Good news, Disney Infinity 2.0 players: It’s time to get your girl on.
When the figure-adventure game sequel first released this fall on nearly all platforms, it suffered from a serious lack of estrogen. The Marvel-themed packs offered just two female characters: Black Widow from the Avengers and Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy. At least they didn’t put Black Widow’s butt in the starring role in the promotional materials. For a house that built its fortune on the backs of princesses, it was a serious gap.
But a new set of Disney Originals figures is now helping to tip the balance … sort of. Characters include Merida from the movie Brave, Tinkerbell, Jasmine from Aladdin, and Maleficent. In fact, more female characters are in the bunch than male (especially if you don’t consider non-humanoids like the robot Baymax from Big Hero 6, and what sex is Stitch supposed to be, exactly?). It’s a princess invasion!
Unfortunately, these characters are more limited than those from Disney Interactive’s original Disney Infinity 2.0 play sets — but more on that in a bit.
The figures are beautiful in game and out, with a deliberately matte, plastic appearance in game that’s still smoothly animated. I put the new figures, male and female, to the test to see which was truly more fun to play. (Jasmine wasn’t available for this test, but that’s all right. I had no spare male character with which to compare her.)
Round 1: Merida versus Donald Duck
Above: Disney’s figures are well-crafted and attractive.
Merida, the red-haired heroine from Brave, is a fighter in Disney Infinity just like she was in the movie. Nearly all her special moves are focused on combat, with most being enhancements to her bow and arrows. She can shoot with that bow, hit things with it, swipe with a sword, and perform the usual ground-slam type attacks that all Disney Infinity 2.0 characters have.
Her special abilities enhance those attacks, giving her fire, frost, or exploding arrows, for example — or a nifty sword attack that dramatically breaks blocks. She feels like a good fighter in combat, and her graceful leaps and rolls mesh well with all the shooting. But her personality doesn’t show, other than her occasional quips; her abilities could be shared by a half-dozen other archers from other stories.
Donald’s attacks, in contrast, are all about personality. He can hurl random household objects, throw a fit (complete with punctuation marks floating over his head), hammer everything in his path, or hit a combo finisher that smacks his opponent in the head with a broom.
Above: Donald Duck, in all his cranky glory.
Picture all that with a never-ending stream of duck-like Donaldese — if you don’t remember what that sounds like, just ask your favorite kid — and you’ve got the idea. His ranged attacks are weak at best, compared to Merida, which makes him less survivable in combat. But he is so much fun to play. The only major drawback: He can’t fly. He’s a duck, fercryinoutloud.
Advantage: Donald
Round 2: Tinkerbell versus Aladdin
Above: Tinkerbell may have poofs on her shoes, but she’s tough in combat.
I was completely prepared to hate Tinkerbell. “She can heal!” the promotional materials helpfully pointed out. Ugh. Tinkerbell, the original scamp? Reduced to healing people?
I shouldn’t have worried. Most of her abilities are goofy fun. She can fire bursts of pixie dust at other people that make them sail up into the air, unable to control their actions. Your enemy can’t do anything else while they’re flying, making them vulnerable to other attacks, especially if Tink is paired up with another ranged character. She also has that healing magic plus fairy dash, which makes her teeny and sends her bouncing around for some serious fun.
Above: Aladdin has great routine animations, but his special moves frequently lack pizzazz.
She is also one of only two girl heroes in all of Disney Infinity 2.0 who can fly. Jasmine, who wasn’t available for our test, is the other, but she has to cheat with a magic carpet.
Aladdin is animated in the parkour style of his movie character. He can jump really far and has no fewer than five special abilities, but unfortunately they all look a little alike. All seem to involve swirling a scimitar around in circles, whether to deflect ranged attacks or suck his enemies in for the kill.
Advantage: Tinkerbell
Round 3: Maleficent versus Hiro
Above: Maleficent pursues Hiro, who has inexplicably chosen to escape on a Tron cycle instead of using his way-cool nanobots.
Maleficent’s abilities are nicely related to the evil-witch movie. While this character is no Angelina Jolie, she can summon a raven, raise a thorny wall that blocks your enemies, and heal while blocking with a nifty green smoke that looks too evil to be feeding the girls-as-healers stereotype. Her normal attacks include fireballs and a lovely green-fire explosion.
Her look and normal animation are plain and generic, but she’s hilarious when paired with other characters. Have Tinkerbell pick her up her and fly her around, for example, and suddenly you have a sweetness-and-death combo that’s hard to resist. (She can’t fly on her own.)
But Hiro is tough, tough competition. The boy from the Big Hero 6 movie has his trademark swarms of nanobots here, and forms them into fun shapes for riding on, smacking people down, and punching his enemies into the air. He reminds me a little of Groot (from Guardians of the Galaxy) in the original Marvel playsets for the game: Maybe not someone you’d have chosen first to play on the basis of his character, but oh boy will you keep playing him for the fun of it.
Advantage: This one’s a draw.
Round 4: Original Marvel playset women versus Disney Originals
Above: Black Widow, kicking butt and getting to be part of the plot.
Sadly, this isn’t much of a contest.
The bad news is that these new Originals characters don’t come with play sets, so they can’t participate in storylines. Instead, you have to use them in the Toy Box and its mini-games. In that sense, Black Widow and Gamora are your best bets, because they fit in with the existing Marvel-themed playsets and their campaigns. You can’t play any of the Originals figures as crossovers in those tales.
The Marvel women are better-animated for their normal moves, and some of their special moves are as interesting as the Originals’. Black Widow in particular gets invisibility, dual-wielded pistols, and and electrical attack that chains among nearby enemies. With the inclusion of story mode, she’s easily my favorite Disney Infinity 2.0 woman to play. Gamora is more ordinary; she can lift big things, shoot better, and dash. Neither can fly.
If you could play the Originals outside the Toy Box, Tink and Maleficent would beat Gamora handily. But alas….
Advantage: Marvel
Above: The Toy Box Starter Pack comes with the game, a platform for your figures, two figures and two power discs.
The new Disney Infinity 2.0 Originals figures don’t offer the chance to get women in on the Marvel story action, but if you’re past the stories and busy building cities in your Toy Box, these figures offer a great opportunity to brawl with (if very, very thin) female role models.
You can buy them as part of a Toy Box Starter Pack, which includes the game, the base for the figures to stand on, two power discs, and Merida+Stitch for $60; or separately for about $13 each. The game runs on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and iOS.
GamesBeat received Disney Originals figures from the publisher for this story.