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Breaking Down the Crowded Toys-to-Life Onslaught

by Neal Ronaghan - August 20, 2015, 11:44 am EDT
Total comments: 1

Neal sits down and tries to sort out Disney Infinity, Lego Dimensions, Skylanders, and Amiibo.

Since the toys-to-life trend erupted in 2011 when Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure debuted, each year has been more bombastic than the last, whether it was the addition of numerous Skylanders Minis and Traps, the launch of Disney Infinity in 2013, or the debut of Amiibo in late 2014. This year might take the cake for the most balls-to-the-wall insanity in the toys-to-life landscape, though, as Amiibo is now in full swing spread out across multiple games and series, and Warner Bros.’s Lego Dimensions is set to launch in just one month. Oh, and Disney Infinity is adding Star Wars figures just months before the sure-to-be-record-breaking release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This should be a busy year.

So in an attempt to sort through the turmoil, I’m going to go over each of the four core toys-to-life properties. Join me in psycho-analyzing why I’m probably going to drop hundreds of dollars on all of this, and also what you can expect from each game.

Disney Infinity 3.0
Primary Launch Date: August 30
Cost of Everything Available on Day 1: About $400
Cost of Everything Announced: $500 and counting
Amount of Times You Can Reenact Han Shooting Greedo: Purportedly Infinite

Day One Lineup

  • Starter Pack (includes Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, and Twilight of the Republic Play Set)
  • Rise of the Empire Play Set (includes Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia)
  • Boba Fett
  • Yoda
  • Obi-Wan Kenobi
  • Star Wars Rebels figures (Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus, Sabine Wren, and Zeb Orrelios)
  • Inside Out Play Set (includes Joy and Anger)
  • Inside Out figures (Sadness, Disgust, and Fear)
  • Mickey Mouse
  • Minnie Mouse
  • Tron: Legacy figures (Sam Flynn and Quorra)
  • Mulan
  • Olaf

Disney Infinity’s third year already seems light years beyond everything they’ve done before. The Star Wars addition aside, Disney Infinity 3.0 seems to have a balanced amount of Disney figures coming from all different franchises. Last year’s 2.0 release was so heavily focused on Marvel characters that the only new Play Sets were for the Avengers, Spider-Man, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Even worse? All of those Play Sets were basically identical in gameplay. The new Disney characters, including Aladdin, Donald Duck, and Baymax, were all only functional in the Toy Box mode.

For Disney Infinity 3.0, that changes. Much like the Marvel content last year, Star Wars is the focus with countless characters and three unique Play Sets. This time around, there looks like there will be more variety and more content. The curious highlight is the Play Set for Pixar’s latest movie Inside Out, which takes the five emotions on a side-scrolling puzzle-focused adventure. That’s a far cry from the three Marvel Play Sets from last year that were all slight variations on 3D beat-‘em-ups.

In addition, there are two other adventures planned that make use of a wide variety of characters. Toy Box Takeover is a new mode (sold separately but included with most pre-orders) where any figure can be used to fight against The Incredibles’ villain Syndrome as he threatens to destroy the world of Disney Infinity. The recently announced Marvel Battlegrounds Play Set makes use of all of the Marvel characters in four-player local multiplayer (a first for the games).

From my perspective, I’m looking forward to Disney Infinity 3.0 mostly because of the Star Wars component, but it’s nice to see Peter Pan and characters from Tron Legacy join the fray. Also, Disney is starting to move towards my original hopes for Disney Infinity: a way to make solid licensed games in a more cohesive experience. They have plans to launch figures from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur, and their 2016 animated film Zootopia already, and it looks like there are even more figures on the way.

Lego Dimensions
Primary Launch Date: September 27
Cost of Everything Available on Day 1: $450+
Cost of Everything Announced: About $800

Day One Lineup

  • Starter Pack (includes Batman, Gandalf, Wyldstyle, and the Batmobile)
  • Back to the Future Level Pack (includes Marty McFly, DeLorean, Hoverboard, and Back to the Future levels)
  • The Simpsons Level Pack (includes Homer, Homer’s Car, Taunt-o-Vision, and Simpsons levels)
  • Portal 2 Level Pack (includes Chell, Companion Cube, Sentry Turret, and Portal 2 levels)
  • Jurassic World Team Pack (includes Owen Grady, ACU, Velociraptor, and Gyrosphere)
  • Scooby-Doo Team Pack (includes Scooby-Doo, Shaggy Rogers, Mystery Machine, and a Super Shaggy Sandwich)
  • The Lego Movie Emmet Fun Pack (includes Emmet and Emmet’s Excavator)
  • Legolas Fun Pack (includes Legolas and Arrow Launcher)
  • Gollum Fun Pack (includes Gollum and Shelob the Great)
  • Gimli Fun Pack (includes Gimli and Axe Chariot)
  • Wonder Woman Fun Pack (includes Wonder Woman and Invisible Jet)
  • Cyborg Fun Pack (includes Cyborg and Cyber-Guard)
  • The Wizard of Oz Wicked Witch Fun Pack (includes Wicked Witch and Winged Monkey)
  • Lego Ninjago Zane Fun Pack (includes Zane and Ninjacopter)
  • Lego Ninjago Nya Fun Pack (includes Nya and Samurai Mech)
  • Lego Ninjago Jay Fun Pack (includes Jay and Stormfighter)
  • Lego Chima Laval Fun Pack (includes Laval and Mighty Lion Rider)
  • Lego Chima Cragger Fun Pack (includes Cragger and Swamp Skimmer)
  • Lego Chima Eris Fun Pack (includes Eris and Eagle Interceptor)

Lego Dimensions is trying to be punk rock. They’re coming right into the crowded toys-to-life scene playing loud-ass music complaining about how the authorities are corrupt and are giving you a raw deal. Disney Infinity keeps your characters limited to certain Play Sets? Screw that! Your Lego dudes can go anywhere! Wonder Woman with Doctor Who and Scooby-Doo! Cats with dogs! Tired of the same slightly tweaked portals in Skylanders everywhere? Eat it, Stealth Elf! You can build and customize your portal with Lego bricks and junk.

The noise that Warner Bros. was causing when Lego Dimensions was announced obscured the fact that little-to-no gameplay was shown for a while after the reveal. With the gameplay now out in the open, we know exactly what we’re getting (as if there was any doubt): a Lego game. Now, once you set aside the fact that most Lego games feature hundreds of characters and now you need to spend cold hard cash to get access to the growing lineup of Lego mini-figures, Lego Dimensions looks like a very fun game fusing a lot of disparate licenses together in an interesting way.

I’m weak: I can’t resist the allure of Back to the Future and Ghostbusters. I might not be in on day one, but I want to play this game. And the way Warner Bros. is pitching this is that they’ll just keep adding new adventures that you can play with all of your characters. If that is indeed the case, that’s exciting, as that means you can take on any of the game’s stories with Batman, Peter Venkman, Homer Simpson, and Legolas. That is kind of awesome.

Skylanders SuperChargers
Primary Launch Date: September 20
Cost of Everything Available on Day 1: Around $350
Cost of Everything Announced: Roughly $700

Day One Lineup

  • Wii U Starter Pack (includes Super Shot Stealth Elf, Turbo Charge Donkey Kong, and Barrel Blaster)
  • Wii/3DS Starter Pack (includes Super Shot Stealth Elf, Hammer Slam Bowser, and Clown Cruiser)
  • Wii U Dark Starter Pack (includes Dark Super Spitfire, Dark Turbo Charge Donkey Kong, Dark Hot Streak, Dark Barrel Blaster, and Kaos Trophy)
  • Wii/3DS Dark Starter Pack (includes Dark Super Spitfire, Dark Hammer Slam Bowser, Dark Hot Streak, Dark Clown Cruiser, and Kaos Trophy)
  • Dive-Clops
  • Fiesta
  • Stormblade
  • Shark Shooter Terrafin
  • Steel Plated Smash Hit
  • Legendary Hurricane Jet-Vac
  • Frightful Fiesta
  • High Volt
  • Nightfall
  • Smash Hit
  • Dive Bomber vehicle
  • Crypt Crusher vehicle
  • Sky Slicer vehicle
  • Sea Shadow vehicle
  • Nitro Stealth Stinger vehicle
  • Burn-Cycle vehicle
  • Stealth Stinger vehicle
  • Shark Tank vehicle
  • Jet Stream vehicle

With the other toys-to-life series throwing around Darth Vader, Gandalf, and Mario, Skylanders is, in a way, playing from behind despite their two-year head start. As the dude who gave Skylanders Giants a 9.5 on Wii (I still stand by that), I’ll contend that Skylanders is likely the best video game series out of the bunch. However, in a world where the toys are just as important as the gameplay, that doesn’t equate to a knockout punch. Fortunately, Skylanders has developed some familiar faces over the years, which is likely why half of the new figures are all redesigned versions of old favorites such as Stealth Elf and Trigger Happy. That’s also likely part of Activision’s motivation for working with Nintendo to bring Bowser and Donkey Kong to the Nintendo versions of the game.

The major addition to Skylanders SuperChargers is vehicles, coming in land, sea, and air varieties. While a player can rock through the Diablo-lite gameplay with just the land vehicle included in the Starter Pack, the online multiplayer racing might be more of a reason to dive into the wide world of Skylander vehicles.

Amiibo
Primary Launch Date: Rolling (but sort of the 11th of September)
Cost of Everything Available This Fall: About $400
Cost of Entire Smash Bros. Series: $700+
Cost of All Skylanders Amiibo: $300
Amount of Life-Size Amiibo: 1

Amiibo’s fall is a mixture of well-defined and murky. We know, for the most part, what to expect, but we don’t really know how smoothly it will run. The first big day is September 11, which features the launch of Super Mario Maker and the 30th Anniversary Mario Amiibo. It’s also another big day for the Smash Bros. series, which is almost complete.

But the more interesting components of Amiibo this fall are the ones that are being positioned as major components of big releases. Animal Crossing’s pair of new games, Happy Home Designer on 3DS and Amiibo Festival on Wii U, are entirely based around Amiibo in potentially novel ways, with the introduction of a new Amiibo figure line and the first appearance of Amiibo cards. Happy Home Designer is out in Japan already, so we have a better idea of how that will work. The Amiibo isn’t necessary, but considering the first run of the cards sold out so fast, that can’t bode well for the wartorn Amiibo shores of America. Amiibo Festival requires Amiibo figures, but there still seems to be a lot of mystery behind the game.

In October, a pair of games are coming to Wii U and 3DS that are most notable for being bundled with Amiibo: Yoshi’s Woolly World and Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash. Neither figure is integral for enjoyment or success in either game, though.

The last part of the Amiibo puzzle, from what we know, is Star Fox Zero. Falco is one of the last of the day one Smash Bros. roster to finally get an Amiibo, and the crack pilot will be compatible with the new Star Fox adventure as well as Smash Bros.

Talkback

LouieturkeyAugust 20, 2015

You forgot that Lego Dimensions is the closest that a Portal game will be to being playable on a Nintendo console.


Also, you should have marked that the cost for all the Amiibo would actually be closer to $1000 due to having to pay inflated prices because of the short supply.

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