Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have completely rewritten this review to add more detail as we've uncovered more Infinity goodness! We've been playing for hours upon hours since Sunday's release, so I feel I have a good grasp on most aspects of the game. Forgive me if I tend to compare Infinity to Skylanders as it's somewhat inevitable given that many people are here because of their interest in the former game. If you're interested in my direct comparison, continue on, but keep in mind that despite the similarities, these two games are entirely different. My initial thoughts on the game are how well-made and how deeply complex it is. For anyone who has played Toy Story 3, the play sets will instantly feel familiar. The Toy Box mode from Toy Story 3 is recreated here in almost identical fashion. Missions are located by glowing blue beacons in the sky and marked by a ! over their heads. A waypoint indicator (optional) is back again to guide you to the location of your mission objective. Back as well are all the little collectibles to pick up around every turn. Having spent a lot of time with the Cars play set with my son, it's also very familiar to find that the cars are controlled exactly like they are in Cars 2 (which happens to be the only game that we've ever unlocked every single achievement in!). The turbo meter is back and the controls for driving and racing are almost identical, with a few new additions. The same tricks and stunts can be performed here, and while the races aren't as long or varied as with Cars 2, all the familiarity is awesome for this Cars-loving family. It really feels like a mini Cars 2 game within the bigger game. The game in general is very easy to jump right into. The tutorial is brief and gets you acquainted with the basic controls that apply to all characters. Once you enter a play set, you will be briefly introduced to their special controls as each character set has their own abilities. You start out in the Toy Box, and this will be my first (and probably only) complaint about the game. You are dropped in the Toy Box with very little explanation about how to do anything. It's possible that we missed something as my son was excitedly mashing buttons, but I felt a little lost initially. (EDIT: After going back, there is a tutorial for the Toy Box itself, but I haven't yet been permitted to complete it!) The possibilities are so immense that it's hard to fathom, and the manual says nothing about this. More on that later. Onto the Skylanders comparison! Similarities: - Figures: Clearly the biggest similarity is the collectible figures. Although the need to hot swap characters as is the case with Skylanders, you're probably fine with just a single character until you come across an area or item that can only be accessed by a specific hero. Very similar to elemental gates, though it's usually just a chest unlocked an not a new challenge area. While Disney may have shot themselves in the foot for not pressuring you to have all the figures, it's refreshing to be able to experience the game with just a single favorite and not feeling like you're missing out, or worse, not being able to complete the game because you don't have all the necessary elements. If you are a completionist, however, you will want them all as each character is represented in the game's Hall of Heroes by a grand statue that changes as the character gains levels. If you want to unlock every single item in the game, you'll also need all the characters, but these items aren't essential to gameplay and are for Toy Box and cosmetic use only. That said, you do have to have at least one character from each play set to play in those worlds. This isn't an issue since each of the three worlds that come in the starter pack are also accompanied by three characters, one from each of those worlds. The Cars and Lone Ranger play sets also come with characters from those worlds, so not being able to "complete" a given play set should never be an issue. On the other hand, if you want to play multiplayer in any of the play sets, be prepared to have TWO characters from each world. While you can have two of the same (two Lightning McQueen, for example) you MUST have two from that world, or you and your kids will not be able to play together in that world. If you want to play multiplayer in Monsters right off the bat, you will need to pick up Randall or Mike. If you want to play Incredibles in multiplayer, you need Mrs. Incredible, Violet or Dash. I know some think this is "underhanded" by Disney, but to me, this really isn't any different than Skylanders forcing you to go out and buy at least five more figures to be able to experience the entire game. You can experience all Infinity has to offer with what you get in the starter pack, but if you want to play multiplayer (and who wouldn't?!) you need to plan on buying three other figures. The great thing about the Infinity figures is that multiple people can share the same figure. More on that in differences! - Leveling and Upgrades: Figures do level up and receive upgrades, though their upgrades are specific to their world. Meaning if Holley Shiftwell receives the Turbo 2 upgrade, it's only persistent in the Cars play set. I started a new save game in the Cars play set to try a few things out, and I no longer had my previous upgrades, but my experience level and money did persist between games. In Toy Box mode, it appears you automatically have all of the general upgrades, regardless of your progression in the play set. Experience here is called Sparks, and is obtained by completing missions, challenges, and also by smashing stuff. Likewise with money. - Objectives: In Infinity, objectives are called missions. Each play set has a long list of tasks to complete, ranging from very simple to quite challenging. There is definitely a lot here to keep the completionist busy for a long time. Where each Skylanders level has a variety of very similar tasks to complete, each of the 5 Infinity worlds has a wide variety of different challenges. - Challenges: Infinity's version of Heroic Challenges and Arena Battles is Challenges. Some are unlocked through story progression and others are purchased with coins. Each challenge has three difficulty levels and you appear to have to complete them in order. For example, completing easy unlocks medium, medium unlocks hard. For each level you complete, you get a "mark" on the icon above the challenge entrance, up to three total. The color also changes, which affects how you see them from afar. Uncompleted challenges glow yellow, while completed challenges are red so you can easily see which ones aren't complete and where they are on the map when you're exploring. Challenges range from racing around different tracks to trying to shoot a certain number of targets in a specific amount of time. Some are very simple, and some I've struggled to complete at the hard level. The racing challenges are actually very.. well, challenging! Differences: - Power Discs: This is an all new idea and plays into the fun of the chase as each Power Disc pack has two random discs in it. There already appears to be rare ones as we happened to find two that were a different color and had holographic designs on them rather than a regular picture. The circular variety give activated powers (like invulnerability or increased health) and the hexagonal discs give you things to play with in Toy Box, be it a new theme for your world or a new toy to play with. We've found several different cars, including Mickey's car, Cinderella's carriage and the ride car from the Astro Blasters attraction at the Disney parks. Each one plays familiar music when you ride around in it. We also found Stitch's ray gun which is very fun to chase each other around with! There is no point in having more than one hexagonal disc as using them once unlocks the item permanently, but it may be worth having two of each circle disc so that each player can use the same power up if desired. I've also heard that the 3DS version of the game allows you to "stack" two power ups at once, so also something to keep in mind when collecting the discs. - Upgrades: You shouldn't expect all of your upgrades to be about improving your character. While many are, about half are related to improving the world that you're in. For example, the cars get upgrades that increase their speed, towing ability, missiles, etc, but they also receive upgrades that spruce up the town, be it by adding new citizens or a new venue to the town. At the start, only Flo's V8 Cafe and Luigi's Casa Della Tires are present, but through upgrades you can purchase stores for Sarge, Filmore, Ramone, Lizzie, etc. Purchasing these stores also opens up new missions for you to complete, and as a result, new items and upgrades. - Character Swapping: While it was an oversight on my part, I was expecting to be able to play all characters in all play sets, but I was a bit sad to find out that in the play sets, you must play characters from those worlds. Cars can only play in Cars world, pirates in the pirates world, etc. While I've come to enjoy the game despite this, I wish it was open like Skylanders where you could play your favorite character no matter where you are. That said, I do understand why they have this restriction, because certain characters just wouldn't work with the mechanics in other play sets. For example, Lightning McQueen can't ride a horse in the Lone Ranger and Jack Sparrow can't tow cars who've run out of gas back to Flo's. However, in Toy Box mode, anything goes and you can run races with Sully or wield a gun with Mike. Truly with the Toy Box, your imagination (and grasp of the controls) are your only limitations. - Customizable World: You can change the look and feel of any of the buildings in your play sets. This is persistent to your game save, so I visit my son's world, I see how he has decorated Flo's V8 Cafe with pictures of Mater. If he visits mine, he sees an overload of pink and flowers! Customizing is very simple and intuitive and should be very easy for kiddos to pick up on, especially if they've played Toy Story 3. The interface for customizing is almost identical here. You interact with the building by pushing the button displayed on the screen, and it presents a graphical panel of options for customizing various parts of the building. This can be done at anytime and doesn't cost anything, so it's pure fun. You unlock other colors and designs by collecting them around the play set, just by picking them up. There are also countless spots where you can add your own little touches. There may be a post where you can choose to put a sign or wind chimes or whatever else you may have. And the fun part is, that persists through all other parts of the game. If you later race Chick Hicks around town, your wind chimes are there in front of the barn and your Guido Crossing sign is still in front of Luigi's shop. You can also customize the people (or cars!) who live in your world. When you first start out with the Cars play set, all the little citizen cars are just white. You can interact with each one and change them however you like, depending on which items you've found around town (and there are a great number of them). This may include a special hat, a new paint job, or new tires. You can also purchase new citizens altogether from the same menu where you purchase upgrades, which gives you new options for body types of your cars. Even as an adult, it's very fun to watch all our little creations drive around town. My son and I are constantly pointing out the ones that we've customized and complimenting each other on our designs! - Unlockable Items: Each play set is littered with items for you to pick up and collect in little capsules, like the ones you'd see in the quarter machines. Red ones are the more common type, unlocking only one item either for your play set or for the Toy Box. Green ones unlock a whole set of items for Toy Box. Some items are cosmetic, for customizing the citizens of your world or your buildings, some are actually useful items that change how you play. The former is the more common type. - Local Multiplayer: Clearly both games have local multiplayer, but there are many stark differences. In Skylanders, you are more or less bound to each other. You can't go anywhere independently, and that's not necessarily a bad thing for that game. After all, what's the point of beating up bad guys in multiplayer if you're not even together? That said, multiplayer in Infinity is a whole different scenario. You can work together, both directly or indirectly, or you can do your own thing entirely. As a result, multiplayer in Infinity is split screen, which we weren't crazy about at first, but now we absolutely love it. Here's why. If you're working on a mission to put out fires, you can split up and each of you can cover a different area. If you're on a stealth mission, one of you can be the lookout and guide the other from a different location. If you're racing, clearly the race wouldn't be very fun if you were stuck to each other and would kind of defeat the purpose of having a race in the first place. Given that cooperation is entirely possible, it's not required, and here's where Infinity is entirely different from Skylanders. At some point, my kiddo just wanted to drive around and customize everything and create a pile of cars that he towed to Mater's impound lot. While this looked absolutely fun and exciting (!) I wanted to continue on with missions and get more upgrades. While he was happily doing his own thing, I continued on completing missions and finding collectibles by myself. He was swapping out his cars left and right, opening chests and the like, and my game was never interrupted. There's no "loading" screen when a character is swapped, so he could change characters and power ups to his heart's content, even access menus while paused, and I was still cruising around. When one of us decided to take up a challenge, the other would be invited and given the opportunity to accept or decline. If one declined, they would be taken out of the game while the other completed the challenge, and then brought back again after the challenge was complete. If one accepts, they go on to complete the challenge together (or compete against each other, depending on the challenge). The ability to not be stuck to each other and be bound to what the other is doing is a really fun twist and makes the game feel much more open and interactive. - Online Multiplayer: I feel this part is somewhat misleading. You can't go online and team up with random people like you would in a game like Castle Crashers or Halo, but you can play online with friends. This isn't very useful if you don't know anyone who plays the game yet, but I'm sure communities will form online and people will add each other that way. I think random teams would have been a fun addition and I'm sad that this wasn't an option. I understand Disney was likely concerned about content being appropriate for the whole family, but since they support the parental settings in Disney Infinity, I don't think this would have been an issue. You could just block certain accounts from user created content and allow others full access. Basically online multiplayer is co-op in Toy Box mode with up to 4 players, including 2 local players. Disney has a few worlds they created available for download, and it remains unclear how you will access worlds created by other users. I've heard that it's possible to upload worlds to Disney that they will then make available to others for download, but I have no idea how this works yet so I can't really comment on it. - Experience: This is probably the single biggest difference between Infinity and Skylanders. Experience (sparks) are not gained by battling endless hordes of monsters. They are earned by completing missions and challenges. This may be off-putting to the biggest fans of Skylanders, but as a serious Skylander fan myself, I still find a lot to enjoy here. I don't really need another Skylanders (neither does my bank account!) but Infinity shines in it's own way. You shouldn't expect to jump into a hack and slash game here. While there is some of that (more in some play sets than others) this game is primarily about completing missions and progressing through the story. While it's entirely possible to replay areas to get more sparks the money, just like with Skylanders, you will basically be replaying story mode from the beginning. So far there is no shortage of missions and they are easy to locate by their glowing beacons that shoot up into the sky. The challenges also provide plenty of sparks and money, if you're successful, of course. Another brilliant addition is that in multiplayer, experience and money are automatically shared equally. No more fighting over who gets the next chest! Thank you, Disney! - Character info is stored locally: Unlike Skylanders where character levels and money are stored only on the figure itself, character info is also stored locally. This means multiple people can share the same figure, yay! This was an ingenious move on Disney's part. Say you're playing Lightning McQueen and he's level 7 and then you go to your friend's house to play. McQueen will show up as a "guest" in your friend's game, retaining your level and money. You can continue to play him as a guest and he'll keep progressing. He will retain any experience and money he earned while you were playing as a guest with your friend. However, if your friend doesn't have McQueen, he can take ownership of the figure and the character will start back at level 0 for him. The neat part is, when you take McQueen back to your game, he still has the amount of experience and money he had when YOU last played him. When your friend plays him again on his game (or if he purchases his own McQueen) he will then start from where he left off with the borrowed McQueen. In essence, each figure can retain information for multiple save games. Several family members can use the same figure, and since the character information is also stored locally, each individual can have their own information on that one figure. Another bonus is, if your figure ever stops working, you can just purchase a new one and no information will be lost. Very, very cool. - Length: With the number of hours we've logged so far into the Cars world alone, I think it's safe to say that Disney Infinity has many, many more hours of play than either of the Skylanders games. We had easily completed Skylanders Giants in a week, and that's with most of the stars and achievements unlocked. Granted, not all of our characters were level 15 in that week, but we had played through all the content. So far we've only played in the Cars play set and a teeny tiny bit in Toy Box, and with 4 other worlds to play through and the Toy Box to dig into, it would seem we have weeks of new content to play through. - Toy Box: There's is just too much here in the Toy Box to delve into with this already lengthy review, but suffice it to say, we are always thrilled to go into the Toy Box and try out the things we've unlocked while playing in the play sets. I haven't had a chance to go through the Toy Box tutorial yet, so I really have no idea what I'm doing besides chasing my kiddo around in makeshift races, so I'll add more to this section later. In the meantime, the DisneyInfinity channel on YouTube appears to have numerous tutorial videos. I've watched a few and I'm very excited about the possibilities! To close, there is so much more here than I was expecting. I was honestly a bit hesitant thinking this endeavor by Disney was going to fall short in the face of Skylanders, but we are already hooked on Infinity, pursuing each challenge, objective, mission and upgrade, and having already sunk a good chunk of time into the game with only a single world, and considering we appear to be not even half way through, I think it's safe to assume that as we play through the other four play sets, we will experience many, many more happy hours of play together. There's really no reason NOT to pick up Infinity if you're looking for a good time for the whole family.