Pap the
Disney Gamer's Highlights:
Disney's Infinity Reveal and
Preview
As I haven't
stated this enough in the two
year history of Gamer Tuesday, I
love it when video game
companies truly get into the
Disney culture and create
captivating games out of it.
Games like Epic Mickey, Kingdom
Hearts, and Kinect Disneyland
Adventures shine in how they
take the stories, music,
characters, and places we know
and produce solid to great video
games that shine throughout,
flaws and all. It's a shame that
a lot of the efforts seen are
merely quick adaptations that
are in actuality extensions of
the merchandise out to promote a
film, TV show or franchise,
because there is a lot to mine
in the world of Disney. Today's
game, despite being just
announced, has me excited at the
possibilities: Disney Infinity.

The game, while
being teased at for months, was
finally revealed last week at a
special event in Hollywood, and
is teased as a vast, creative
experience that lets players
explore Disney worlds, interact
with the characters and partake
in various missions. Yet, what
Disney is really selling is the
ability to create worlds and
habitat them with all the
characters. This is indeed quite
exciting, but what is even more
interesting is that Infinity is
a mix of ideas that have been in
development for years, some by
Disney themselves, others by
different companies.
Before we dive
into the heart of the game, here
is a video preview of the game:
If the game so
far seems familiar, it is
because you may have already
played the game under a
different name. Let us go back
to 2010. In that summer, Pixar
released their biggest hit to
date, Toy Story 3. The
movie closed out the Andy's toy
saga is a very poignant manner,
and brought everyone together to
witness Woody, Buzz, and friends
go on another exciting
adventure. The event was
understandably big. Big enough
that Disney rolled out the
merchandise machine to make the
film an even bigger event, and
thus a video game adaptation was
released. Toy Story 3: The Video
Game followed a great deal of
the movie's events as players
stepped onto the shoes of Buzz
and Woody.
The game,
despite its status as a licensed
game, earned solid reviews from
the media. The main reason why,
though, was because Toy Story 3:
The Video Game featured a
groundbreaking mode never before
seen in a game of its kind: the
Toy Box mode. In Toy Box mode,
players had the freedom to
create levels, include missions,
and add as many characters as
they liked. For many, the
infinite possibilities of the
mode rose the game above the
standard tie-in game and gave
the developer, Avalanche
Software, some well deserved
recognition.

So if Infinity
looks familiar, that is because
Avalanche is looking to expand
on their own concepts using
Disney and Pixar's expansive
library of worlds, characters,
and stories. Much like in Toy
Story 3: The Video Game, players
have the option of visiting the
game worlds and complete
missions and interact with the
characters, or they can go and
create Disney worlds they can
later play in. Infinity is
already showing one advancement
in Toy Story 3's concept, and
that is that the tools and items
players will use to create their
worlds have been lifted straight
from Disney and Pixar stories.
You can put Spaceship Earth as
the centerpiece of your world,
then adorn it with the flying
lanterns from Tangled, just
outside Monsters Universe, and
then have it so that Jack
Sparrow and Mater can interact
with your character.
These characters
have a lengthy, timeless legacy
not just at Disney but in pop
culture in general, so it is
easy to see why the basic idea
behind Infinity's concept is
already attracting people to it.
Disney and Avalanche know this,
and have decided to implement
another feature that is slowly
becoming a natural element in
gaming: the action figure.

In 2011,
Activision released Skylanders,
a multi-platform release that
had one huge innovation: players
could buy figures of the main
characters, then place them on
top of a portal that would make
them appear in the game. The
figures feature a RFID chip that
allowed it to communicate with
the portal and the game, making
them appear and disappear with
the player's actions. Despite
jaded and cynical gamers
claiming that the character
feature could have been easily
done without the need of toys,
and the claims that the title
was a way to maximize profits,
Skylanders proved to be a hit
with the young gaming audience
due to its charm and appeal of
the collectible action figures.

Disney's
Infinity looks to capitalize on
the same concept, with the
teaser trailer showing off Jack
Sparrow and Sulley appearing
first as figurines in the real
world that materialize in the
digital game world. The idea is
brimming with potential, as the
characters do have a long legacy
and commend a presence in many a
childhood. Disney is also no
stranger to collectibles thanks
to their seemingly endless
supply of pins and Vinylmations,
so Infinity could prove to be
another successful medium for
Disney to present their
characters in a collectible
manner. What's even more
exciting about this is that the
roster of characters could be
endless and appear from any
corner of Disney if the game
allows for new figures to be
released then used in the game.
Early artwork suggest that
Victor and Frankenweenie could
be part of the final game.
Disney Infinity
will be released in June of 2013
for every major system in the
market. Other details as to what
other characters we can expect
in addition to the roster we
currently have, the price and
availability of the figures and
their accessories and if there
will be any changes in between
the various versions have yet to
be confirmed at this point in
time. But any development of the
game prior to release will be
informed here on Gamer Tuesday,
so stay tuned!