Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Disney Infinity 2.0 Video Game Review



Disney Infinity is a video game based upon different toy lines owned by Disney. It is the second game of this type after Skylanders by Activision. The difference between the 2 is Skylanders are made up for the game whereas with Disney Infinity the game has characters from Disney, Pixar, and Marvel movies. These type of games are played on video game consoles with bases attached to the console. You pick the figure you want to play with and place it on the base which communicates with NFC in the figures. The way the game works is you buy a starter kit for the video game system you own. The starter kits includes the game itself, the infinity base as well as three figures.



Infinity Base



To play Disney Infinity you need to purchase a starter set. The starter kits includes the video game disk, the Infinity Base as well as 3 figures.

The Infinity Base is a plastic base that plugs into your gaming system. Once hooked up and you start the game the Infinity Base has 2 circles on top to place your figures as well as a hexagonal spot to place world discs. Because the Infinity Base only has the 2 spots for characters you can only play with up to 2 players on a base.

The way the game works is you take the figure you want to play with and place them upon the Infinity Base. That character loads into the game and you play as them. As you play with that character they earn experience points and when they reach a new level you can give them different skills. The neat thing about the figures is that they work between different systems so you can take your character over to a friends house and use them even if your friend has a different video game system.

Character Figures




This game comes all down to the characters. As you play with your character figure he levels up and unlocks better skills which makes him more powerful. The starter sets come with 3 figures that go with the starter sets theme. The adventure packs come with 2 figures related to that set. The last way to get different figures is to buy individual packs. This is where Disney is making their money because adults sure love collecting things and kids want all of their favorite figures.

The biggest downside of the figures is that they can only be used within their specific world. In the Marvel games, Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Aladdin can't fight alongside the Hulk. There are a couple of crossover characters that can play in other sets as long as you collect all the tokens related to that figure. An example is in the Marvel The Avengers playset if you collect all 10 of Rocket Raccoons' tokens he can play with The Avengers. There are only 2 characters that can transfer over to each playset.

All figures can be played within the toy box. The individual figure packs are not sold blind so you know who you are buying and they cost 15 dollars each. One of the great things about this game and another way Disney hopes to separate you from your money is when the character you are playing with dies you don't have to reload the mission you were playing. Instead, you can play with another figure that you own. You can almost think of extra figures as extra lives. After a set amount of time, you can play with your figure that died.

Power Discs

The game also has round and hexagonal power discs that serve different functions within the game. The discs themselves are thin plastic in the shapes mentioned with a picture on the front that depicts what that disc does. The circle discs are placed underneath your characters figure while playing in a playset and grant that character certain abilities such as more powerful attacks. You can place up to 3 different discs underneath each character figure.



The hexagonal discs are placed upon the hexagonal spot on the Infinity Base and are used while playing within the toy box. The environmental discs change the environment within the toy box such as the skies color or how the ground looks. There are also toy hexagonal discs that give your character different toys to use (weapons, vehicles, etc) that are not normally included in the base game.

Some of the character bundles come with discs but the main way to purchase them is to buy them in booster packs that contain 1 round and 1 hexagonal disc. While these discs to enhance the core game they are not required. The packaging covers up what discs you are buying so it's all luck to get the ones you want. The 2 disc packs sell for 5 dollars.

Main Game

The main game is a quest you send your characters on. You will need to complete different missions which unlock more until you get to the end of your quest. Some of these missions feel a bit like filler but overall it's not too bad. The game is definitely made with kids in mind so the stories play out more like a kids cartoon and less like a PG-13 movie.

Like I said in the characters section you only can use the characters associated with the playset unless the game contains the tokens to unlock other characters.



The starter sets contain the main game but you can also buy additional adventures. The additional adventure playsets contain 2 characters related to the set and the hexagonal piece that plays the adventure.



Toy Box

The other way to play the game is within the toy box. The toy box is a sandbox type game where you can build whatever you like with the different items you unlock through the game. The toy box has endless things to do from building race tracks to designing houses decorated with things you've unlocked.

There are 2 ways to unlock things for the toy box. In the regular game, you collect blue sparks which act as money. When you go into the toy box you can spend those points on vehicles, toys, different pieces of terrain, decorations and much more. The other way to unlock things by completing different feats within the game. These items can only be unlocked by completing feats and cannot be bought with spark points.

Within the toy box, all figures can be used regardless of what set they are for. You can also upload and download different things people have created and play within their world.

Compatibility

As of this writing, there are 2 versions of Disney Infinity out, 1.0 and 2.0. Nothing from 2.0 can be used within the 1.0 system. The characters and power discs from 1.0 can be used within 2.0. You cannot play the playsets from 1.0 in 2.0. The Infinity Bases from 1.0 can be used to play in 2.0 with PlayStation 3 and 4 and the Nintendo Wii U but not Microsoft Xbox or Nintendo 3DS. That means if you have an Infinity Base from 1.0 you don't need to buy a new one for PlayStation or Wii U. If you have the Infinity Base from 1.0 on Xbox 360 you will need to buy a new Base for 2.0. Also, Infinity Bases from Xbox 360 cannot be used on Xbox One and Xbox One Bases do not work on Xbox 360.

Conclusion

In the end, would I recommend this game? Yes, as long as you know what you are getting into with the game. The starter sets cost 75 dollars, the add-on playsets cost 35 dollars, the figures cost 15 dollars and the 2 pack of power discs cost 5 dollars. As you can see the price can add up very quickly and if you're buying this for a kid you be hearing "can I get a new figure" very quickly, trust me. The main game itself isn't bad, not on par with a big video game story, but more than adequate for kids and non-picky adults. If it's your thing you can have loads of fun within the toy box and if you have kids that will be playing Infinity they will spend a lot of time in theirs. Think of the toy box as similar to Minecraft as far as being open-ended and being able to build what you want. I would give Disney Infinity an 8 out of 10.

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