philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Disney Infinity – hands on with the future of family entertainment

Infinity though, seems to be all about the possibilities presented by these characters and stories. It is like mainlining Disney magic.

Infinity uses the same basic recipe: you buy the game as a starter kit, with a USB plinth – or Infinity Base – and a collection of three figures: Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, Mr Incredible from The Incredibles and Sulley from Monsters University. Each figure opens up a different narrative adventure within the game – and buying more Playsets gets you access to new quests. Plus, as in Skylanders, each action figure toy retains the player's data, so they're handy save files too.

The responsibility for Disney is in ensuring that each purchase provides plenty of playability. So in Infinity, when you buy a Playset from a new franchise, it opens up a dedicated adventure in the game.

And really, Infinity seems to be what Disney games should always have been – an imaginative platform that is genuinely for the whole family. It is filled with fun little ideas and features that my kids probably won't even get; for example, the Wreck It Ralph cherry bombs in the Toy Box mode that generate 2D sprite-based explosions like old school shoot-'em-ups. While most previous Disney games have reduced the franchises into conventional, boring action adventures, Infinity appears to be infused with the Pixar spirit of 'plussing' – adding new features, gestures and elements at every stage of production.

This will probably be the best Disney game since the Mega Drive era, since the brilliant Castle of Illusion and Dave Perry's wonderful Aladdin tie-in. But standing as it does, at a crossroads between LittleBigPlanet, Skylanders and Minecraft, it has the potential to be much, much more.

See the full story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2013/jul/22/disney-infinity-hands-on-preview?curator=MediaREDEF