Disney Infinity has been out for a few weeks now, and I’ve had the chance to put about 10 hours into the game. So I wanted to share my initial thoughts with you on it! Keep in mind that this is really a “Disney fan” review rather than a “video gamer” review. My husband is the gamer, but I rarely play video games. These are also just my first thoughts from the initial exposure to the game – there is tons we haven’t even tried yet!
I have only tried one of the playsets so far, and that’s Monsters University. You get missions to complete and along the way you can collect prizes, experience, and unlock toys and other things. I imagine that for the most part, most of the playsets work the same way. I’m a person that generally prefers to have some sort of structure – I want goals to achieve. The missions are not too hard for a non-gamer like me, but still seem interesting to my husband, so it seems to be a good balance. There is one main storyline with missions to complete in the playset, as well as side missions. Then you can also try to collect all of the items and complete all of the “gold star” missions. So there’s plenty to do!
I’m also a bit of a “completionist” – I want to keep playing until I finish every mission, collect every item, and basically do every single thing the game has to offer. If you’re like me I highly recommend you buy the Prima guidebook. As of right now I haven’t found a website that really has all the information I need, probably because it’s so new. It’s also just really convenient having it all there in one book. There are lots of checklists so that you can check off what items, figures, and power discs you own. Also, I haven’t figured out a way to see all of the possible missions in the game, so if I want to make sure I’ve actually gotten to every mission an area has to offer I check those off in the guidebook as I do them as well.
I also played around with Toy Box mode for the first time last night. I wasn’t expecting to like it since I prefer more structure. However, I had a lot of fun! I made my husband build me pieces of land, since I found that to be the boring part, but then I got to “decorate” them with buildings, trees, flowers, and characters. You start with some basic toys and then you can earn more in the playsets, so we have a lot of Monsters University stuff. You also can earn spins to try and get more items not related to the playset movies. And there are also missions you can do in Toy Box mode if you get tired of building! I know there’s a lot I still haven’t explored there yet and I’m looking forward to it.
As I mentioned I play with my husband, and I really like how two player mode works. You get half a screen and you can basically each do your own thing. So if you want to work together on a mission you can. Or you can work on two different missions. Or, what usually happens with us – I work on a mission while he runs around trying to collect items and discover new things! I love the freedom of playing with him but not needing to do exactly the same thing.
One of the things that has been talked about a lot with this game is the price. And yes, you will be pouring in some serious money into the game. Is it worth it? I think so. The game itself is $75 and comes with three playsets and three figures. However, if you want to do two players you need more figures from either the villains or sidekicks pack ($30 each). And if you want more playsets they are $35, though we’ve found them discounted at Target for half the price. Right now you can get Cars or the Lone Ranger, and Toy Story is coming out soon. Additional individual figures are $13 each, and a mystery power disc pack with two discs is $5-6.
I finished the main storyline in MU in about 6 hours, but we’ve put in more time to get all the missions and have done about 8 hours. However, I still want to go back and get more of the items we missed, as well as level up the characters some more, so I estimate we’ll spent about 10-12 hours on this playset. Assuming it’s the same for all the playsets and with the game you get about 30 hours of play time. And that’s not including Toy Box! Depending how into it you get, I imagine you could spend hours upon hours. So in terms of money vs. time, I do think you get a lot out of it. And the figures are really nice. I plan to collect them all – not just to unlock everything in the game, but just because they are really nice collectibles. I collect vinylmations and I am used to paying $13 for a figure – and those don’t even do anything! At least with Disney Infinity you also get game play out of them.
The only thing I don’t really get are the power discs. There are 20 of them so even if you got super lucky and got all of the ones you wanted, you would still spend$50. From what I’ve seen so far they don’t do a ton to enhance the game. It’s mostly fun little extras in Toy Box mode, like having your world look like it’s underwater at Marlin’s reef. For me they just aren’t worth the money. They also plan to release series of power discs so there will literally be hundreds to collect. I’d rather have the figures, but that’s just my perspective. People that like the mystery and trading aspect will really get into the power discs.
Overall I highly recommend Disney Infinity, especially if you’re not a big gamer! Great for Disney fans. If you’ve got the money for it I don’t think you’ll regret it. I’m excited to start the Incredibles playset tonight!
Have you played Disney Infinity? What are your thoughts on it?
DId you know that the Disney wrist bands will give you an Easter Egg in the game?
I did hear that! I’m hoping that I’ll get a Magic Band for my December trip so I can try it out!