Disney Infinity 3.0 Finding Dory Review

Posted on June 11, 2016 by Roger Palmer

Following the closure of Disney Infinity, it’s easy for people to write off the final release of the Finding Dory playset, and that would be a big mistake. Finding Dory is one of the best playsets I’ve played for Disney Infinity and is a perfect way to close out the game.

The Finding Dory playset is primarily a side strolling platformer, there are a variety of different objectives, such as working out some puzzles to find a way out or finding fellow fish and escort them to safety. There is a wide selection of different robotic fish enemies along the way, that are dealt with in a unique way of trapping in a bubble and giving them a push, rather than the usual fighting system we’ve seen in Disney Infinity.

Some might be worries about spoilers for the movie, this game follows a similar approach to the Inside Out playset, a sequel, without giving too much basic information away about the plot of the movie. Which works best for these movie tie in games as it was one of my biggest complaints about the Force Awakens playset which didn’t follow the movie plot very well.

As with many of the Infinity playsets, there is a “home” base between levels, that consists of challenges and adding different items to a reef for the rescued fish. This area feels the weakest part of the game as while the swimming feels better than we see in the Toy Box with these characters, which feels more like jumping and flapping around than swimming. One little issue I had in the Bay Area was not being able to turn around did make this feel harder to use, but there is a lot of interesting side quests to go back after the initial story is done and master. Whereas the control method within the 2D levels feels sharp and very responsive.

The 2D levels offer plenty of replay value as trying to master each level, rescue all the fish, do it as quickly as possible, locate toy box toys and get 3 stars for them.

Following the previous playsets like Battlegrounds and Force Awakens being very short, this playset is back to form with hours of entertainment and it was a blast playing brought the game. This playset does follow a similar experience as many previous games like Finding Nemo and the recent mobile game, Just Keep Swimming, it feels like a premium version that is extremely well made. The game looks beautiful, with its bright vibrant colours and backgrounds, especially the main bay with the Whale Shark and Beluga Whale swimming around the edges.

Much like the Lone Ranger playset from the original game, Finding Dory only has two playable characters, Dory, who comes with the playset and Nemo is available as a single character. While it’s possible to complete the game with just Dory, it would require lots of restarting at checkpoints, rather than just switching out characters, when health runs out. I did feel Dory felt faster while playing through the level, however I did find both characters much less enjoyable in the toy box as the bubble attack and tail swipe attacks feel odd and much like the Inside Out emotions, fun in the playset but underpowered compared to the Superheroes and Jedi’s.

There are some great moments in the levels such as when the kids reach down into the touch pools or the security guard shines his torch in, requiring you to hide out of the light. I also loved being able to use different friends to reach different areas and riding on the back of a crab, provided plenty of laughs.

I would recommend the Finding Dory playset to any Disney Infinity player, it’s a lot of fun and feels unique. It’s a really enjoyable game that could have easily been released as a solo video game (which Disney is returning to). This is the perfect final fling with Disney Infinity and very bittersweet to finish on such a high.

Check out some of these gameplay videos of the playset in action: