By Shay Logan
A few years back Disney came up with, or shall we say "borrowed" a great Idea to make a videogame that included figurines from movies that you could play inside a game.
It's the game that lets your toys come to life and it's the game that I'm sure every kid is going to want for Christmas this year, especially when you include toys from some of the best Disney and Pixar movies ever made... and a little franchise called Star Wars.
Yes, you guessed it, Disney Infinity has released their newest toy stomping, disc chomping, world plonking, mega game, Disney Infinity 3.0.
Ok so, the third Hobbit film wasn't my favorite, even the third Indiana Jones movie didn't tickle my fancy, but this third installment of Disney Infinity is making me smile, a lot.
If you've been living under a Tatooine rock and never heard of Disney Infinity before, let me explain.
First, it comes with a 'playset'. Think of the playset like a normal videogame where you play missions with a storyline. You then put a figure on top of a base and boom, that figure is now playing in the game.
Let's start with the playset Twilight of the Republic, the Star Wars game that comes with 3.0's starter pack and the only one I have played. More should be coming later in the year, like Inside Out and Star Wars: Rise Against the Empire.
Twilight of the Republic is a great shoot-em-up Star Wars game that for the most part has my children and I glued to the TV screen. I'm playing as Obi Wan, the younger version from the Star Wars movie, Episode One, although you can play one or two players with separate characters like Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Yoda.
The worlds, music, and characters look and feel like the Star Wars, but in a cartoony Clone Wars way. Gameplay is good for younger players, using the force or your light sabre on the baddies, flying the iconic spaceships through the citadel and shooting the republic scum into space dust is cool, all the while my kids are saying to me "it makes me feel like a real Jedi dad".
The more you play with your figurine, the more you upgrades you get; higher jumping, healing your downed comrades, faster attacks - it really makes you want to play through the campaign with every character you own just to max their skills out.
It's great for kids but, a little clunky for adults. There is some pop-ins and camera stutters during load times, some vehicles are quite hard to fly and I managed to finish the whole playset game in about seven hours on easy, but I could have gone back to finish all of the "hey can you help me find my broken droid" side missions and this would have made the game a lot longer.
Overall the playset is fun, but I haven't even come close to explaining why I love the Disney Infinity franchise and why I think 3.0 rocks.
The toybox!
Ahh, the Toy box. The best way to describe it in a few words: it's a bit like Minecraft on steroids.
You can build your own world out from the toybox. First pick your world, set your world out by placing things on the ground and then start creating.
One of the best things about the toybox is you can change out characters, it's as easy as taking your figurine off the USB-powered base and replacing it with another. Onscreen you will see a flash and then whoosh, your new character will be in the game.
Although changing characters inside the toybox is fine, the playset can get iffy, as only certain toys can be used with certain playsets. For example, Star Wars figures can only be played with the Star Wars game - as much as you may like to, you cannot play Mickey Mouse within Twilight of the Republic.
But you can build whole cities in the toybox with hundreds of things including spaceships, land, trees, cars, people, roads, houses - actually most things from the Disney, Star Wars, Marvel or Pixar movies should be there.
If you want you can make a race track and take any car, pod racer or motorbike in the toybox for a spin, build your own bustling city or create an obstacle course that will put your skills to the test.
At the time of writing this I am in the process of making a Death Star flythrough course, set with a backdrop of space, TIE Fighters and X wings all packed with attack guns to put the Millennium Falcon through its paces.
If you don't fit the "I'm going to make my own world" type of person, don't worry, there are user-generated toyboxes to be downloaded, offering hours and hours of content to play through. There is so much to find in the toybox that sometimes it can be overwhelming, but the new 3.0 has been streamlined and the experience improved since 2.0.
If you want an exciting gaming experience with your kids, go pick up the Disney Infinity 3.0 Star Wars starter pack.
You won't regret it.
Four-and-a-half stars.
3 News
Disney Infinity 3.0: Star Wars Starter Pack :: Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios:: Developer: Avalanche:: Format: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U:: Rating: PG
