My Disney Infinity Review

So last week I bought the new Disney Infinity game for the PS3.  This is kind of a big deal since I am notoriously cheap when it comes to buying video games, the last new one I bought myself was the Collector’s Edition of Uncharted 3, and I only but that because it was 75% off.  Ok, so we’ve established that I’m cheap, but every now and then I will pony up the buck and get a new game like I did last week with Disney Infinity.  So, $75 later, my kids and I have a new game to play together, and long story short, it was worth every one of those 7500 pennies.

Here's what I started with, one week ago.......

Before I get too far into my review, I do have one gripe with the PS3 version of Disney Infinity.  While my kids and I were playing it for the first time it froze up, corrupting the save file we had, so we had to delete everything and start over.  This meant going through the 12-minute long introduction again since there is no way to skip it.  So we got through that and it froze up again.  So another round of deletions and introductions followed, as did another freeze up.  At this point I was getting a little miffed so I hopped online and found that there was an issue with the PS3 version.  Apparently with patch you download at the beginning was causing the issue, so it was advised that you do not download it until an updated patch is released.  So I turned off the internet connection, and we haven’t had a problem since.  At this point I’m a little leery about installing anything, I really don’t want to lose all of our progress.

Disney Infinity’s basic setup is a lot like Skylanders, only with some major differences.  Like Skylanders, you can put different characters into the game by placing a figurine onto the portal, but in this case you can have two players in there at the same time, which really adds to the fun.  The Starter Set comes with three figurines, Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribean, Mr. Incredible from the Incredibles, and Sully from Monsters University, the game, a portal, and one Power Disc.  The figurines are approximately three inches tall, and are really well built, I can see some people get into collecting just the figurines and not play the game.  My favorite out of this lot is Mr. Incredible, I don’t even think I’ve played the other two yet.

...and where we are currently.  I'm such a sucker!

Also sold separately are additional figurines and play sets from various Disney properties like Cars and the Lone Ranger, and it’s real easy to just start buying them up in bunches, I know, less than a week into it we already have 9 figurines!  

You can also buy Power Discs, which enable you to power up your characters, change the play environment, or put extra accessories into the game.  One Power Disc comes with the Start Set, and you can buy additional Power Discs in blind bag packs of 2 for $5.  The discs feature an eclectic array of properties like TRON, Tangled, Alice in Wonderland, Lilo and Stitch, Wreck It Ralph, and so on.  Much like the additional figurines, it’s easy to get hooked on buying the Power Disc bags, I know we already had to but an album to keep them all in, remember, these haven’t even been out a week yet!

 Power Discs with album (Sold Separately, of course!)

             Ok, other than showing you what an easy mark I am for these type of things, I haven’t even touched on how the gameplay is.  Well, it’s fantastic.  Disney Infinity gives you two modes of play: the Play Set Mode and the Toy Box Mode.  The Play Set Mode lets you play in a particular character’s world and complete various missions for coins and accessories.  In Play Set mode only characters from that world can be used, so forget having Captain Jack Sparrow and Sully roaming around the Monsters University campus together.  The missions themselves are relatively short, and can be completed fairly quickly.  Hidden throughout the work are capsules that contain additional accessories that you can use in the game or in the Toy Box (More on that later).  The Starter Set has a Play Set adventure for all three figurines included, and so far there are additional ones available for Cars and the Lone Ranger, which run about $35 each.  We’ve already bought the Lone Ranger Play Set (The Lone Ranger has always been one of my favorite characters, so I had to get it!), and it’s the one Play Set we’ve played so far.  I thought when I started playing it that we would finish it quickly, but three hours later we are still going with no end in sight.  By itself, the Play Set Mode is very fun and interactive, and would probably be worth the $75 itself, but it’s the Toy Box Mode where Disney Infinity really shines.

             The majority of the time we have been playing Infinity has been spent on the Toy Box Mode.  This mode allows you to build your own world, and your only limit is your own imagination.  It’s a lot like Minecraft, only with much better graphics and more possibilities.  You start off with a blank terrain square, adding more terrain, buildings, people, objects, etc., as you see fit.  I recently began building the world I call Wally World, so far it has Cinderella’s Castle, an ESPN soccer stadium, and Epcot’s Spaceship Earth, and I’m just getting warmed up.  You can also earn spins which you can use to get more items to customize your worlds, and with over 1,000 items, you’ll need a lot of spins!  This is the kind of thing I can lose myself in and spend weeks playing, and is the reason I bought Disney Infinity in the first place.  My kids are into this too, and it has already become an effective incentive for getting homework done quickly, so for that, thank you Disney!

             As with the Toy Box, the possibilities for Disney Infinity are practically limitless.  They have already announced a second set of figurines featuring Jack Skellington, Wreck It Ralph, Toy Story, and characters from the upcoming animated feature Frozen.  I can’t help but hope that Disney’s recent acquisitions of Marvel and Lucasfilm mean that we can have those characters show up at some point in the future.  If you’re a Disney fan I highly recommend picking this up, and even if you aren’t a fan you will still enjoy this game immensely.