Disney Infinity is
perhaps one of the most enjoyable and addicting games I have ever played. The
game is on the one hand an open-world sandbox game (á la Minecraft),
on the other hand, a collecting of Disney characters element (á la an extremely expensive Pokémon—Disney Edition), on yet another
hand with different Disney mini-worlds that each have their own theme, cast, and
missions (á la Disney Universe), all
presented in a style similar to the popular Skylanders
series (how many hands was that, by the way?). Many have reviewed the gameplay,
cost, and other features, but I have yet to see anyone review the game’s selection
of available characters, and especially the lack of diversity in those
characters.
If you’re
looking for an in-depth review of gameplay, cost, or anything like that I
invite you to find the plethora of published reviews already out there. I’m
just going to do a brief over view of the basics of gameplay, a quick look at
the play sets and upcoming releases, followed by a more in-depth overview of
the lack of diversity in the characters. I also invite you to skip to the
section marked “Characters” if you already know or aren’t interested in the
basics of the game.
Basics of Gameplay
When
one purchases the game, there are three “play sets” right off the bat: Pirates of the Carribean sees Captain
Jack Sparrow try to undo his curse by Davy Jones; Monsters University has James P. “Sulley” Sullivan try to help
Monsters U beat Fear Tech in a scare-off competition; and Mr. Incredible defeat
Syndrome once and for all. Each of these individual play sets has about six
hours of game play to beat the primary objective, with another four to six
hours to beat all the side quests and find all the hidden objects, etc. Disney Infinity also has the
aforementioned sandbox mode, called Toy Box, where one can have all their
favorite characters interact with one another and with various toys that they
unlock from the play sets, which allows for single player, multi-player (local
and online), and untold hours of gameplay as one can practically craft an
entire world (and even make one’s own missions and objectives) out of their
available toys, which then can be shared online as well.
The
figures and play sets are placed on a base that connects to one’s console, the
base reads the figure(s) and play set and then uses that figure in the game.
The best part is the figures are non-specific to consoles and character data is
saved locally on the figure itself, meaning, I can take my Captain Jack figure
off of my Xbox 360 and go to my friend’s house who only has the Wii U and play
with my Captain Jack along with her Mr. Incredible on her console in her toy
box. And, if my character levels up while playing on her console, when I take
him home and play with him on my console, that level-up data will be saved.
That’s
just in the box itself. For additional cost, one can purchase more figures and
play sets for their world. Currently, one can also purchase Captain Barbosa and
Davy Jones for the Pirates of the Caribbean
play set, Mike Wazowski and Randall “Randy” Boggs for the Monsters University play set, and Mrs.
Incredible (Elastigirl), Dash, Violet, and Syndrome for the Incredibles play set. Also, one can
purchase a Lone Ranger play set that
comes with the Lone Ranger and Tonto and a Cars
play set that comes with Lightning McQueen and Holley Shiftwell (one can also
purchase Tow Mater and Francesco
Bernoulli separately).
It also should be
noted that each of the characters cannot play in non-respective play sets (i.e.,
Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates cannot be played in the Incredibles play set), but all characters can be played and
interact interchangeably in the Toy Box mode. Furthermore, each character has a
unique set of abilities that make sense to their universe—Mr. Incredible is
super strong, Captain Jack fights with a sword, Sulley has a scare attack.
Play Sets
The play sets are pretty fun. I’ve had the opportunity to
play all of the play sets currently available except for the Cars, and each one comes with hours of
fun gameplay. My favorite is the Lone
Ranger set, where one gets to fight the bad guys in old-Western shoot-outs,
build a train, ride horses into the sunset, all that good stuff. The Pirates
set of course has pirate boats that you get to build and fight with, along with
sword fighting and hidden treasure chests. Incredibles
involves using super powers to take down the bad guy, but also do other hero
stuff—putting out fires, saving citizens, capturing robbers. My least favorite
is the Monsters University play set—that
one just seems the most lackluster—going around scaring people, pulling college
pranks like throwing fireworks into dorm rooms, stuff like that.
The greatest part about the various toy sets also is the
weakness of Disney Infinity: the game
is a little uneven. Some play sets are great, others okay, and, at least one
thus far, a little lack luster. But with at least one more play set slated for upcoming
release and a whole slew of characters to come, the game seems to have
something for everybody.
Upcoming Releases
The unique thing with Disney
Infinity having character data saved on the character figures and play sets
being activated by play set statues is that there is potential for a lot of
expansion to the current lineup of characters and play set worlds. Already
slated for release is a Toy Story in
Space play set which will include Jessie and Buzz, with Woody available separately.
Other figures that are confirmed to be released, which may or may not come with
play sets, are Rapunzel from Tangled,
Phineas Flynn and Perry the Platypus from Phineas
and Ferb, Jack Skellington from The
Nightmare Before Christmas, Wreck-It-Ralph and Vanellope Von Schweetz from Wreck-It Ralph, Sorcerer Mickey from Fantasia, and Anna and Elsa from Disney’s
upcoming computer animated film Frozen.
These are just the characters already confirmed to be released—who knows if
future updates to the game will allow for additional figures and play sets? As
the tagline for the game reads, there truly does seem to be “infinite
possibilities.”
Characters
The single most-disappointing piece of the game for me is
simply the lack of diversity in the characters. At start-up, there are only three
female characters available, all of which have to be purchased separately from
what one receives in the basic starter pack. These characters, Holly Shiftwell
from Cars, and Violet and Mrs.
Incredible from The Incredibles
provide little female representation in a game where the remaining FOURTEEN
characters are all men (if male cars count as men?).
In addition to that, there is only one character that is not
white or without race (I’m just going to go ahead and say that the cars from Cars and monsters from Monsters University are without race,
although one could argue that they are white too if one goes off of their voice
actors). The only character that is not white is Tonto from The Lone Ranger, who is Native American
(although, it could also be argued that he is white since he is portrayed in
the film by Johnny Depp).
This could be written off as a reflection of the state of
women and people of color in film today if we were talking about any universe
other than Disney. Disney-Pixar has made it a point to include a diverse cast
of characters, including strong female characters like Mulan or Merida, and
just look at the diversity of the princess: Mulan is Chinese, Jasmine is of
Near-Eastern/Middle-Eastern descent, Tiana is African-American, and Pocahontas
is Native American. With the popularity of the Disney Princesses franchise
(including toys, video games, books, and straight to DVD films), I find it
interesting that there is no mention of a Disney Princesses expansion for the
game and that of all the princesses, only Rapunzel is slated for release
(Rapunzel? Really? Don’t get me wrong, Tangled
is a great movie. But still). Of course, the Disney Princesses line raises
its own concerns (always a princess, never a queen for one), but many of the
princesses are very strong female characters who do not rely on a man to save
them (just off the top of my head I can think of Belle, Mulan, and Merida…
Hell, Merida doesn’t even have an accompanying prince!).
And it’s not just that Disney Interactive Studios picked
films with limited diversity for the game. Frozone was a very popular superhero
in The Incredibles film, but is
strangely absent from the game. And with the Incredibles having practically
every other character playable or at least making a cameo from the movie, it’s
very odd that Frozone doesn’t even get a cameo, much less a separate figure.
Even the film’s villain got picked over the witty, sarcastic, and popular black
superhero Frozone. Of course, licensure may be involved, but not even a cameo?
Really? Really. In the Pirates franchise, Elizabeth Swann was a main character
for three of the four films, and Tia Dalma, who is the Caribbean avatar for the
sea goddess Calypso, would have been an awesome playable addition to the game.
At least we have hope for the future: out of the twelve
identified characters awaiting release for the game, five are female.
Unfortunately, none are of color. But
Disney recently bought Star Wars and
has the Marvel Cinematic Universe in tow, which may also be pulled from for
this game.
Side note: Can you imagine Princess Leia and Mace Windu
fighting against Nick Fury and Black Widow? Now throw in Mrs. Incredible and
Sorcerer Mickey into the mix. That truly would be an epic game, and if
licensure allows, Disney Infinity might
just be that game.
So, who knows what we will have when all is said and done. Disney Infinity continues to be selling
well, and hopefully, we will see more diversity in upcoming releases.
