When I was a child I used to love to play with all my toys at once. My Barbies went on dates with the Ninja Turtles, and the Ghostbusters were found riding around on the back of a My Little Pony more often than inside the Ecto-1.
Intermixing toys is something we all did at some point in our childhoods, and Disney is taking this practice to a whole new level with its Infinity collection due out later this year.
More than just a video game, Infinity is a platform that lends itself to endless possibilities.
During E3 last week, I had the opportunity to play with Infinity, and was generally impressed with what I saw.
Real Meets Digital
The idea behind Infinity is to incorporate real-world toys into a virtual environment.
Placing a toy on the Infinity platform brings them into the game, and onto the television. Users can place up to two figurines on the platform, which will become their characters in the game. There are also tokens called "Power Discs" representing items that characters interact with in the game (e.g. an elephant that they can ride on); these are placed on the back of the platform.
A Whole New World
At first glance, the Infinity platform doesn’t look all that spectacular. Graphics are on par with what one would find on the original Wii. However, the Infinity doesn't need hyper-realistic graphics because it's simulating toys — and not people — on-screen.
Each set of toys comes with a “playset” that includes pre-built worlds and games. Users initiate a playset by placing a playset toy on the back of the Infinity platform (this is also the spot where the Power Disc goes — only one or the other can be used at a time).
I spent some time playing with both The Lone Ranger and Monster’s University playsets, which were recently announced by Disney.
In The Lone Ranger, users can play the game as Tonto or the Lone Ranger, with the selection determined by which character is placed on the platform. The goal in the game I played was to search for horses, and bring them back to the stable; it was a simple task, but one that required navigating the game world, locating each horse and guiding them back home.
In Monsters University, a rival school has vandalized the campus, and users must perform a series of tasks to try and clean everything up.
In both games, users can crack open small plastic containers (the kind with a small toy inside that one might get from a vending machine) that are scattered throughout the world. They feature tips on how to complete tasks, and can also unlock new toys to add to a user's toy box.
The Toy Box
The toy box is really the best part of Infinity. This portion of the game is much like a “free play” mode — think of it as the digital equivalent of dumping toys onto the middle of the bedroom floor.
Users can combine any of the characters they own into a single world. For example, the Lone Ranger can team up with Sully from Monsters Inc., or The Incredibles family can live in the same world as characters from Cars.
In this world, users can build anything they imagine. There are pieces in the toy box that let users create everything from racetracks to soccer fields that can be used for mini games. They can also play without objectives, and build their own creations.
I had a lot of fun just building in the game, and while I was a bit limited in what I could do from the show floor, I was fairly impressed by the possibilities that Infinity had to offer. I can't wait until later this year when all that building can take place in my living room.
Disney's Infinity launches on Aug. 18.
What do you think of Infinity? Let us know in the comments.
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