Disney Infinity
I ended up writing this thread as a sort of min-review, as this game is a very weird and wonderful beast that's very hard to explain. Normally I tend not to look at Disney games, because as much as I love Disney, their games can be very hit and miss.
Disney Infinity, however, feels like one of those hits. I can only assume it follows a similar line of thought to Skylanders. You have a starter pack that contains the game, 3 toys, and the USB connector base. You can then buy individual characters separately.
I won't lie, when I thought of Skylanders I was like, this seems like a massive con having to buy all these characters individually. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised it was a pretty smart marketting move. In the case of Disney Infinity, the characters are actual figurines that you play on the connector base. These figurines are really good quality and can actually quite easily just sit on a bookcase or something as display pieces. The larger ones even have movable parts and can be posed. They also come with redeemable codes that let you use them in the free PC Toy Box version.
There are also power disks which unlock new designs for the toybox or special weapons and powers for use in adventure mode. These were obviously designed with the intent to act as sort of, trading cards, retailing in packs of 2 for around $3-4. They aren't necessary to play the game at all, just fun extras, and considering there are power disc folders to store these discs, they were clearly intended as a relatively inexpensive sort of meta-game for children to collect and trade with each other.
The game itself is a very sandbox affair, that really requires you to embrace your inner child again. Most of the characters have their own "playsets" which lets you partake in short mini-adventures based on the film the character comes from. There's also some universal adventures and challenge modes.
The real joy of this game comes from it being a sandbox that tries to be just about everything in one go. Some adventures are platforms, others are on rails picking up collectibles, others are top-down racers like the old Micro Machines games, others are arena style fighters and others still, are Mario Kart style races.
But, that's not all! Doing adventures, challenges and even simply exploring earns you experience to level up your character along with reward tokens that can be used to spin the roulette in the vault. The vault allows you to unlock more toys for your toy box. Why do you want toys? Well they're the actual bread and butter in this game!
Using toys you can actually edit levels or even build your own from scratch and share them online. Think a Disney style Minecraft and you're not very far off. The tutorials make this editor very easy to understand, and from building simple platform, to switch triggered traps and doors, it's very easy to build something complex. Everything from fixed camera angles to lighting can be sent. The sheer amount of user generated content available for download is staggering. Some of the most recent highlights include a fully-fledged snowboarding game made entirely using the editor.
This is ultimately a game of imagination, if you're looking for a set adventure with a very clear path from A to B, then it's probably not for you. There is no storyline here really, you're given the tools to make your own adventures or simply experience ones others have made.
Unfortunately, for all it's wonders, this game does have a couple of fundamental flaws. The menu system can be clunky at best sometimes, due to the sheer size of things that can be done - you sometimes find yourself sifting through sub-menu after sub-menu to get to what you want, and some are interspersed with loading screens. The controls are generally fluid but, as with most 3D "platformers" - the camera can be a bit of a pain the rear sometimes, which can become quite frustrating during arena battles when trying to 180 to start attacking things behind you.
These flaws are relatively minor though and don't detract much from the overall gameplay.
If you still have that spark of imagination and love all things Disney, then I'd really recommend checking this out. Don't feel like you're too old for it, the simple fun here - and the ease at which levels can be made in the editor - means that there is a huge amount of potential for creating fun filled party games for you and your friends.
2 days ago, when a friend invited me over to play this, I was skeptical at best. Since then I've bought my own kit and lost several hours to it.
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