Disney Infinity (Wii U) Review

Disney Infinity has a lot of hype to live up to, after all it does promise never ending fun (it’s even on the box!). If anyone were to attempt to bring this mantra to the gaming scene, it would have to be Disney. While Disney Infinity can be purchased just as a game, you’re technically buying into a whole ecosystem. It’s a game that can go on forever, if your cash allows it. Before you get cynical about that, however, let’s look at the game in the box because it still provides hours of fun by itself.

Disney Infinity begins with a heartwarming introduction, it takes a while but this ten minute introduction will just melt you down and take you to a place where anything is possible. It really got to me – it’s nostalgia at its greatest.

After the introduction it’s really up to you where you go with Infinity. You can start and tinker in the Toy Box mode or jump straight into a Play Set. Toy Box? Play Set? Yes, Disney Infinity has its own naming schema. The Toy Box is the open ended sandbox in which you can do whatever you want, build whatever you want and pit characters against each other. The Play Sets can be interpreted as the “story modes” of the game, which have much stricter rules on what can be done within them.

Infinity ships with three Play Sets in the box. There’s one figurine for all of these Play Sets – but each additional Play Set has its own figurine.  A rather modern line-up of Monster’s University, The Incredibles and Pirates of the Carribean are included, but despite the lack of the true Disney classics it’s unlikely you’ll hate all of these franchises. Each of these Play Sets contains an overarching story with its own unique side missions too. How you approach each set is up to you, and exploration is rewarded through the collection of currency and more props to use in the Toy Box.

Each Play Set has it’s own strengths and weaknesses. Monsters University, like the movie, is humourous and very playful, while The Incredibles feels quite rough due to a rather lacklustre setting. The Pirates Play Set felt the most complete of the three – allowing players to explore the world in your own ship which can be edited and upgraded at any time. It felt great taking helm of a big pirate ship and getting into battles, although it’s a bit sad to say it was a small part of the set.

The game’s difficulty is rather low, you’ll only ever really be challenged on hard. This should come as no surprise – it is a Disney game that aims to allow anyone to have fun with it. All of the Play Sets can be tackled with a friend if you are really struggling too. This highlights a major problem with the starter pack – you can’t play with a friend without purchasing another character from the same franchise. Mr Incredible can’t be assisted by Jack Sparrow, for example. You’ll need Mrs. Incredible or Dash Incredible, for example, as an additional purchase. To be fair, new figurines purchased have their own unique abilities and dialogue – putting Syndrome up againt Syndrome gets some funny results.

The combat is quite simple – though you can and will unlock extra weapons and abilities along the way. The toilet paper launcher never gets old either. While the controls are somewhat uniform across all the Play Sets, there are some issues with the user interface that get in the way – sometimes X is the button used to proceed, but sometimes it’s to go back. Sometimes, buttons that appeared on the GamePad weren’t pressable on the touchscreen. The GamePad itself isn’t used too much during the Play Set journeys, but the whole thing can be played solely on the GamePad off-screen. However if you want to swap toys in the middle of the night you will still have to get out of bed.

As you can probably guess, the Toy Box is a digital version of your play mat, albeit cooler. Create things you like and make it enjoyable – go all out to make an entire city, a winding race track complete with a lap counter or even something simple such as a maze with traps or a battle arena. You can make a world that takes minutes to walk across or even build upwards to make a huge tower. It really is tremendous.

They say the only limit is your imagination, but if you’re like me and have had your imagination killed by the TV, then you can download creations from other users or even Disney themselves. So far, we managed to find Agrabah, a near replica Sugar Rush track, heck, even the city in the sky (Columbia) from BioShock Infinite is available. All of these worlds and more are available to download from within the Toy Box, and are cross platform too.

There’s another factor that can limit your creativity, however, and that’s the game’s unlockable system. There are tons of options unlocked from the get-go, but the real problem is where unlocking what you want is going to be a bit harder. You’re going to have to explore and play the Play Sets many times to even get the chance to unlock some items. It always feels like stuff is locked away and just out of reach – though some content can be unlocked through the use of separately sold power discs, which change the environment or add items to the game.

The controls for the Toy Box aren’t as elegant as the Play Sets, there’s a lot going on here to be fair, but at times you will struggle with getting things built how you like. The GamePad helps a fair bit as all your building options are displayed in front of you. It does at times feel slow when searching and placing items, obviously loading things from the disk can take time – especially for the bigger items.

Avalanche Studios have to be commended for the visual style created for Infinity, the interface and menus are clean if not a bit clinical. The real life, however, is in game – how do you match Pirates of the Caribbean with the two others which are both Pixar? Well you’re looking at it. The exaggerated cartoon style works great on all the sets included and we’ve seen the toys coming in the future and it looks to continue. Being an open-world and sandboxed game the game isn’t perfect with graphical presentation. There’s clipping and slowdown here and there – but considering this a world that is glued together and anything can be changed its passable.

The music, voice acting and sound effects in the game are all authentic and fantastic. It’s hard to fathom just how much here is voiced, normally in a game with so many different characters and NPCs you wouldn’t expect that level of voice acting included.

The Disney Infinity Starter Pack is just that, the start of what is going to be a great journey. The included play-sets and the toy box included though are fantastic and you feel like you’re getting a lot included for the money. If you do decide to buy more toys, power disc or play-sets the initial investment shines even further. It is a shame that out of the box two players can’t play.  If you’re a fan of Disney you’ll get the most enjoyment out of it but if Pirates, Monsters or Incredibles isn’t your thing you may want to wait for a set that suits you.

The Wii U version of Infinity stands toe-to-toe with the other versions of the game and if you’re a Nintendo fan you’ll want to buy this one – not the Nintendo 3DS version. The additions the GamePad brings in Toy Box shouldn’t be understated. Needless to say, Infinity is addictive and you’ll be escaping to its charm for months.