Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition

Genre: 3D Platformer / Action-RPG / Content Creation Application

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Note: Are you confused by all this “Toys to Life” stuff? Check out eShopperReviews’ helpful guide here!

Disney Infinity 3.0 is a family-friendly 3D Platformer with Action-RPG elements and a Content Creation Application mode. This game was released in 2015 on PC, mobile devices, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Wii U. This game takes the “Toys to Life” concept and adds to it Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars franchises, along with a custom world-creation tool similar to what you might see in games like the LittleBigPlanet series, Mario Maker, and more recently in Game Builder Garage. As for the “Toys to Life” content, much like Amiibos, Disney Infinity figurines have NFC chips in them, which can be read by a “Infinity Base” portal device that connects to your Wii U via a USB port.

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Getting Started

For those wondering about what additional toys/gadgets/doodads you’ll need to get to enjoy this game, know that in order to play this game, you need to have a Wii U-compatible Infinity Base. This includes versions of this device made for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Wii platforms (not the 3DS, Xbox 360, or Xbox One platforms though – those won’t work. Not sure about PC, mobile, or PlayStation Vita platforms). It doesn’t matter which Edition number in the series the base comes from – all edition numbers work the same.

You will also need at least one Disney Infinity character figurine from any Disney Infinity series – all figurines are compatible with this game. Each figurine has different abilities, but no specific figurine is required to play the game.

That is all you need to play the game – one compatible Infinity base and any one character figurine. However, if you want to fully enjoy the game, you may have to consider getting more…

If you want to play a significant portion of this game’s content, you will also want to get a compatible Play Set figurine (this game only works with play set figurines created for the third game – 1.0 Edition and 2.0 Edition figurines won’t cut it). Each Play Set figurine contains worlds with activities to do, and these worlds can only be played if you use the corresponding character. For example, to play the world of the Twilight of the Republic Play Set, you will need an Anakin Skywalker figurine, Ahsoka Tano figurine, or another figurine designed to work with this Play Set.

In addition, players can opt to use additional round and hexagonal Power Discs (once again, this game works with discs from all three Editions of Disney Infinity) to add more content into the game and give characters additional upgrades.

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Truly Infinite?

As with the first two games, Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition is basically split into two sections. There’s Toy Box mode and there are the Play Sets. By default, without using a Play Set figurine, players will only have access to the Toy Box mode. This is a world creation tool that allows players to create their own small worlds, even make small levels to complete via various means. The game includes a handful of tutorials for crafting these worlds, and thankfully this time around there’s a decent variety of demonstration levels to give players some good content to play even if they don’t have a Play Set to play with. It’s still nothing compared to a full game campaign, but it’s more than we got for the second game.

These levels were meant to demonstrate the wealth of possibilities that players could create in the game’s Toy Box mode, which could then be shared with others online. However, yet again, as I write this in 2022, this game’s online features are no longer supported, meaning that without additional Play Set figurines, you’ll only be able to play what you create yourself, and what little is packaged with the game.

Because of this, to feel like you’re really getting a decent amount of gameplay out of Disney Infinity, you’ll really want to make use of the Play Set figurines, but I’m not sure just how I should rate this game when so much of the content of the game is locked behind these additional purchases. If you manage to track down a new copy or bought the game when it first game out, it will have come with a starter Play Set, but those buying the game now may be getting it used, which means they won’t necessarily have access to this, or may pick it up with a completely different Play Set figurine.

I can say that, as with the first two Disney Infinity games, generally speaking these Play Sets offer a larger area to explore with multiple Platforming and Action-Platforming-style tasks to accomplish, complete with their own story. It’s nothing truly extraordinary, but this is definitely where the meat of the game will be. Unfortunately, it’s also where a part of this game’s core appeal crumbles away, because players can only take characters into these worlds that were originally from these worlds, dulling the thrill of the crossover potential this game seems to be built on.

There are a few noteworthy gameplay additions in this game this time around as well. To name a few, the combat in this game (when using newer characters) is much deeper and more well-crafted, there is even more variety in the gameplay, such as sections where you can use turrets or fly space ships, and the helper “sidekick” characters introduced in Disney Infinity 2.0 play a larger part and have more abilities. Overall, this isn’t as dramatic a leap as the second game was over the first one, but it’s still an improvement.

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A Galactic Presentation?

Unfortunately, Disney Infinity 3.0 still suffers from the graphical issues that were present in earlier games in the series, and it fares just as bad as the first game, if not worse.

You still have some nice-looking 3D worlds with 3D characters that look like a somewhat exaggerated version of their cartoon counterparts (or in the case of the live-action characters, they look like cartoon caricatures), complete with voice acting that’s often (but not always) provided by the original voice actors for these characters. The characters do seem a bit “off”, but there’s still a good general feeling of that old “Disney Magic” here.

Unfortunately, this game suffers from some horrendous slowdown on the Wii U, with pop in, graphical glitching throughout the game, and some excruciatingly long load times. This is more prominent in Toy Box mode than in Play Set levels, but the fact that these issues still plague this series after two years and multiple releases is extremely disappointing.

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A Forceful Triumph, or a Hive of Scum and Villainy?

The final game in the Disney Infinity series builds on the earlier games to be the best of the lot, but it doesn’t improve enough on the problems the series has had from the beginning. Disney Infinity 3.0 still has horrible graphical and performance issues, still suffers from most of its best content being gated behind additional purchases, and once again suffers tremendously from the loss of its online features that are no longer available. Fans of the various franchises included here who want to build their own worlds and… just play in those worlds themselves… well, this is the best way to do that, but it’s disappointing that this franchise never truly reached its full potential due to these issues never being fully addressed.

tl;dr – Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition is a family-friendly 3D Platformer with Action-RPG elements and a Content Creation Application mode where players are enticed with the promise of an epic crossover featuring all their favorite Disney, Pixar, and Marvel characters, and being able to build their own adventure for those characters. Once again, there are definitely improvements over prior games in the series, but there are also some horrible graphics and performance issues, and once again the fact that the game’s online features have been shut off means that the majority of this game’s content is no longer available, and players still wanting to enjoy the game will only truly get the most out of it buy buying into the “Toys to Life” stuff. Sadly, this series ended without ever truly realizing its full potential.

Grade: C+

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