E3 2015 - Disney Infinity 3.0 Hands-On Preview: The Force of the Party

There’s a whole new wave of Disney Infinity coming, and it seems to be even better than the last. I got a hands-on preview of the Star Wars: Twilight of the Republic playset at this year’s E3, and I had a blast.

A walk around the Disney booth shed light on the effort that is put into “infinitizing” each character, sometimes requiring the figure to be recast multiple times with slight improvements each time. There was a lot of sketches, figures, and art being showcased at the booth, putting further emphasis on the actual creation of the figures. The graphics of 3.0 seemed even more updated, smooth, and colorful.

Character Swapping is a Breeze

I played as everyone’s favorite Wookie, Chewbacca, a character from the Star Wars: Rise Against the Empire playset. Chewbacca isn’t from the playset I was demoing, but a new feature allows characters from the Star Wars sets to cross over and play in both. I could see myself not wanting to part with Chewie’s ability to pick up enemies and chuck them over ledges, so I’d definitely want to keep him around for all my Star Wars adventures with this new crossover feature.

The new Disney Infinity 3.0 playsets all have something extra to add to the story of whatever world they’re from. So if you go see the movie Inside Out and want to continue enjoying that world, you’ll get gameplay that furthers the story instead of just taking your money and giving you a gimicky experience. I can really appreciate this, because if I’m going to spend the money on a playset, you can bet I’d want to experience that to the fullest.

During the demo, I came upon a door that was locked and had to be hacked via a terminal nearby. The camera angle messed up a bit once I stepped up to hack the terminal, as Chewie was apparently slightly glitched and kept swinging over to right above the floor on the side, making it so I couldn’t see the button prompts very well. The PR reps nearby were surprised that happened, so they quickly switched Chewie out for Luke Skywalker so I could use the Force to bust through the door instead. This showed me that it was super easy and fast to switch out characters if the player doesn’t quite understand or want to complete elements of the levels in a certain way. It was a near instant swap, too. You could get away with switching during a battle and not suffer for it, I would say.

Disney’s Sand Box

They Toy Box is still a big part of 3.0, and it seems there will be a few new games to play there. As before, this version will be forward compatible, meaning any previous Infinity character can come play in the Toy Box. Toy Box Speedway will be a racing game with nine themed tracks and three tournament cups, which sounds like a great party or family game to go along with the rest of the fun stuff in Disney Infinity 3.0. There will also be the new Toy Box Takeover, where characters have to team up to save the Toy Box from the bad guys across six new levels and five themed worlds. Unfortunately, I didn’t get my hands on this, and I would have liked to as it does sounds very interesting.

In Disney Infinity 3.0, you can dive into creating mini games and worlds, and then share them with your friends, now with Star Wars characters, Mickey and Minnie, Marvel characters, and more. There will also be new sets of power disks for 3.0 that unlock new gadgets, team attacks, and costumes. Personally, I love the way Disney has formed characters for Infinity, and 3.0 just adds more to love.

Despite limiting the use of other characters in each new playset’s levels, Disney Infinity 3.0 is backed by Disney’s ownership of really strong licenses, almost ensuring everyone will find something to enjoy. Combine that with the creative power of the Toy Box and you get a solid game with near limitless capabilities. And readers here shouldn’t forget the early exclusive PS4 character, Boba Fett! Nothing like a good exclusive, right?