Epic Mickey is primarily a platform game and allows players to use their own solutions for getting through the levels. Epic Mickey features a morality system similar to games like Infamous, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, and Shadow the Hedgehog. Different alliances, side-quests and power-ups are made available depending on the choices of the player. It is also possible to avoid mini-bosses if specific actions are taken. The in-game currency (E-tickets) are important to these boss fights.
The game's key feature is the paint brush, which Mickey wields, that has the ability to draw or erase objects using paint and paint thinner. For example, obstacles can be erased from physical existence using the thinner and then restored using the paint, or enemies can be befriended by revitalizing them with the paint or destroyed completely using the thinner. Mickey is also able to materialize objects from sketches, which have various effects. Two of the three sketches, the watch and the television, slow down time and distract enemies, respectively.  Both fluids have limited reserves, adding a strategic element to gameplay: players must compromise between making various tasks harder or easier to accomplish. However, the fluids automatically but slowly refill, and power-ups that quickly replenish the fluids are available in certain areas. Mickey can also find pins in Wasteland. Most are bronze, silver, or gold pins, but some are special: for example, the "Art Appreciator" or "Mean Street" pin. Another thing that is useful in the game is a type of currency called E-tickets. These can be given or discovered. They are used to buy concept art, pins, health refills, or paint or thinner refills.
To travel between sections of the Wasteland, Mickey traverses 2D side-scrolling levels based on his cartoon shorts (with three being based on Oswald shorts; Trolley Troubles, Great Guns, and Oh, What a Knight and two being based on Sleeping Beauty and Fantasia), such as Steamboat Willie and Clock Cleaners.