Disney Infinity 3.0 brought Star Wars into the toy box, and it turned out to be the last thing the series ever did. Avalanche Software built it. Disney Interactive Studios published it. It arrived on August 28, 2015 in Europe and August 30, 2015 in North America, on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Apple TV.
That is a wide spread of hardware, and it tells you what kind of game this is before you press anything. Disney Infinity 3.0 is a toys-to-life action-adventure game, the third and final installment in the series, and the last game published by the company before its closure. It is also the sequel to Disney Infinity 2.0, which had leaned on Marvel. This one leans on Star Wars instead.
Trailer, via Marvel Entertainment.
Star Wars Replaces Marvel in the Toy Box
The shift is the whole story of the release. Where 2.0 focused on Marvel Comics characters and playsets, 3.0 has a focus on the Star Wars franchise. The game is sometimes called Disney Infinity: Star Wars, and that name is not a marketing accident. It is a description.
The pitch from the publisher is straightforward: Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition welcomes Star Wars to a collection that already held Marvel, Disney and Disney•Pixar characters, stories and worlds. New heroes can join forces with characters from previous editions and head into the 3.0 Toy Box. That promise — old figures still working, new ones arriving — is the reason the series existed at all, and 3.0 keeps it.
Avalanche Software developed the game. Heavy Iron Studios worked on it too, with additional help from Ninja Theory, Studio Gobo, Sumo Digital and United Front Games. That is a long credit list for one title. In this paper’s view, the finished product reads as broad rather than deep in places, though the source does not say how the work was split.
Lightsabers Change the Combat
The mechanics are close to Disney Infinity and Disney Infinity 2.0. The combat is not. It has been redesigned to become more in-depth and complex, and the influences are specific: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and its sequel, Kingdom Hearts, and most of Spider-Man’s aerial combat-themed video game series, with Ultimate Spider-Man excluded.
Lightsabers are integrated into combat because Star Wars characters are in the game. Characters who use them can also carry additional weapons. Luke Skywalker, a playable character, can use a blaster and a lightsaber, and used together they can juggle enemies in the air.
Full combos are in, and they let the player pause mid-combo and branch into another variation. Characters who can use the Force, in Star Wars mythology, can push and pull enemies during a fight. Special attacks, first introduced in Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes, come back.
The change to special attacks is the one worth noting. Instead of waiting for a progress bar to fill before the attack fires, a new feature lets you release it early. The trade is honest: the effects are not as strong. Auto-lock when firing ranged weapons at targets has also been enhanced, so players no longer have to move closer to enemies to lock onto their positions.
Aerial Combos Are Locked Behind Weapons and Flight
Not every character gets everything. Only the bearer of a close-ranged weapon — lightsabers, other blades, staffs — can perform an aerial combo. That includes characters with their own primary close-ranged weapon. Mulan is the example: her primary weapon is a staff, similar to the Jedi and Sith’s own primary lightsaber. Characters who can fly can also do it.
| Element | Disney Infinity 2.0 | Disney Infinity 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Franchise focus | Marvel Comics characters and playsets | Star Wars franchise |
| Combat system | Shared key elements with the first game | Redesigned, more in-depth and complex |
| Lightsabers | Not present | Integrated into combat |
| Special attacks | Introduced in Marvel Super Heroes | Return, with early release at reduced strength |
| Aerial combos | Not described | Limited to close-ranged weapon bearers and flying characters |
| Auto-lock | Not described | Enhanced, no need to close distance to lock on |
The table is the argument. 3.0 is not a rebuild of the series. It is a rebuild of one system inside it, and the Star Wars skin is what made that system worth rebuilding.
The Force Push and Pull Earns Its Place
Here is where the game is better than its reputation suggests. The Force push and pull is not decoration. It sits inside a combat system that already borrowed from The Force Unleashed, and those two things fit. A player who can shove an enemy away and then close the distance with a saber has a reason to think about spacing, not just mash.
The mid-combo branch is the other good decision. Pausing a combo to swing into a different variation is a small mechanic with a large effect on how a fight feels. It gives the player a way to correct a mistake without starting over.
The early-release special attack is the most interesting risk in the design. Trading power for speed is a real choice, and it is the kind of choice that separates a combat system from a button prompt. It is not a huge idea. It is a correct one.
The Toy Box Still Carries the Game
The Toy Box remains the center of the whole enterprise. The publisher’s summary promises adventures as big as your imagination in the 3.0 Toy Box, and the modes back it up: single player, multiplayer and co-operative, played from a third-person perspective. The themes are action, sandbox and kids. The game does not pretend otherwise, though that read is ours, not the source’s.
This is a game built for a younger player and for a household with a shelf of figures. The combat improvements matter most to the older player in that house. The sandbox matters most to the younger one. Both are served.
The platform list is doing a lot of work here. PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Android, PC, iOS, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One. Wikipedia also lists Apple TV, a platform the primary source does not include. Either way, the spread is wide.
The Last Game Disney Interactive Published
The context is not small. Disney Infinity 3.0 is the third and final installment in the toys-to-life Disney Infinity series and the last game published by the company before their closure. That fact changes how the game reads in hindsight.
So 3.0 is a closing statement, whether it meant to be or not. Marvel had been the focus of 2.0. Star Wars gave the game a cast with built-in combat logic: lightsabers, the Force, blasters, flying. Whether that was a deliberate strategy or a lucky fit, the mythology and the mechanics line up.
The credit list — Avalanche Software, Heavy Iron Studios, Ninja Theory, Studio Gobo, Sumo Digital, United Front Games — reads like a studio system rather than a single team. That is usually a warning sign. Here it mostly holds.
What 3.0 Gets Right and What It Does Not
The combat redesign is the strongest part of Disney Infinity 3.0. It borrows openly and it borrows well. The Force Unleashed influence is visible in the push and pull. The Kingdom Hearts influence is visible in the aerial work. The Spider-Man influence, minus Ultimate Spider-Man, is visible in how characters move through the air.
The weakness, in this paper’s read, is that the game never escapes its own category. It is a toys-to-life game, and the Toy Box is the point. Players who wanted a pure Star Wars action game were never going to get one here, and the game does not try to be one. The figures are the product. The game is the delivery system.
The aerial combo restriction is the design decision most likely to annoy. Locking aerial combos to close-ranged weapon bearers and flying characters is a real limitation, and it means some characters simply cannot do what others can. It is defensible — Mulan’s staff earns her the same right as a Jedi — but it is a limitation all the same.
The Score
Disney Infinity 3.0 earns an 8.1 out of 10. That matches the published critical score, an IGDB critic aggregate of 8.1/10 across 11 outlets, and it is the right number for what this is: a well-built final entry in a series that was already ending.
The combat is the reason to care. The early-release special attack, the mid-combo branch, the Force push and pull, the enhanced auto-lock — these are small, correct improvements to a system that needed them. The Star Wars cast gave the designers permission to make combat matter, and they took it.
What holds it at 8.1 rather than higher is scope. Disney Infinity 3.0 improves the fight and leaves the rest alone. If you came for the sandbox, you already know what you are getting. If you came for the lightsabers, this is the entry that finally gives them something to do.
It is the last game Disney Interactive published, and it is a decent note to go out on. Not a great one. A decent one, built with care in the places that counted.
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