I splashed out a bit on Lady M’s Christmas presents this year, and bought her the new version of Disney Infinity. I’d resisted the previous versions despite the sleek appearance of the toys, but having seen her eyes lingering over the new Star Wars-themed sets that came out late last year I thought it was as good a time as any. Besides, the adverts have looked fun and some other friends who are Disney geeks have been quietly raving about them in positive terms.
If you’re not familiar with the concept of the game, it allows you to use a range of classic Disney characters, along with Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar characters to play a variety of professionally and community-created scenarios. The tools to create and share your own content are included within the hub software, and a particularly bright feature is that the game allows split-screen play so that you can sit on the couch side by side. Characters can be mixed and matched between franchises smoothly and easily – but here’s what for me was the catch:
To get new playable characters, you have to buy a corresponding model. There’s an element of collectable mania that you risk if you want to get your hands on a good selection.
The relatively good news is that the statues are not particularly expensive at around the £10 mark each, depending on where you look – and they do look good. We already collect Funko Pops and other statuettes related to our various geeky interests, so the prospect of having more character figures around the place – let alone ones that also have another game-related function – is not a particularly daunting one.
A lot of the usual Disney attention to detail is in evidence here – the account each of us was prompted to make to use the online features picked up that we already had Disney accounts from our recent holidays and tied into those rather than creating duplicates. Background graphics and features refer to various famous Disney landmarks park and film features, and the likenesses of a huge number of characters appear. The immersion in the huge portfolio of Disney worlds is both impressive and, if you are a fan, kind of reassuring. Your mileage, of course, may vary…
So – is it fun? Absolutely – the game is aimed at a young audience, but is a delight full of Disney trivia. The games are typically platform-based and adopt a stylised 3D style that reminds me of the more recent Star Wars cartoon series. Even though I bought the game for Lady M, we’ve both been enjoying playing and learning about the system together and we’re losing a lot of time to it. It’s just as well neither of us are working this week!
