Disney Infinity 2.0

When the Disney Infinity game was launched last year, there was no denying its similarity to the hugely popular Skylanders game.

To its credit, the House Of Mouse did its best to differentiate its game from Skylanders, a straight-up action game that involved an army of toy figurines.

Disney Infinity crafted its game in two parts. The Play Set portions were action-oriented gameplay environments with which players and their token characters could interact. The Toy Box was a virtual sandbox that gave players the opportunity to create their own worlds, complete with buildings, roads, trees and many more objects. These places are inhabited by well-known characters such as Mickey Mouse, Jack Sparrow, Mr Incredible and Queen Elsa.

The key difference? The Play Sets were controlled environments created for use only with specific characters. So Mr Incredible and his family, for example, can never enter Princess Anna's Frozen Play Set. But as long as you have the figurine, any character can populate the Toy Box world created by the player.

It is the use of these famous characters that gives Disney the edge. Consumers probably have no clue about the various elements and faces within Skylanders, but most of us would recognise blockbuster films such as Cars, Toy Story, Frozen and Pirates Of The Caribbean.

With version 2.0, Disney decided to focus on what is arguably its biggest money-spinner, Marvel Comics.

The new starter pack contains three Avengers - Iron Man, Thor and Black Widow. Players can purchase close to a dozen more characters as add-on figures (from $22.90 each), including Spider-Man, Captain America and the crew of Marvel's Guardian Of The Galaxy, fresh off their box-office triumph.

Not in the same play world

The premise remains the same. The comic characters can participate in the action game elements of the Play Set, and players can create their own environments in the Toy Box.

While this sounds great in theory, the game is geared towards children and not the young adults who might better appreciate this title.

Which comics-mad teenager would not want to re-enact iconic moments from the comics in the game, whether it is Captain America versus Iron Man from the Civil War storyline, or everyone versus the Hulk in World War Hulk?

The curious thing about version 2.0 is that while all the comic book characters are from Marvel, the game splits them up in different Play Sets along some bizarre lines.

So Nick Fury, Hulk, Captain America and Iron Man can be used in the Avengers Play Set; and Spider-Man, Venom and Nova, in the Spider-Man Play Set. But the game will not allow players to take any character from one set and use it on another set, even though all Marvel Comics characters inhabit the same world.

The Avengers fight Loki, while Spidey attempts to foil his arch-nemesis, the Green Goblin. Meanwhile, the Guardians Of The Galaxy have their own Play Set and are somewhere in space fighting Ronan The Accuser.

While Iron Man and The Hulk can enter Spider-Man's game, Groot cannot be used alongside The Avengers. The game designers must have forgotten that Spider-Man is a card-carrying member of The Avengers because the webslinger cannot be used in that Play Set.

Maybe this is due to the nature of the heroes and their abilities not fitting the environment of that Play Set. But should this not be left to the players to decide?

Why will Disney not allow players to determine that Black Widow is truly out of her league fighting alongside the Guardians in space, or that Groot is not able to fly across Manhattan?

And even when some characters can be used in another set, it is not automatic. Players must go through that particular Play Set with an established character and search for Crossover coins of the approved crossover character, to unlock the presence in the Play Set.

This is the exact opposite of Skylanders. In any Skylanders game, there is only one storyline, and any character you own, whether it is one you bought for the current game, or three years ago from the first game, can be used in the current game.

It is up to the player to decide if the skills and abilities from a character from two games ago is suitable for the new game.

In this sense, Disney Infinity 2.0 is actually selling players additional content disguised as Play Sets, and making them pick up more figurines.

Compare this to last year's game, where players picked up Mr Incredible, Jack Sparrow and Sully in the starter pack and had the luxury of having a Play Set environment for each character. This year, that Play Set has been reduced to just one.

Fun game for all ages

Gameplay in the Disney version is rather rudimentary. Spider-Man webs the villains. Iron Man has his repulsors and Thor has Mjolnir.

The variation in fighting styles for the various heroes is appreciated, but for the first few missions, be prepared to have your patience tested by simple missions that can have players tail someone, locate items and save bystanders.

A skill tree offers players the option of upgrading a variety of skills for each character, but overall, this game plays more like Lego Batman than Batman Arkham City.

Visually, the game is rather bland. On the PlayStation 4, there is no escaping the high-resolution cartoon-style drawings on display. The characters and environments look pretty simple and this translates into the figurines, which all look less detailed than Skylanders figurines.

That said, the game does have some nice touches. You can see Iron Man cast a shadow as he flies across the city and if he goes too fast, he can crash into the side of a building and cause some damage, before plummeting to the ground.

The voice talents deserve credit for the effort put in to give Iron Man, Spider-Man and other heroes plenty of their comic book and movie personality, which really shows.

As for the Toy Box, where players can create their own environments, share them and make them available for other players to download, its appeal depends on how much you like the Minecraft-style of games.

There are pre-set structures and checkpoints that make this world-building endeavour an easy one, but I am the type of gamer who prefers explosive destruction to creation.

Despite some misgivings about design and creative decisions, I find Disney Infinity 2.0 a fun game for all ages.

Most people, I suspect, will pick up the toy figurines because they are so well known. So Disney may have another blockbuster on its hands.