It’s been a few months since the Disney Interactive release of Disney Infinity 3.0, and the new game system is being called one of the best family entertainment games ever. And frankly, it is. Having spent hours and hours playing the new Star Wars games or just building worlds to add to the online community, Disney Interactive really has stepped up their game and brought home something amazing and very unique. So with that, I felt it was time to check in with all the new Toy Box Expansion Packs and some of the new figures coming soon for the holiday season!
So far there have been two new Toy Box Expansions; one new play set for Star Wars: The Force Awakens (due out this Christmas) and the just announced, (Spring 2016) Marvel Battleground. A Toy Box Expansion is just what it sounds like; for an additional price (usually nothing over 20 bucks) you get another way to play and enjoy your Infinity world. Simply place the piece on the hub just like a normal play set piece and then begin your new adventure.
On the same day Infinity 3.0 was available for purchase you could have picked up the first new Toy Box Expansion pack: the Toy Box Takeover, which was about Syndrome getting his hands on Merlin’s magic wand, allowing him to change all the worlds. He begins teaming up with villains from the Disney, Marvel and the Star Wars universe. You must fight your way though many levels and worlds to get Merlin’s wand back and set things right before the bad guys ruin the Toy Box forever.
I gotta tell you, it was pretty fun. You can play as any Infinity character and fight your way thought worlds based on all Disney properties, rank your characters abilities up for better gear and traits, and unlock tons of sidekick characters and other toy box items you can place in your own personal worlds. It was a rather simple expansion and did exactly what you would expect. It could have been longer, and for experienced players that tend to defeat expansion packs quickly there’s now a difficulty setting to make things harder. If you’re looking for a fight, set this on hard and gear up, because things could get pretty nasty.
The second Expansion pack (released October 13th) is the Toy Box Speedway. More or less it looks like Disney Infinity’s answer to Mario Kart, so get set for action-packed kart-style racing with some of your favorite Star Wars, Marvel, Disney and Disney/Pixar characters. Drive/fight your way though all sorts of racetracks themes: Sugar Rush, Star Wars, Avengers, A Nightmare Before Christmas and even Frozen. With new weapons, karts and themes this should be a really fun addition to the Infinity line.
Not much is known at this time about the next play set that comes out this Christmas. All that is known is that it will be a set involving the new Star Wars movie. We’ve been told there will be at least five new character figures to play with from the new flicks, including figures based on John Boyega’s (Finn) and Daisy Ridley’s (Rey) characters. While at D23 this past summer, the actors showed up at the Infinity presentation to show off their figures, which look amazing.
Most of the internet assumes Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) will be the remaining three figures. But with Infinity they could throw a curve ball and give us an old Luke Skywalker or a character we haven’t seen yet. With only a few months left the answers will be here sooner than we think.
This weekend is New York Comic Con; Disney has a presence there and they started the weekend off with the announcement of a new toy box original Marvel Universe storyline: Marvel Battlegrounds. Featuring a new four-player, arcade brawler style gameplay fully compatible with all Disney Infinity characters, it makes a Disney Infinity Play Set with the widest selection of playable characters yet. I assume that we can finally have Hulk fight Frozen’s Elsa. The game will feature Hulkbuster, Ultron and a new Captain America figure, based on the Winter Solider costume and enhanced abilities.
From the Infinity site itself: “In the Marvel Battlegrounds story, Ultron teams up with Loki in an effort to steal Agar’s immensely powerful Infinity Stone. To accomplish this, Lurton and Loki create robotic replicas of the famed Marvel Super Heroes and turn them against each other in an effort to distract them while they commit their crime. The Marvel Super Heroes duplicates battle each other in iconic environments such as a wrecked Brooklyn train yard, Wanda and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Lunar Base, culminating in a universe-shaking battle against Lurton.”
With other Marvel movies coming out next year and newer characters being added all the time, it’s just a matter or time before other Marvel character figures are added. Rumor is an Ant-Man is on the way, and many people have let their voices be heard on all the Infinity social media sites about how much they would like a Scarlet Witch figure. With Captain America: Civil War coming out around the same time as this expansion pack, I wouldn’t put it past Infinity to have a Black Panther or a Vision figure in our gaming future.
The only real disappointment with the new Marvel Battleground expansion is the Captain America figure. It looks great, and I’m sure the new abilities they’ll give him will kick butt in the game, but at the end of the day, we players already have a Cap and a Cap disc that can change his uniform to his 1940s one. Why would we need yet another Cap figure when there are so many other Marvel characters that haven’t yet been represented at all in any medium? It just seems like a forced movie tie-in for Cap’s next flick rather than a new character we can be excited for. There will always be newer characters and expansion packs on the way, but it’s just a bit of a let down to get a figure we more or less already have.
Overall the new expansion packs and play sets look and sound amazing. Disney Infinity knows what they’re doing and they’re doing it just right by listening to their fans and the community and keeping a line of dialogue open between the two so everyone’s voice is heard. Nice to see a game company willing to hear and really make changes if need be. Making the fans happy seems to be one of their highest priorities. I look forward to whatever comes out this holiday season and what great things they have in store for next year