Disney Infinity 2.0 Hands On With Producer John Day

This past Tuesday, I headed up to London to meet with Disney Infinity 2.0’s Executive Producer, John Day and was able to have a hands on session on the game, figures and power discs along with a demonstration by John, and interview.

One of the first things that caught my attention, wasn’t the huge flat screen TV’s or the beautiful old fashioned library where we were meeting, it was the big pile of brand new Disney Infinity 2.0 figures sat on a table in the corner and underneath the big screen. My eyes were instantly drawn to the imposing Incredible Hulk and the rest of the Marvel Super Heroes plus a few Disney figures (including the recently announced Donald Duck).

The detail on the figures is amazing and for me, a big improvement over some of the original figures from the first game. The size of Venom and the bright vibrant colours coming off many of the figures like Spider-Man, Captain America, Merida and Donald were eye catching from across the room.

Once the demonstration was over, I was able to go have a proper close up look at all the figures and the power discs that Disney Interactive had put out for display. The figures look incredible up close, while all the figures have a similar feel to them, they still all look very different to one another.

I was very impressed with the look of the Rocket Raccoon and Groot figures from the Guardians of the Galaxy, these figures are going to be very popular and the Disney figures that I saw also were much better in person than I was expecting.

John explained the basics of Disney Infinity 2.0, showing off the Ultimate Spider-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy play sets. Both Starlord and Spider-Man looked amazing on the huge big screen and the PlayStation 4 version makes the game look stunning. The graphics on the game are simply amazing and also John explained that the Next Gen consoles (PS4 & Xbox One) also are able to build much larger toy boxes due to their processing power.

The sheer size of the new playsets is hard to compare to the original ones, John explained that the Spider-Man playset is nearly 6 times the size of the Incredibles playset. While someone could complete the playset in 6 hours, that wouldn’t include all the side missions or other character content.

In the Guardians of the Galaxy playset, within a couple of minutes, you can really see how much larger and more impressive the playsets have become, the skydome in the background showed off the beauty of the PS4 and it was also very noticeable how different this playset played, when compared to the Spider-Man one.

John also showed off the Toy Box 2.0 new features including many of the new builders such as a race track, which will make the whole toy box experience feel much smoother and quicker for players. Players can still go in an alter anything afterwards but within a couple of minutes, John created two complete race tracks within one toy box, showing off how simple it is. Many other new toys have been added to make gameplay much easier, templates can now be placed to create many different types of games such as platformers, pinball and defense games.

And this was barely scratching the surface of what the Toy Box 2.0 can do. John then showed off the new interior options, with loads of new features and options, including the new doors which allow up to 10 toy boxes to be linked together.

I got to see how the gameplay of the Asgard Toy Box game disc looked and while there are a few animated cut scenes and voice overs that are unique to that game, almost everything could be recreated within the Toy Box. The difficulty level for the toy box games and play sets can also be adjusted for younger gamers.

All the figures and power discs from Disney Infinity 1.0 can be used on the game, I saw all the Toy Story figures in the Toy Box and while their upgrades aren’t as extensive as the new figures, they still have had new moves added to their repertoire.

Many of the Disney and Marvel power discs were on display, showing off the wide range of properties that Disney own including the Lion King and other Marvel characters like the Winter Solider, Ant Man, Dr Strange and many more. At having Circle of Life coming on when the Lion King discs were put on was rather cool and the Black Symbiote costume change for Spider-Man looks fantastic.

I was able to play through some of the Ultimate Spider-Man play set myself and it felt very different to previous play sets, while you had clear instructions on what to do, the basic tutorial didn’t feel as basic as it did on the original game, but at the same time, felt more natural. It was also interesting to see how a character can build up a skill tree, even Spider-Man can’t swing until he unlocks that ability (though it didn’t take long). Watching the game being played on a split screen also showed how easy the game can be picked up as within minutes, everything seemed very smooth.

John also answered some extra questions about Disney Infinity that you can find below in this exclusive video interview where I ask lots of questions including what he is looking forward to from 2.0, Disney playsets, the response from the community and much more.

Here is some of the John Day’s presentation including a look at the Spider-Man playset, Donald Duck & Tinkerbell in the Toy Box, Interiors, Asgard Toy Box Game and more:

Overall the whole game feels much larger and more powerful than before, I can’t wait until September to get my hands back on this game, I’ve had a taste and I certainly want more. The figures look incredible in person and I was blown away with the visuals of the Next Gen version of the playsets and the huge improvement in the overall feel of the game, the playsets have been vastly improved and the Toy Box 2.0’s new toys are going to make the whole experience much more enjoyable and fun to play.

What are you looking forward to from Disney Infinity 2.0?