We know we've said it a lot recently, but we really have been pleasantly surprised by this year's Disney Infinity. Giving Skylanders and LEGO Dimensions a run for its money, with much more substantial levels than Disney Infinities gone by, this time inspired by the worlds of Star Wars and Inside Out, we've found ourselves playing it a heck of a lot more - and having a lot of fun. One of the advantages of the "toys to life" style games is that new expansions are never far away - and it seems the world of Disney Infinity 3.0 is about to get even bigger on the 25th March, with the release of the Marvel Battlegrounds Play Set, in what could be the most intriguing expansion yet.
For starters, the newest batch of levels, of which there'll be around a dozen, will be playable not just in the usual two player local co-op, but with up to four players locally too. Precisely how this'll work is yet to be revealed though, as we're not sure how the third and fourth players will get to pick their characters, given that the portal only takes two, and, this being a "toys to life" game, you need to put a toy on the base in order to play. We're guessing there'll be a Skylanders Superchargers Racing-style 'scan all your figures in then pick from a list' approach, but only time will tell.
Enlist your friends to make your own Marvel dream team.
An 'arcade style brawler', Battlegrounds sounds like a rather different style of game to the hitherto quest based Disney Infinity. Looking to be a fairly combat-heavy, button-mashy affair, it'll be up to players to battle their way through waves of enemies, taking in all kinds of famous locales, from Knowhere to Wakanda. The reason? Loki and Ultron have teamed up in a bid to pinch the immensely powerful Infinity Stone, creating robotic replicas of all the famous Marvel super heroes and pitting them against each other to act as the ultimate distraction while they commit their crime. And so, it falls to you, and up to three friends, to take the fight to them.
Marvel Battlegrounds also boasts Disney Infinity's largest playable roster of characters yet - something that's useful in a game that restricts the characters you can play as, depending on which "universe" you're playing in, so only Star Wars characters can be used in the Star Wars Play Sets, only Inside Out figures work in the Inside Out one. As Marvel Battlegrounds is going to be a bit more of a mash up, with it's own specially-written story line, they've relaxed the rules just a touch, and now you can bring any of your Disney Infinity 2.0 or 3.0 Marvel Super Heroes figures into the fray too - including the Guardians of the Galaxy cast, for a whopping total of 25 different playable characters, with more still to be announced.
Less good news is the fact that the game itself will come packaged with only one figure - something which earned the folks at Disney a lot of stick back in the days of the first Disney Infinity, as although the game came with three figures, each was from a different "universe" you had to buy an extra bunch of figures if you wanted to play in co-op. With Marvel Battlegrounds being a distinctly multiplayer oriented affair, it seems somewhat odd that anyone who doesn't already own another Marvel figure will effectively be limited to playing on their own until they pick another up. As cool as the Captain America - The First Avenger figure that comes bundled with Marvel Battlegrounds is, we're hoping that at the very least the retail price will reflect that you're technically getting one less piece of plastic for your money.
Captain 'serious eyebrows' America - The First Avenger
Disney Infinity 3.0's Marvel Battlegrounds expansion will be soaring into stores in a couple of month's time, on the 25th March - just in time for the Easter holidays. Don't forget you'll need a copy of the main Disney Infinity 3.0 game to play, which is available on all major consoles too - the Xbox One, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, and Wii U.
