After Skylanders skyrocketed into the roaring success for kids we all now know it to be, Disney Infinity always seemed like a super obvious choice. With a library of hundreds of the most loved characters of all time, why not make a sandbox-style adventure that allows kids to bring their favourites into one game together? It also doesn’t hurt financially that they can keep releasing packs with more figurines to collect, but that’s a strategy that even Nintendo are taking after with their Amiibo range. What’s really going to set kids wild this holiday season though is the latest update to the game with Disney Infinity 2.0, which adds new characters, new features, new toys and most exciting of all, a range of Marvel super-heroes to play with.
Some of the characters available include the full range of Avengers (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow), as well as Spider-Man, Venom, Nick Fury, and the Guardians of the Galaxy from their upcoming film. Non-Marvel characters will also be available, including Maleficent (modeled after Angelina Jolie, thanks to the big success of her film at the box office), Merida from Brave and Donald Duck. The Marvel characters are largely based on their Ultimate appearances, with Spider-Man in particular taking after his Ultimate animated incarnation.
The new characters open new possibilities for gameplay and exploration, as Spider-Man comes replete with his signature web-slinging ability (which isn’t tethered to buildings as you might have come to expect from the recent Amazing series) an Iron Man can fly. Hulk can run up skyscrapers, pick up cars and fling them around, in a manner reminiscent of Ultimate Destruction. New accessories called ‘Power Discs’ can now be stacked onto your base, under your character’s figurine, to add special powers or boosters within the game. The build I played was still in an early stage, so the physics and interaction with the environment wasn’t completely nailed down, but there was enough on show to easily tell there’ll be plenty of new ways for kids to have fun in their created worlds.
The Toybox mode is also receiving an upgrade, both within the game and through new accessories. A separate assortment of Power Discs allow you to mix things up in your worlds with the ease of placing them on your base, including changing the skybox from a standard sunset to the Cy-Bug invasion from Wreck-It Ralph or changing the textures on all the props and objects in a level to look crumbled and destroyed. New automated functions are also available now, allowing you to place helpers on the field (such as EVE from WALL-E) to fill-in the less important details, such as background trees or general city-buildings, while you focus on the key features of the level like actual playable parts. However, if you’d rather have the whole thing generated for you, there are pre-set arenas and objects for you to choose from, so you can go straight into a multiplayer fighting game like Smash Bros-lite or a racing game. There are still a fair few menus to deal with, but these small automated features should serve to make level-building a lot easier for kids.
Disney Infinity 2.0 is probably a sure thing come Christmas this year, with its inclusion of the Marvel universe and even more popular Disney characters. The new Power Discs and sandbox features do aim to add a more customisable spin to the game, and it’ll be interesting to see what kids can come up with compared to other creative games, like the upcoming Little Big Planet 3. Disney Infinity 2.0 is out September, this year.
