Disney Infinity 3.0 Hands On First Impressions

This week, I was invited to attend a special hands on experience with Disney Infinity 3.0 in London, England. At this event I was able to get some time playing through some of the early stages of the Star Wars Twilight Of The Republic and Rise of the Empire playsets as well as Pixar’s Inside Out. I was also shown some of the new Toy Box features including the hub which included Flynn’s and the El Capitan theatre plus a introduction to farming.

I was also able to see a number of the launch figures in person for the first time including Star Wars characters, Anakin Skywalker, Obi Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka & Yoda from the Twilight of the Republic, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Boba Fett from Rise of the Empire. I also got to see all of the emotions from Inside Out (Anger and Sadness both felt very heavy). And Disney Toy Box characters Mulan, Sam Flynn, Quorra, Mickey & Minnie Mouse. All of these figures looked incredibly well made and each year you can see how Disney are improving their techniques for creating the figures.

I also got to see the Luke & Leia costume change power discs and box Toy Box Expansion pieces (Speedway & Takeover), which are a big improvement over the design of last years Toy Box Game Discs as these have a more playset piece feel to them but also standing out as their own.

First, I played through some of the Twilight Of The Republic Playset, including a epic boss battle with General Grievous. My initial thoughts are the combat has been massively improved with Ninja Theory really taking their experience and upping the fight system. Each Jedi felt slightly different and adding different combinations has made fighting much more advanced. It’s still possible to just hit a single button but there are many different additional moves for more advance play including some awesome looking slowed down finishing moves. The Force has also become a major addition with the ability to throw and move objects including enemies. It’s also good to know this fighting ability has been applied to all weapons including those 1.0 power discs like the Pink Flamingo mallet.

Rise of the Empire felt very different to Twilight as it’s more of a highlight reel of some of the major moments in the original trilogy, whereas Twilight is an original story. We got to see Landspeeder racing on Tatoonie plus some epic At-At battles on the frozen planet of Hoth. But I started out in a awesome space flight sequence where I was reenacting the classic trench run on the Death Star in a X-Wing. On my first go, I did well at defending my fellow Rebels but my evading needs some practice. It was such a great experience and something I will want to go back into and master. This is the playset I’m the most excited about as I’m a huge Star Wars fan. The ability to take other Star Wars characters and play them in all the Star Wars playsets, adds lots of replay value to the game.

I also got to try out the new Inside Out playset, which I think is going to be a big hit with the Disney crowd, it’s completely different to be Star Wars playsets, I got to play a 2D side scrolling level which felt so fresh and without the bugs of when this has been attempted in 2.0 toy boxes. Another level almost felt slightly Skylander’ish with its camera style, but it was very easy to just pick up and play, they’ve also included traditional elements to levels of trying to collect all the collectibles or doing the level as fast as possible to add replay value. I also found the different abilities between characters like Sadness and Anger, I was really struggling with a cloud jump with Anger, who burns right through it, a quick swap to Sadness and it was simple. These little touches give that desire to use different toys which is a big plus side to having the more than just the two in the playset pack.

There was some negative feedback to last years 2.0 playsets which lacked the variety that we saw in 1.0 and that has been fixed in 3.0. After playing 3 different playsets, there is a big difference and that doesn’t even include the unannounced Marvel and Star Wars Force Awakens playsets which will be coming later.

3.0 still keeps many of the same things that give it that Infinity feel, the capsules returning, the intro music is the same and even the toy box announcer is the same, which is a nice little touch and keeps it grounded within the Infinity universe.

With just over a month to go until launch, I simply can’t wait to get my hands on this game and explore all the different playsets and expansion games, then we have the toy box. Something that hooked me in 2.0, I spent hundreds if not thousands of hours using the toy box in 2.0, building my own and playing the top toy boxes from the community. So I can’t wait to get in and start experimenting, as I feel that going off of what I’ve seen. It’ll be a huge improvement.

Are you excited for Disney Infinity 3.0?