Disney Infinity 3.0 Inside Out Play Set Review

There was many complaints about the lack of “Disney” in last years version, but 3.0 comes back in kicking with a fantastic play set about Pixar’s latest hit animated movie “Inside Out”.   All the emotions from the hit summer blockbuster are playable characters in the game, included in the play set pack is Joy and Anger (my personal favourite emotion), with Sadness, Fear and Disgust all being available individually.

Inside Out plays unlike any previous play sets in Disney Infinity, this game has its own unique story that takes place after the events of the movie and features over 25 levels with different objectives and gaming styles.  There is some 2D and 3D platforming with puzzles and collecting objectives, comparing this to the Star Wars play sets that are released at the same time is almost impossible.

The actual figures look amazing and very solid, Anger and Sadness stand out as amazing figures that even without the game, they wouldn’t look out of place on a shelf.  Another cool feature with the figures is that they each have an orb on the base that lights up when on the base to represent a memory orb.

Each character plays slightly different, Fear is fast, while Sadness can walk on clouds and Anger can walk on lava, but in a cool twist, each ability can be switched for a limited time, so requiring all the characters aren’t essential to completing the game.   Especially with the options to switch to other characters, does make picking up those extra characters unnecessary if on budget.

Because of the way the levels are set up, there is plenty of replay value as players can master them by redoing them as quickly as possible or by collecting all the items, which remind me of the games I used to play in the 80’s like Mario and Sonic, where you wanted to master those levels and keep replaying them.   Fear was a stand out character for those side strolling levels as it did remember me of those classic characters due to his speed, though I found once I had got used to Fear’s speed, the other characters felt so slow.

There isn’t really a traditional story mode in this game, after going from level to level, you eventually have to start playing a side game which would feel more at home on my iPad, as you have to get sets of 3 or more same coloured orbs together to get rid of them, once you get enough points in this mini game, it unlocks more levels to explore.  On one side, its a pretty interesting way of going through the levels but if you aren’t too good at a puzzle game, it will be frustrating.

Speaking of being frustrating, I found myself on many occasions feeling frustrated at not being able to find a specific item or get to an area because it took a certain combination of switches or double jumps to get there.  On one hand, it was refreshing to have some higher difficultly for an Infinity game, but it might take a little longer than expected to get through the levels.  Obviously once you’ve done the level, you can go back and try to improve your time or collect everything, which adds much more value to the game.

Looking at the Inside Out play set pack, consisting of two figures and the game, it does offer great value as the two figures alone will make up the majority of the price of the pack, and they can be used with the Toy Box and in later versions of the game, though compared to other new additions to Disney Infinity such as Jedi’s and Superheroes, the emotions feel less interesting outside of the playset.   As with all play set packs, taking the game piece itself works out pretty cheap for the amount of hours you get out of it, if you discount the price of the physical figures, which makes this game feel very good value.

The cut scenes involving the emotions continue the trend we saw in the movie, though maybe a little less polished, having some of the original voice cast is a bonus.  I did find the music from this play set slightly disappointing as it felt very generic, especially after recently playing the Star Wars play sets, where it seem much more important and had a stronger impact, however the sounds effects suit the style of the gameplay involved.

Inside Out feels like a nod to the games I grew up with, collecting objects, racing through levels as quickly as possible and getting frustrated when I couldn’t quite get where I needed, but feeling very happy when I did, sometimes taking the game backwards and focusing on what made those older games more enjoyable, is a step forward.  And I feel Inside Out is a step forward for Disney Infinity, showing it doesn’t all have to be similar and can take a different approach.

I’m slightly underwhelmed with the amount of toys that the play set unlocks within the Toy Box, I was hoping to see what the community could do with many of the set pieces from the game, as the play set looks incredible and at times felt a little like Little Big Planet, which isn’t a bad thing.  But I couldn’t help but keep commenting on how “that” would be cool in a toy box, but again, that doesn’t take anything away from the fun experience of this play set.

Overall, Inside Out is a joy to play and a breath of fresh air to the play set experience of Disney Infinity, it isn’t like anything we have seen in previous play sets, it almost feels like an entirely different game that could have been sold separately and that speaks volumes about how Disney have approached Infinity this year, much more variety and Inside Out certainly offers something different.