Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes game review

Disney Infinity is back and better than ever. This time around it’s all about Marvel superheroes, and you’ll get to play with some very familiar faces.

GETTING STARTED

Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes Gameplay: 8.9 Graphics: 8.8 Sound: 8.7 Replay Value: 9.6 Overall Score: 9.0Pros: Big, beautiful, open world, Humor doesn’t fall flat, Build, build, build. Cons: Not enough variety in enemies, Long load times, Controls can feel a little laggy.

So what’s up? Frost Giants are taking over New York City, turning the Big Apple into an Arctic winter. Even worse, the evil Loki, a member of the Frost Giant race, is behind it all. Loki’s even trying to get the city’s mayor on his side. It’s up to the Avengers to stop Thor’s arch nemesis and those ice-wielding wackos.

Even though three action figures are included with the game, the hero I chose over Iron Man was Thor. He seemed the most powerful, and it felt right because he’s Loki’s brother. My first impression of story mode? It could have used a more varied plot. There’s just too much of these Frost Giants, and eliminating them feels repetitive. The same goes for the drones introduced with the Frost Giants. It isn’t until you get to Loki that things pick up.

Still, there’s a lot of humorous interactions between the superheroes to keep you going. Once, when Thor fell off a motorcycle that was unlocked early in the game, he let out a wail like a baby. I didn’t expect such a funny sound at all. You’ll enjoy those little moments, too, as you increase Thor’s power. It’s these small things that make the game seem realistic.

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

You’ll also love traversing this imaginary New York City, just checking things out. As Thor, I flew above the Empire State Building all the way over to the Statue of Liberty. When I hit the ground, a passerby stopped to take a photograph. (Superheroes are famous, after all.)

It’s in and around Manhattan that you’ll get missions from folks like Nick Fury. You’ll also pick up hidden coins that unlock other characters, like Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy Play Set (which isn’t included. It has its own story mode and is a separate purchase).

But there’s one major problem. I tried to put Mike from Monsters Inc. in the play set story mode. It wouldn’t work. Actually, I couldn’t play with any characters from the first Infinity game while in story mode. I really wish I could. In Skylanders, you are able to play with all characters from every version.

FEATURES GALORE

But Skylanders doesn’t have the feature-filled Toy Box, which can be a complete joy. Here, you can play with Mike and the many other characters from the first Infinity game. If you have the time, you can create pretty much anything — just like you can with Minecraft. A superhero like Thor interacts with the Toy Box’s quirky residents to obtain a variety of missions, like saving a princess.

And there are tiny cars for racing, too. Seeing the massive Thor squeeze into a compact vehicle smaller than a Mini Cooper is just hilarious.

Yet making things isn’t as easy as I’d hoped. It’s an improvement over the first version, for sure. There’s still a learning curve that isn’t really a breeze because programming the games in your Toy Box is still complex. That goes for everything from pinball to climbing a mountain for treasure, or creating a Smash Bros.-type fighting game.

Set aside an hour or two to get the hang of things. Then, you’ll be on to making games and creating new worlds — by yourself.

BOTTOM LINE

Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes isn’t perfect. The load times are long and sometimes the camera angles are off when I found myself in corners. The biggest gripe I had occurred when I completed a mission in which I fought Loki. Afterwards, I got a new mission, but had to leave my game. Even though the game was supposed to save my progress automatically, it didn’t. So I had to play the long level and fight Loki all over again.

Such a loss didn’t happen again in the game. But I recommend saving manually after every mission — just to be on the safe side. Despite these glitches, I was transported into the Marvel Super Heroes’ world of mayhem. I felt I was living my life as Thor.

And that’s what really good games are about. You can leave your house and your town for a while to escape into something adventurous, something that isn’t so crazily fictional that it doesn’t seem real. And with Toy Box, you’ll play for many, many hours.

So save up your money. This is truly one of the better fall games.