I have completely rewritten this review to add more detail as we've uncovered more Infinity goodness!
We've been playing for hours upon hours since Sunday's release, so I feel I have a good grasp on most aspects of the game. Forgive me if I tend to compare Infinity to Skylanders as it's somewhat inevitable given that many people are here because of their interest in the former game. If you're interested in my direct comparison, continue on, but keep in mind that despite the similarities, these two games are entirely different.
My initial thoughts on the game are how well-made and how deeply complex it is. For anyone who has played Toy Story 3, the play sets will instantly feel familiar. The Toy Box mode from Toy Story 3 is recreated here in almost identical fashion. Missions are located by glowing blue beacons in the sky and marked by a ! over their heads. A waypoint indicator (optional) is back again to guide you to the location of your mission objective. Back as well are all the little collectibles to pick up around every turn. Having spent a lot of time with the Cars play set with my son, it's also very familiar to find that the cars are controlled exactly like they are in Cars 2 (which happens to be the only game that we've ever unlocked every single achievement in!). The turbo meter is back and the controls for driving and racing are almost identical, with a few new additions. The same tricks and stunts can be performed here, and while the races aren't as long or varied as with Cars 2, all the familiarity is awesome for this Cars-loving family. It really feels like a mini Cars 2 game within the bigger game.
The game in general is very easy to jump right into. The tutorial is brief and gets you acquainted with the basic controls that apply to all characters. Once you enter a play set, you will be briefly introduced to their special controls as each character set has their own abilities. You start out in the Toy Box, and this will be my first (and probably only) complaint about the game. You are dropped in the Toy Box with very little explanation about how to do anything. It's possible that we missed something as my son was excitedly mashing buttons, but I felt a little lost initially. (EDIT: After going back, there is a tutorial for the Toy Box itself, but I haven't yet been permitted to complete it!) The possibilities are so immense that it's hard to fathom, and the manual says nothing about this. More on that later. Onto the Skylanders comparison!
Similarities:
Figures: Clearly the biggest similarity is the collectible figures. Although the need to hot swap characters as is the case with Skylanders, you're probably fine with just a single character until you come across an area or item that can only be accessed by a specific hero. Very similar to elemental gates, though it's usually just a chest unlocked an not a new challenge area. While Disney may have shot themselves in the foot for not pressuring you to have all the figures, it's refreshing to be able to experience the game with just a single favorite and not feeling like you're missing out, or worse, not being able to complete the game because you don't have all the necessary elements. If you are a completionist, however, you will want them all as each character is represented in the game's Hall of Heroes by a grand statue that changes as the character gains levels. If you want to unlock every single item in the game, you'll also need all the characters, but these items aren't essential to gameplay and are for Toy Box and cosmetic use only.
That said, you do have to have at least one character from each play set to play in those worlds. This isn't an issue since each of the three worlds that come in the starter pack are also accompanied by three characters, one from each of those worlds. The Cars and Lone Ranger play sets also come with characters from those worlds, so not being able to "complete" a given play set should never be an issue. On the other hand, if you want to play multiplayer in any of the play sets, be prepared to have TWO characters from each world. While you can have two of the same (two Lightning McQueen, for example) you MUST have two from that world, or you and your kids will not be able to play together in that world. If you want to play multiplayer in Monsters right off the bat, you will need to pick up Randall or Mike. If you want to play Incredibles in multiplayer, you need Mrs. Incredible, Violet or Dash. I know some think this is "underhanded" by Disney, but to me, this really isn't any different than Skylanders forcing you to go out and buy at least five more figures to be able to experience the entire game. You can experience all Infinity has to offer with what you get in the starter pack, but if you want to play multiplayer (and who wouldn't?!) you need to plan on buying three other figures. The great thing about the Infinity figures is that multiple people can share the same figure. More on that in differences!
Leveling and Upgrades: Figures do level up and receive upgrades, though their upgrades are specific to their world. Meaning if Holley Shiftwell receives the Turbo 2 upgrade, it's only persistent in the Cars play set. I started a new save game in the Cars play set to try a few things out, and I no longer had my previous upgrades, but my experience level and money did persist between games. In Toy Box mode, it appears you automatically have all of the general upgrades, regardless of your progression in the play set. Experience here is called Sparks, and is obtained by completing missions, challenges, and also by smashing stuff. Likewise with money.
Objectives: In Infinity, objectives are called missions. Each play set has a long list of tasks to complete, ranging from very simple to quite challenging. There is definitely a lot here to keep the completionist busy for a long time. Where each Skylanders level has a variety of very similar tasks to complete, each of the 5 Infinity worlds has a wide variety of different challenges.
Challenges: Infinity's version of Heroic Challenges and Arena Battles is Challenges. Some are unlocked through story progression and others are purchased with coins. Each challenge has three difficulty levels and you appear to have to complete them in order. For example, completing easy unlocks medium, medium unlocks hard. For each level you complete, you get a "mark" on the icon above the challenge entrance, up to three total. The color also changes, which affects how you see them from afar. Uncompleted challenges glow yellow, while completed challenges are red so you can easily see which ones aren't complete and where they are on the map when you're exploring. Challenges range from racing around different tracks to trying to shoot a certain number of targets in a specific amount of time. Some are very simple, and some I've struggled to complete at the hard level. The racing challenges are actually very.. well, challenging!
Differences:
Power Discs: This is an all new idea and plays into the fun of the chase as each Power Disc pack has two random discs in it. There already appears to be rare ones as we happened to find two that were a different color and had holographic designs on them rather than a regular picture. The circular variety give activated powers (like invulnerability or increased health) and the hexagonal discs give you things to play with in Toy Box, be it a new theme for your world or a new toy to play with. We've found several different cars, including Mickey's car, Cinderella's carriage and the ride car from the Astro Blasters attraction at the Disney parks. Each one plays familiar music when you ride around in it. We also found Stitch's ray gun which is very fun to chase each other around with! There is no point in having more than one hexagonal disc as using them once unlocks the item permanently, but it may be worth having two of each circle disc so that each player can use the same power up if desired. I've also heard that the 3DS version of the game allows you to "stack" two power ups at once, so also something to keep in mind when collecting the discs.
Upgrades: You shouldn't expect all of your upgrades to be about improving your character. While many are, about half are related to improving the world that you're in. For example, the cars get upgrades that increase their speed, towing ability, missiles, etc, but they also receive upgrades that spruce up the town, be it by adding new citizens or a new venue to the town. At the start, only Flo's V8 Cafe and Luigi's Casa Della Tires are present, but through upgrades you can purchase stores for Sarge, Filmore, Ramone, Lizzie, etc. Purchasing these stores also opens up new missions for you to complete, and as a result, new items and upgrades.
Character Swapping: While it was an oversight on my part, I was expecting to be able to play all characters in all play sets, but I was a bit sad to find out that in the play sets, you must play characters from those worlds. Cars can only play in Cars world, pirates in the pirates world, etc. While I've come to enjoy the game despite this, I wish it was open like Skylanders where you could play your favorite character no matter where you are. That said, I do understand why they have this restriction, because certain characters just wouldn't work with the mechanics in other play sets. For example, Lightning McQueen can't ride a horse in the Lone Ranger and Jack Sparrow can't tow cars who've run out of gas back to Flo's. However, in Toy Box mode, anything goes and you can run races with Sully or wield a gun with Mike. Truly with the Toy Box, your imagination (and grasp of the controls) are your only limitations.
Customizable World: You can change the look and feel of any of the buildings in your play sets. This is persistent to your game save, so I visit my son's world, I see how he has decorated Flo's V8 Cafe with pictures of Mater. If he visits mine, he sees an overload of pink and flowers! Customizing is very simple and intuitive and should be very easy for kiddos to pick up on, especially if they've played Toy Story 3. The interface for customizing is almost identical here. You interact with the building by pushing the button displayed on the screen, and it presents a graphical panel of options for customizing various parts of the building. This can be done at anytime and doesn't cost anything, so it's pure fun. You unlock other colors and designs by collecting them around the play set, just by picking them up. There are also countless spots where you can add your own little touches. There may be a post where you can choose to put a sign or wind chimes or whatever else you may have. And the fun part is, that persists through all other parts of the game. If you later race Chick Hicks around town, your wind chimes are there in front of the barn and your Guido Crossing sign is still in front of Luigi's shop. You can also customize the people (or cars!) who live in your world. When you first start out with the Cars play set, all the little citizen cars are just white. You can interact with each one and change them however you like, depending on which items you've found around town (and there are a great number of them). This may include a special hat, a new paint job, or new tires. You can also purchase new citizens altogether from the same menu where you purchase upgrades, which gives you new options for body types of your cars. Even as an adult, it's very fun to watch all our little creations drive around town. My son and I are constantly pointing out the ones that we've customized and complimenting each other on our designs!
Unlockable Items: Each play set is littered with items for you to pick up and collect in little capsules, like the ones you'd see in the quarter machines. Red ones are the more common type, unlocking only one item either for your play set or for the Toy Box. Green ones unlock a whole set of items for Toy Box. Some items are cosmetic, for customizing the citizens of your world or your buildings, some are actually useful items that change how you play. The former is the more common type.
Local Multiplayer: Clearly both games have local multiplayer, but there are many stark differences. In Skylanders, you are more or less bound to each other. You can't go anywhere independently, and that's not necessarily a bad thing for that game. After all, what's the point of beating up bad guys in multiplayer if you're not even together? That said, multiplayer in Infinity is a whole different scenario. You can work together, both directly or indirectly, or you can do your own thing entirely. As a result, multiplayer in Infinity is split screen, which we weren't crazy about at first, but now we absolutely love it. Here's why. If you're working on a mission to put out fires, you can split up and each of you can cover a different area. If you're on a stealth mission, one of you can be the lookout and guide the other from a different location. If you're racing, clearly the race wouldn't be very fun if you were stuck to each other and would kind of defeat the purpose of having a race in the first place. Given that cooperation is entirely possible, it's not required, and here's where Infinity is entirely different from Skylanders. At some point, my kiddo just wanted to drive around and customize everything and create a pile of cars that he towed to Mater's impound lot. While this looked absolutely fun and exciting (!) I wanted to continue on with missions and get more upgrades. While he was happily doing his own thing, I continued on completing missions and finding collectibles by myself. He was swapping out his cars left and right, opening chests and the like, and my game was never interrupted. There's no "loading" screen when a character is swapped, so he could change characters and power ups to his heart's content, even access menus while paused, and I was still cruising around. When one of us decided to take up a challenge, the other would be invited and given the opportunity to accept or decline. If one declined, they would be taken out of the game while the other completed the challenge, and then brought back again after the challenge was complete. If one accepts, they go on to complete the challenge together (or compete against each other, depending on the challenge). The ability to not be stuck to each other and be bound to what the other is doing is a really fun twist and makes the game feel much more open and interactive.
Online Multiplayer: I feel this part is somewhat misleading. You can't go online and team up with random people like you would in a game like Castle Crashers or Halo, but you can play online with friends. This isn't very useful if you don't know anyone who plays the game yet, but I'm sure communities will form online and people will add each other that way. I think random teams would have been a fun addition and I'm sad that this wasn't an option. I understand Disney was likely concerned about content being appropriate for the whole family, but since they support the parental settings in Disney Infinity, I don't think this would have been an issue. You could just block certain accounts from user created content and allow others full access. Basically online multiplayer is co-op in Toy Box mode with up to 4 players, including 2 local players. Disney has a few worlds they created available for download, and it remains unclear how you will access worlds created by other users. I've heard that it's possible to upload worlds to Disney that they will then make available to others for download, but I have no idea how this works yet so I can't really comment on it.
Experience: This is probably the single biggest difference between Infinity and Skylanders. Experience (sparks) are not gained by battling endless hordes of monsters. They are earned by completing missions and challenges. This may be off-putting to the biggest fans of Skylanders, but as a serious Skylander fan myself, I still find a lot to enjoy here. I don't really need another Skylanders (neither does my bank account!) but Infinity shines in it's own way. You shouldn't expect to jump into a hack and slash game here. While there is some of that (more in some play sets than others) this game is primarily about completing missions and progressing through the story. While it's entirely possible to replay areas to get more sparks the money, just like with Skylanders, you will basically be replaying story mode from the beginning. So far there is no shortage of missions and they are easy to locate by their glowing beacons that shoot up into the sky. The challenges also provide plenty of sparks and money, if you're successful, of course. Another brilliant addition is that in multiplayer, experience and money are automatically shared equally. No more fighting over who gets the next chest! Thank you, Disney!
Character info is stored locally: Unlike Skylanders where character levels and money are stored only on the figure itself, character info is also stored locally. This means multiple people can share the same figure, yay! This was an ingenious move on Disney's part. Say you're playing Lightning McQueen and he's level 7 and then you go to your friend's house to play. McQueen will show up as a "guest" in your friend's game, retaining your level and money. You can continue to play him as a guest and he'll keep progressing. He will retain any experience and money he earned while you were playing as a guest with your friend. However, if your friend doesn't have McQueen, he can take ownership of the figure and the character will start back at level 0 for him. The neat part is, when you take McQueen back to your game, he still has the amount of experience and money he had when YOU last played him. When your friend plays him again on his game (or if he purchases his own McQueen) he will then start from where he left off with the borrowed McQueen. In essence, each figure can retain information for multiple save games. Several family members can use the same figure, and since the character information is also stored locally, each individual can have their own information on that one figure. Another bonus is, if your figure ever stops working, you can just purchase a new one and no information will be lost. Very, very cool.
Length: With the number of hours we've logged so far into the Cars world alone, I think it's safe to say that Disney Infinity has many, many more hours of play than either of the Skylanders games. We had easily completed Skylanders Giants in a week, and that's with most of the stars and achievements unlocked. Granted, not all of our characters were level 15 in that week, but we had played through all the content. So far we've only played in the Cars play set and a teeny tiny bit in Toy Box, and with 4 other worlds to play through and the Toy Box to dig into, it would seem we have weeks of new content to play through.
Toy Box: There's is just too much here in the Toy Box to delve into with this already lengthy review, but suffice it to say, we are always thrilled to go into the Toy Box and try out the things we've unlocked while playing in the play sets. I haven't had a chance to go through the Toy Box tutorial yet, so I really have no idea what I'm doing besides chasing my kiddo around in makeshift races, so I'll add more to this section later. In the meantime, the DisneyInfinity channel on YouTube appears to have numerous tutorial videos. I've watched a few and I'm very excited about the possibilities!
To close, there is so much more here than I was expecting. I was honestly a bit hesitant thinking this endeavor by Disney was going to fall short in the face of Skylanders, but we are already hooked on Infinity, pursuing each challenge, objective, mission and upgrade, and having already sunk a good chunk of time into the game with only a single world, and considering we appear to be not even half way through, I think it's safe to assume that as we play through the other four play sets, we will experience many, many more happy hours of play together. There's really no reason NOT to pick up Infinity if you're looking for a good time for the whole family.
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This is by far one of the best games I've played, it really is just fun. There are quite a few in-depth reviews by various websites like Gameinformer, Kotaku, Forbes, Polygon, and even Neogaf. You can find more in-depth info there if you wish. Simpy put the game has 2 modes basically, the campaign mode, which are the play sets, and the Toy Box mode.
The play sets are individual property experiences and follow a more traditional game flow, as you play through the play sets you unlock new toys to add to your toy box. So far Incredibles has been my favorite one, with Monsters and Pirates close behind.
The meat of the game is however in the toy box, it's a giant open world playground where you can combine all the different properties and literally do just about whatever you can think of. It's been a blast playing with my kids, horsing around, building things and just doing whatever we want, the freedom is refreshing. I can build more elaborate set ups with the logic editor that is super easy to use and pick up and my 6 year can build and knock over, drive through, shoot or whatever he wants all at the same time. It really is the most fun I've had playing a game with my kids.
There have been comparisons to Skylanders but anybody who has played the 2 games know that the only similarity is the fact they have collectible figures that you use in the game. The Forbes link I posted at the bottom has a good description of the differences. The character figures are really cool and well made and from what I understand Disney is only planning to add more to it, I highly recommend it!
Here are a couple in-depth review links that I've read...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/games/2013/08/18/disney-infinity-review/
http://www.gameinformer.com/games/disney_infinity/b/xbox360/archive/2013/08/18/fun-with-the-toy-box.aspx
http://kotaku.com/an-hour-in-disney-infinitys-toy-box-was-not-enough-894018496
Best Deals for DISNEY INFINITY Starter Pack Xbox 360
Okay, after reading many of the comments I thought I could add my two dimes (inflation). I could almost imagine the board meeting at Disney Interactive. The cost of servers for their free-to-play games such as Toon Town, Pirates of the Caribbean and Fairies of Pixie Hollow was becoming a major money pit so how do we fix that? Or better yet, what's really hot out their and I'm sure someone coughed and said Skylanders and someone else pointed out Minecraft was pretty hot. So there you go, Disney Infinity. A game that combines collectability and customization to real life figures that you purchase.
People scoffed at Activision for charging so much for their starter pack but many gamers pointed out that the 3 characters that come with the set are more than just figures and the base is an integral part of game play so you really are getting more than just the game disc. What makes Disney Infinity great is the variety of ways to enjoy. I know for a fact there are hoards of collectors that literally want the figures just to have the figures; they're well made and they look cool.
Now a big complaint I've heard is how Disney is money grubbing and I really can't dismiss that since they did decide to drop the afore mentioned on-line games for this model. But the reality is, if your game isn't making a profit, it's not sustainable. My measure of money grubbing comes with the question, "do I need to buy these extras in order to complete the game?" Well, if you have 2 kids then yes, you will need to buy the Sidekicks Pack or Villains Pack if both your kids want to play together in all three starter lands. So $75 + $30 = $95. Do you need the power discs? Nope! The 4 round power discs only offers a percentage chance at a buff or bonus. You really don't need them to play the game.
Each game seems to have 4 to 5 connected areas where you do tasks to acquire more in-game items and toys for your toy box. So I think most people can escape paying over $100 for three relatively fun games that represent about 4 to 5 levels each. See, I'm comparing it to Skylanders that has 16 chapters in the main game. What's missing is you can't have characters from other lands interact in-game so no taking Capt. Jack with Sulley and heading off to Metro City to fight Syndrome. But that's where the toy box comes in. There you can collect game mechanics and make you're own gaming area. I think this is where Minecraft comes in.
The hexagon power discs are only usable in these areas and you can only use 3 at a time. The round power discs are only for character enhancements (you can only use 2 per character) and doubles can be used to increase your chances. However, doubles of the hexagon discs are a waste because you only need 1 to activate a theme or item. I saw that Toys-R-Us have scheduled trading sessions, but seriously, I don't think many people are going to need any of the 4 dupes of Sugar Rush background that I got. Once again, you don't need these discs to complete the game and the shared toy box has premade toy boxes that have many of the backgrounds such as Alice in Wonderland and Wreck-it-Ralph so I really do think you can keep the fun under $100.
I think the problem is we just want it all. With Skylanders my daughter had no problem picking out characters she wanted to play and characters she didn't want to play. With Infinity I just want it all, so be prepared to pay about $400 for wave 1. I bought a few random disc bags and after I got 4 Wreck-It-Ralph backgrounds I decided to look for an alternative. Now people have posted that if you're at a store with a display base, all you have to do is place the bag on the base and the disc information will appear for both discs. I'm not sure I feel comfortable doing that, but I know some employees at Best Buy could care less if you did. I personally just went and found a vendor on Amazon that offered the whole set of commons and a set of rares for a reasonable price. I also bought dupes of the round power discs because we are often playing as a pair and if we want to have heavy damage, we each put two sets of Bolt power discs under our figures for a damage boost.
I noticed one of Disney Infinity Devs posted a trick where you can level your characters to 15 by spinning them in a stunt buggy over a fan in your toy box. It blew my mind that a Dev would offer players a easy exploit to up your game. Oh why level your toons? You get a star for each level and stars are used to spin for more toys in the spin vault that can further enhance your toy box experience. If you have the starter pack that gives you 45 spins (15 stars per figure). I believe you need 150 spins to unlock the entire vault but please don't quote me on that. Stars are also achieved by in-game play so if you only have the starter pack you can get more stars in game....just not sure if you'll have enough to unlock it all. Well, if that's your goal, you would more like have more figures. I like Disney Infinity but I worry about the cost. It's not surprising they split this set up into 3 waves; no doubt to correspond with quarterly reports. But that's the reality, if you're not making money you have no business being a company.
I think if you have a fixed income hold off till Christmas when I believe vendors will start bringing down the price for wave 1. Unlike Skylanders, Disney Infinity doesn't seem to want to mess with people by making some figures rarer, just the power discs which aren't even necessary...only if you're a completionist like me. The one thing that does bothers me is when they show examples of in-game stuff, they often use characters from Wave 2 or I suspect Wave 3. It's a great marketing ploy, but I think that's what frustrates people who aren't familiar with the game. They see Wreck-It-Ralph and think, "Hey, that looks like fun", only to discover you'll need to wait till October to play him.
Oh and one cautionary note! I purchase the Villains pack from Best Buy and found that the Davy Jones character wasn't reading properly when you put more than 1 power disc on him. Best Buy was of course accommodating about the return, but I ended up having to get the entire 3 pack to replace the one faulty figure. So get this, at home now it's Randal and Syndrome that are faulty and Davy Jones is fine. Once again Best buy was cool and said just bring those back and you can take back the 2 I returned earlier that day. So my point is, there's clearly a glitch. I heard about issues with PS3, but I'm on XBOX and Davy Jones was the only figure experiencing this issue until I got that replacement. I did the pre-order for Woody and Jack Skellington, but I worry if I'll get any grief about returning online purchased items through Wal-Mart and Gamestop respectively. Finally shop around; Target had the Lone Ranger and Cars sets at half price and Amazon matched them so don't feel you have to buy it all now. Wait and look for deals. Anyhow, sorry for the length of this review, but hope it helps!
UPDATE: Okay for fun I went to Best Buy and tried the trick with the Power Disc bag and a static advertisement came up regarding what Power Discs do. I placed a character box and same deal, an advertisement about THAT particular figure so either I'm doing something wrong, or other places can in fact read the discs or they created a software update to avoid sneaky customer. So even though I've read in several places about the trick, I personally can not confirm it works. I did however try the easy quick leveling. By hopping onto the fan, I didn't need to use a stunt buggy and I was also able to use the hopping technique with my Cars 2 figures since they can't ride a stunt buggy. So anyhow, I can confirm that works.
One thing I forgot to mention is the detail of each of the lands. I didn't even see The Lone Ranger but I love the play set and attention to detail; right down to pop guns being used by heroes and villains instead of realistic guns and ammo. A nice touch when considering how many younger grade school kids will be playing this game. Another is the music. Since Disney owns everything, they pretty much got a majority of music for each land. The only gap I've noticed is Pirates of the Caribbean, but hey I can just play the soundtrack if I need to hear Hanz Zimmer's score that bad. It's also nice to hear they were able to get a lot of original cast members to reprise their roles or at least pretty good sound alikes for characters such as Capt. Jack. or Mrs. Incredible. Here and there you see little touches of designers developers or artists just going above and beyond to make this game fun and immersive.
Honest reviews on DISNEY INFINITY Starter Pack Xbox 360
Disney Infinity is the first serious attempt to take on Activision's all-conquering Skylanders series. There are obvious similarities both use toy figures and a USB peripheral but Disney's effort requires you to purchase physical tokens to upgrade your in-game heroes (sold in sealed foil packs that make doubles and the need to swap them inevitable. Disney Infinity also promises more complex gameplay. Its story mode comprises a collection of adventures themed around different franchises including the Incredibles, Monsters. Inc and Pirates Of The Caribbean. Activities are varied platforming, seafaring, brawling, city management, racing and campus exploration feature in the Starter Pack alone but unlike with Skylanders, players can only use characters from the featured film franchise in their respective levels. The freeform Toy Box mode, however, lets players combine characters as they invent their own adventures with game creation tools and objects earned during the main game. Both modes support two-player split screen and four-player online collaboration.
Highly fun and exploratory, this should give you plenty of time to have an enjoyable experience!!
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I have been playing this game for a day now and it already feels old due to the fact that the gameplay is identical to Toy Story 3 toy box mode. I did like Toy Story 3, however, in Toy Story 3 you didn't need toy figurines, and honestly I can't for the life of me understand the need to have these figurines besides for the fact that Disney is going to make lots of money selling them. The game comes with three different levels, Monsters University, the Incredibles, and Pirates. The missions unfold exactly the same for all three sets, where you have different missions to complete and you are then rewarded for completing the mission. The bad thing about it is you can only have one game save for each of the levels. If you want to start over for one of your kids, then you will lose your work. My 4 year old son decided to start a new game of the Incredibles and all the time I put into the game is now lost. That being said it will take you about 4 to 5 hours to play through the entire story mode for each level. This is decent, but I am concerned that new levels are going to suffer from identical gameplay with updated characters. I think this may hurt the game going forward. I would have loved to see a Cars level feature game play similar to Need for Speed, or another Disney franchise with different game play mechanics. However, it isn't that way, and $40 is a lot for an expansion pack.
The figurines are actually quite cool. The quality of the figurines is slightly lower than the Skylanders figurines as some characters are held onto the base by a small piece of plastic. I got the sidekicks pack which included Mike (Monsters), Mrs. Incredible (Incredibles), and Barbarosa (pirates). If you want to play the story mode in multiplayer then you will need two of the characters of the matching level. You are not able to use Mike in the Pirates level or Captain Jack in the Incredibles level. In the toy-box you can mix them up.
The other good thing about this game is that there are lots of unlockables and items to collect. If you like games where you have to collect things, then this game will give you plenty to do. I am hoping that we get a couple of patches for the game in the future to fix some of the minor annoyances, but overall it is a good game for both me and my kids. My 4 year old gets frustrated (it is a little too old for him), and my 6 year old can play following either my wife or myself.
As for comparing it to Skylanders, well they aren't really that similar with the exception of using figurines. Skylanders has a better story line, but Infinity has better replay value. If I want to play with another player Infinity is better, but I feel like I could play Skylanders for longer periods of time. One thing is for certain, and that is we are going to get more video games in the future that use some kind of external toy.
EDIT 20 August 2013: I wanted to mention that you are able to have multiple saves for this game. I have the Xbox 360 edition so you have to log in as a different user to have a different save file. This is actually a better system IMO due to the fact that you don't have to worry about your saves being deleted by other users. I also wanted to mention that each mission pack should be rated differently due to the slight differences between them, however, the game mechanics are the same for all the game packs that I have played. I am getting the Cars pack tomorrow so I'll update this review with information about that one as well.
