The concept of Disney Infinity is something closer to Minecraft than Skylanders. You basically put characters on this Disney electronic platform and bring them into a game that is made for that particular character. For example, if you put Sully from Monsters Inc. on there then the world/adventure for Sully would be Monsters Inc. related. The power of Pixar and Disney will compel you, with this idea. The initial starter pack for Disney Infinity will come with three Disney characters (Sully, Mr. Incredible and Jack Sparrow). Not a bad deal, but you’ll be purchasing more characters in a Skylanders type fashion. Hey, it worked for Activision, so you can’t complain about the methods.
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Outside of the main adventure, which is character themed, that Disney Infinity offers, you also get a ‘Toy Box’ mode, which allows you build and create worlds with other players. Kind of like Minecraft, which we’ll get into in a second. It’s probably the biggest draw for this game and one that will certainly make for a particularly interesting competition with Activision’s Skylanders. Let’s talk about pogs before we get into the specifics of Toy Box.
The pogs are neat because they contain items for characters to acquire in the game. For example, Sully had a laser gun pog and Condorman’s wings (yeah, you young folk figure that out) pog put on top each other to give him those options to use during gameplay, and it also saves them to Sully’s account (at least, I was given that impression).
Pretty cool, eh? Well, it gets better. While you can add these pogs together to form multiple weapons (innocent, Disney-esque weapons) and options, you can also build environments for gamers to play in using the Toy Box mode. What they showed at the demo was Sully adding road textures from TRON on a bridge and surrounding environment. The option to have roads from different Disney/Pixar stories really does bode well for the Minecraft audience who might be craving this sort of thing. Besides roads, the developer showing the demo also explained that buildings, hills and pretty much any structure was built by a gamer.
Are you getting the magnitude of this game yet? This is why it seemed more like Minecraft than Skylanders. Sure it contains the technique of bringing toys into the gaming situation, but having the ability to construct worlds and play with other gamers, who can also enjoy your constructions, speaks to the younger Minecraft addicts out there. What I saw looked impressive, and being the only game that Disney Interactive had on their E3 floor this year spoke volumes to how much faith they’re putting into Disney Infinity. Having the power of Disney/Pixar and other IP in their corner really will help draw a younger Disney-loving audience to them, but they have to keep their end of the bargain by keeping it interesting.
From what I’ve seen from Disney Infinity so far, they’ve got a shot.
*The ‘pogs’ are sold separately in baseball card type packs for $4.99 — parents please pad your wallets for this hit, if you bring Disney Infinity into your household. It’s not a bad price for items, but I can imagine it getting expensive quickly.