Disney Infinity’s Toy Story Play Set is a fun space walk, but it’ll cost you

Between building up my Space Ranger base, jetting around an alien landscape, and throwing rubber balls at Hamm and Rex, I found myself exploring what was probably the most fully realized world Disney Infinity has seen yet. Then reality set in that the price tag was a cool $34.99 for a pack that includes this little space adventure and the Buzz Lightyear and Jessie figurines, and it’s hard to reconcile the two.

[singlepic id=16951 w=320 h=240 float=left]On the one hand, you get a pretty interesting adventure to play around in. Buzz, Jessie, and Woody (if you purchase him separately, natch) head to a remote planet on a rescue mission. A volcano is about to blow, and its up to our Space Rangers to build up their base and save the Pizza Planet Aliens from certain doom.

There are actually a ton of missions, from finding supply crates, to researching the various size-altering goo found on the planet, to partaking in special combat training simulations. It’s a surprisingly dense adventure, with a plethora of things to do and see, and it’s really cool piecing your base together building by building. By the end, you’ll have a fully realized space base at your disposal. Plus, the items that you unlock in the five to six hour adventure carry over into Toy Box mode, including the jetpacks and goo guns you’ll find in the campaign. This alone will likely be enough incentive for obsessive players looking to build even bigger and more diverse levels.

On the other hand, this new adventure is plagued by the same problems that Disney Infinity has always had and seems even more bug-laden than before. Platforming and flying controls still feel janky and imprecise, and the sound constantly skips like a broken record throughout play. As this is essentially on-disc DLC, any bugs and glitches likely won’t be ironed out until the inevitable next-gen editions. And it still feels pretty rapacious of Disney to disclude items from the Toy Box without having first purchased the Play Set then finding them within the adventure, but that’s the nature of this pricey beast.

[singlepic id=16952 w=320 h=240 float=right]It’s also a little weird that the Play Set itself has little to do with Toy Story outside of the items and characters. Whereas Pirates of the Caribbean, Monsters University, and the Incredibles were at least vaguely set in worlds based on their respective films, Toy Story in Space is more like something Andy would have come up with in his imagination. It’s still really fun to explore, but everything feels a bit generic compared to the other worlds, and I can’t help but wonder what a true Toy Story themed adventure would have been like.

As the first expansion to be released since Disney Infinity’s launch, the Toy Story in Space Play Set proves that there’s definitely plenty of potential to be found within this new platform, despite any technical problems the game might have. Even so, spending nearly fifty bucks for a full roster of Toy Story characters is definitely an expensive proposition – especially for a five hour adventure and a handful of new Toy Box items. Your ability to swallow the price will be based on how much that matters to you.

You can find the Toy Story in Space Play Set and Woody figure in stores today.

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