Review: Disney Infinity (Xbox 360)

Disney Infinity is almost a game platform in its own right. It is a game for the major consoles but it comes with some proprietary hardware that is required to run the game, and a bevy of characters and upgrades that are necessary to expand and play. The scope of the game is hard to define as it crosses boundaries of creation as well as linear story telling, along with multiple play styles.

By Wayne Webb

Disney Infinity is almost a game platform in its own right. It is a game for the major consoles but it comes with some proprietary hardware that is required to run the game, and a bevy of characters and upgrades that are necessary to expand and play. The scope of the game is hard to define as it crosses boundaries of creation as well as linear story telling, along with multiple play styles.

The hardware is a stand that you place game figurines and cubes onto to activate and allow access to certain features and content. The pack I got came with Captain Jack Sparrow, James P Sullivan (Sully) and Mr. Incredible. Once you place these on the platform that plugs into a USB port then those are playable in the world, which is essentially a giant sandbox where you can create levels and challenges Little Big Planet-style for yourself or others. If you attach a game cube you can also start playing levels. Missions and tasks preset in the worlds and characters you already own.

Disney plans on bringing out these figurines and cubes in ‘phases’ so that they can continually and endlessly spill out content to enhance and extend the life of the game as far as they possibly can. Of course this will cost you, and while they may be cheaper than the starter set, getting them all will start to hike up the cost. You can also buy blind packs of power ups to give you a leg up or extra cool things, also at a price and with a “Gacha” style randomness and endless purchasing potential.

If you don’t care about buying them all, or you only want a couple of characters then it’s fine, but if your kids are anything like mine they start to see other things they don’t have and wonder when we’ll be getting them. Phineas Flynn and Perry the Platypus will be the next in line as soon as they come out (at least in my house).  It is a bit light on the female characters as my daughter (aged five) points out.

There is truly so much to do and with the huge back catalogue of Disney, Pixar, Muppets, Marvel and whatever else Disney owns to add to the mix this could go on forever. You can drive Cars from Cars, and you can shoot about with the Pirates of the Caribbean before banging things up with Monsters or The Incredibles. It is a great game and a great set that can entertain for a long time if you are creative. The FTU (First Time User Experience) is intuitive and one of the best I have seen in recent years, I wanted to show it to other people it was that good.

If you can afford to upgrade it go for your life as it is a great set and contains more than you think when you get into all the nooks and crannies of the experience. If you are buying it for kids and think you buy it once and walk away then think again. There’s a good reason that this has been dubbed ‘crack for kids’.

Pros: Huge scope, brilliant FTU experience, beautiful graphics, tons of characters, infinitely expandable, multi genre gameplay.

Cons: It’s going to cost you if you like it, not many options for girls

 

4.5 Shacks Out Of 5