people. Less explicit collectathon layer.
Pricing:
- Paid: Around $30 on Steam and Epic Games Store, in Xbox Game Pass on PC
- vs Epic Mickey: Prettier, tougher combat, less collectible chasing
Migrating from Epic Mickey: Combat is deeper than Rebrushed’s brawls. Give it two hours before deciding whether you like the parry timing.
Download: Steam · Epic Games
Bottom line: The best-looking game on this list, and a legitimate 20-hour experience.
Super Lucky’s Tale, best for kids
Super Lucky’s Tale is a linear 3D platformer that Playful designed as an on-ramp for younger players. No hard fail states, generous checkpoints, colourful worlds, and a fox mascot with a tail whip and a burrow move. Adults will finish it in a weekend; children under 10 will spend a month in it and love it.
Where it falls short: Easy for adults. Levels can feel slight. Not much in it for players hunting for the depth Rebrushed had in some late-game rooms.
Pricing:
- Paid: Around $20 on Steam and Xbox PC
- vs Epic Mickey: Easier, shorter, no paint mechanic
Migrating from Epic Mickey: Nothing to migrate. Same genre, gentler curve.
Bottom line: The one to buy if the reason you played Epic Mickey was to play it with a child.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, best big-budget option
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is Insomniac’s PS5 flagship, and the PC port is a legitimate showcase. Third-person shooter with a platform layer, a dimensional-rift traversal gimmick that stays fresh, and a bolt-and-raritanium collectible economy that fills the collectathon slot in the brain. Bigger, louder, and more expensive than everything else here.
Where it falls short: Costly on PC unless it goes on sale. Ray tracing on and 60 fps needs real hardware. The story pace slows in the mid-game.
Pricing:
- Paid: Around $60 on Steam, Epic Games Store, and PlayStation Store PC, sales to around $30
- vs Epic Mickey: Bigger budget, tighter camera, weapons instead of paint
Migrating from Epic Mickey: Shooter feel is new. The platforming reads immediately.
Download: Steam · Epic Games
Bottom line: The rewarding “if you liked cartoons and platforming, here is the big-budget version” pick.
How to choose
- Pick A Hat in Time first if you just want the closest match to what Rebrushed was doing.
- Pick Yooka-Laylee if the Rare-era Banjo collectathon was the specific itch.
- Pick Psychonauts 2 if you want a platformer with real writing.
- Pick Rayman Legends if what you liked was the jumping, not the exploration.
- Pick Kena: Bridge of Spirits if you want it to look good on a modern GPU.
- Pick Super Lucky’s Tale if a child is going to be playing with you.
- Pick Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart if the budget is not a concern.
Stay on Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed if the paint-and-thinner mechanic is what you love. Nothing else on this list has it, and no one else is likely to build one either.
FAQ
Is Disney Epic Mickey 2 on Steam?
Not in 2026. The Wii-era Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two was pulled from digital storefronts years ago and has not returned. Rebrushed is a remake of the first game only. THQ Nordic and Purple Lamp have not announced a Rebrushed treatment of the sequel.
Which of these has the best camera?
Psychonauts 2 by a clear margin, then A Hat in Time, then Kena: Bridge of Spirits. Yooka-Laylee is the weakest, deliberately so, since it imitates its late-90s inspiration.
Which is the most kid-friendly?
Super Lucky’s Tale for young kids. Rayman Legends for older kids who want more challenge. A Hat in Time for tweens comfortable with a bit of mild horror in one chapter.
Do any of these run on Steam Deck?
A Hat in Time, Yooka-Laylee, Psychonauts 2, Rayman Legends, Kena, and Super Lucky’s Tale are all Deck Verified. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is playable on the Deck but taxes the battery hard and needs settings turned down.
Are there any new 3D platformer games coming to PC in 2026 or 2027?
Playtonic has confirmed a new Yooka game in development. Insomniac’s next Ratchet is unannounced. A Hat in Time developer Gears for Breakfast has hinted at a sequel without a date. The genre is in one of its healthier moments this decade.
