Disney; PC/PS3/PS4/PS Vita/Xbox 360/Xbox One/Wii U; £52; 7+

Families with children who play video games are by now accustomed to being double-teamed by the addition of collectable toy lines. Eclipsing movies both in budget and playground profile, the likes of Skylanders, Nintendo Aiimbo and Hero Portal now come with associated toys that unlock characters on-screen when placed on a USB peripheral plugged into the console.

Last year, Disney Infinity joined the “toys-to-life” arms race and immediately rose to dominance with its combination of franchise-themed adventure play sets (which let you play short missions with your chosen character) and free-form game creation toy-box mode. This provided players with a huge palette of Disney themed objects, characters and building blocks to create interactive dioramas and mini-games.

A year later, the follow up comes in two flavours: the Marvel Super Heroes or Disney Originals starter packs. The latter, which includes Merida and Stitch figures, focuses on creative play in the toy box mode rather than the pre-build game experiences.

For £52, purchasers of the Marvel option get the game, plus Black Widow, Thor and Iron Man figures to star in a five hour adventure; subsequent play-set adventures (The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man)can be purchased individually for around £30. It’s not only a new set of Marvel figures that’s being added to the franchise, though – the game also answers a host of criticisms levelled at last year’s experience.

Beating crime together

Most important for families is the ability to play co-operatively in the main adventures straight out of the box. Last year additional toys needed to be purchased before this was possible. Co-op gameplay is reminiscent of the Lego series of video games that combine platforming, brawling and puzzle solving. There is also a more meaningful connection between virtual and physical characters through the expansive upgrade options that encourage players to customise their avatars in different directions – speed, ranged attacks, melee attacks or healing.

These choices are all instantly saved to the toys sat on the Infinity Base plugged into the console. This simplified approach to recording progress works well for children and means they can use the toys to access their tailored characters when visiting friends – regardless of which console platform they are using.

This is more important than it sounds not only for the thrill of physical objects recording virtual progress, but for the weight placed on the centrality of collecting these figures. Parents should note that signposted throughout the experience are reminders that purchasing more toys will grant access to more in-game characters.
Somewhat less emphasised is the optional nature of these additional characters. The Starter Pack on its own provides many hours of gameplay in the play-set adventure and game creation toy-box modes.

There are also Power Disc tokens to collect that cost £2.99 for two. These unlock abilities, powers, helper characters and Marvel costumes when placed on the Infinity Base under particular figurines. They extend the cost of the overall proposition but are a nice item for children to swap in the playground to complete their collection – something they will need to do as the discs are sold in foil “blind packs” that result in duplicates.

Disney Infinity remains beautifully simple and highly compelling for young players. It’s also potentially more expensive and commercial than games without associated toys. Being able to say “no” at supermarket checkouts is going to be a key part of ensuring the costs involved with this series stay reasonable. Importantly though, the Marvel starter pack not only provides a complete Avengers play set adventure but also access to the toy box game creation mode, so you’re getting many hours of enjoyment. Players can build large play worlds from scratch or use the new templates which provide ready-made areas like obstacle courses, race tracks and arenas, which users can customise. Additionally, it comes with two pre-built toy box games that also extend the package’s duration with a fresh challenge.

The Marvel starter pack doesn’t grant you access to the Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man adventures, though. These need to be purchased separately at around £30 for the play-set and a couple of related characters. This is to be expected. However, more surprising is that owners of the original Disney Infinity game have no way to access the new Marvel play set adventures without buying one of the physical 2.0 starter packs. There is a digital only version of the 2.0 toy box but this is restricted to accessing new characters and features in the game creator toy-box mode.

This means that families who purchased the first game will end up with two Infinity Base peripherals and have to switch discs to access particular adventures. It seems a missed opportunity to not offer a download option for the play sets on detection of the related physical toy – as the game already does in the toy-box mode. This would not only streamline the experience but also make it viable for owners of the new game to purchase play-sets from the original.

Is it okay for my child to play?

The Marvel version of Disney Infinity has a Pegi age rating of 7+ again this year, although having provisionally been flagged as Pegi 12 before appeal. At this level, Pegi flags the game for violence and fear: it contains the usual evil plot for world domination and characters from Marvel comics along with oodles of shooting, hitting and exploding enemies. There is no blood, though, and characters fall to pieces and disappear when they are dead.

In terms of difficulty rather than suitability, the Marvel adventures skew a little older. Things are more difficult this year with characters that die in the game getting a time-out before they can continue. This means that younger players may run out of lives and need to restart checkpoints – even with a comprehensive set of related toy characters to call upon.

Novice players can adjust the difficulty setting from the default to an easier level. Similarly, more able players can opt for a higher difficulty that will offer a more substantial challenge.

Disney Infinity 2.0 has certainly advanced in a number of areas since last year’s game. Its greatest assets are its Disney and Marvel characters but these also create its biggest limitations. Whereas every previous Skylanders character can be used in each new adventure, in Disney Infinity, players are restricted to using just those that match a particular franchise. Looking to offset this, Disney Infinity 2.0 introduces cross over characters that can be used in more than one play-set adventure. For instance you can bring Hulk, original in The Avengers, into both Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man play-sets.

This is a nice touch, but to get the best value out of Disney Infinity 2.0 you need to make proper use of the toy box mode (where you can use any combination of characters) to create your own video-game experiences and download examples from the community. This takes the game from entertainment into much more creative and educational territory.

Disney Infinity 2.0 is a complicated beast, and easy to write off as a money grab for this lucrative new market created by Skylanders. However, see the game in the hands on young players and the different pieces fit together coherently. Provided parents can enforce some restraint on buying every figure, it also offers good value for money – especially as the much improved toy box mode represents an endless canvas for creativity.

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