Disney Infinity
|
3DS
| Disney Infinity

Disney Infinity has consistently been advertised as a large, sandbox environment that you can fill with all of your favourite Disney characters before taking them on fantastical adventures.

It's easy to make the mistake of assuming that Disney Infinity for 3DS would be the same game. After all, Skylanders Giants from Activision attempted to replicate its home console counterpart.

It is not.

Disney Infinity is instead a very expensive collection of pretty atrocious mini-games. It's not the game you want, it's not the game we want, and it's absolutely not the game your child wants.

Positive criticism

Let's start with the positives, if only because we can dispense with them quickly.

The tech is absolutely fantastic. The statues are weighty, iconic, and well-constructed - so much so in fact that the models in the starter pack I purchased are currently sat on my desk. The scanner that brings them to life in the 3DS is also quick and reliable.

Once you've scanned the objects you want to play with into the game, you have them on your save file and don't need to bring all the kit with you. There's a lot to unlock in the game, along with a multiplayer mode and 50 mini-games to get through, so it's not an insubstantial package.

And now we move onto the not-so good stuff.

The presentation runs the gamut from "okay" to "embarrassing". Each character looks like its silver screen counterpart, but they all spout a limited number of vocal samples. There's an unhealthy helping of slowdown stirred into the mix, textures are low-rent, and the game has to load frequently - even between menu screens.

Just criticism

Framed as a boardgame of sorts, the game sees you travelling around a map after rolling a die, attempting to fulfil an objective that's set before you start. Each of the mini-games is boring, and entirely devoid of creativity. Though there are different boards to play on, each themed around the different Disney franchises, the mini-games are regurgitated frequently.

You take on the Kraken by hammering the 'fire' button and swinging the cannon lazily back and forth. You ride atop a speeding train, pressing A and B to jump over and evade slowly approaching obstacles. You chase after a stage coach, making exactly the same actions. If any of this sounds exciting, it's not.

There's a Doodle Jump clone in there, multiple arena combat games with terrible fighting mechanics, a woeful take on R-Type, and many more, all of which are complete pants.

As if this weren't bad enough, the game seems to reward players who have accumulated a lot of power-ups (i.e., spent real money on toys) or who have attained higher levels (i.e., chugged through the game for XP) so as to make losses feel unfair and victories feel hollow.

Good for neither quick bursts nor lengthy sessions, for neither older fans nor younger ones, Disney Infinity on 3DS is a very pricey collection of figures that happens to come with some tatty mini-games.

(iOS version pictured)

Disney Infinity

Want Mario Party, minus the fun, plus additional expense? Then you're crazy, but I guess Disney Infinity will be right up your street
Score
Peter Willington
Peter Willington
Die hard Suda 51 fan and professed Cherry Coke addict, freelancer Peter Willington was initially set for a career in showbiz, training for half a decade to walk the boards. Realising that there's no money in acting, he decided instead to make his fortune in writing about video games. Peter never learns from his mistakes.