Tech Blog

[#1]

Disney Universe was released last month, and while it’s a solid children’s game, it seems to draw inevitably unfavourable comparisons to Kingdom Hearts, the gold standard of Disney games. Kingdom Hearts was designed for somewhat mature players who would appreciate lush graphics, detailed worlds, and compelling storytelling. Disney Universe was designed for kids who are likely to press A to skip cutscenes so they can get back to defeating enemies and collecting coins.

There is nothing complicated below the surface of the game that might appeal to a more mature crowd. No strategy, no planning, no technique. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Disney Universe is very much a wholesome, give-it-to-your-kids-and-not-worry-about-whether-they’ll-be-stealing-cars-and-murdering-people sort of game. It can be hard to balance being family-friendly with being fun, but Disney Universe does it well.

The game features simple and bright level design, which is very easy on the eyes and enjoyable to play in, although the worlds are only superficially Disney-themed. There’s not nearly as much detail as you’d find in Kingdom Hearts’ analogous worlds, so you won’t feel as if you’re actually inside a living, breathing, Disney world. It’s more like exploring the set of a Disney film – nice in its own way, but a different experience altogether. It’s certainly an experience that feels shallow if you were expecting to encounter Alice, Jack Sparrow or Simba.

Each of the six worlds is inspired by a different Disney movie; Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice in Wonderland, The Lion King, Aladdin, Monsters, Inc. and WALL-E. The worlds are divided up into three levels apiece, and each level has three different stages. Things get a bit problematic here.

While the game generally excels at compensating for the short attention span of kids by littering every level with shiny things to look at, enemies to bash, and powerups to collect, it falls terribly short when it comes to handling how long a level should last. The game only fully saves and shows you your stats after you’ve completed the three stages of a level, and this can take up to an hour. The autosaves between stages are all too easy to accidentally erase. On top of that, finishing a stage quickly segues you into the next – a neat seamless transition, but not the wisest choice in a game designed for children. There’s a lack of natural stopping points between the stages, which basically encourages unhealthily long gaming sessions.

You play as a nondescript blue sackboy-like creature who can dress up in one of 45 Disney character costumes, with plenty of other outfits available for purchase. Very few are unlocked from the start and you have to replay levels to get quite a few of the costumes, which is a shame. The missions are barely captivating the first time through.

The puzzles are barely puzzles. They’re similar to quests typical of MMOs – bring an item to a very obvious point, defeat enemies on the way, move to another point, ad nauseam. The simplicity is compounded by the fact that there are arrows telling you where to go, and while you can turn them off, it’s likely to make the game more tedious rather than challenging. Fortunately, there’s plenty of combat, dashing around, and bonus challenges to keep you busy while completing the otherwise mundane missions.

The combat system takes cues from Kingdom Hearts – button mashing while pointing vaguely at enemies – but it’s also immensely satisfying. The player characters look great while fighting the little Heartless-esque enemies, and combat is smooth and intuitive. Enemies quite literally shower the screen with gold coins every time they’re hit or defeated, which adds to the visual excitement of the levels. If you do happen to fall in combat (which is likely; the health bar is extremely unobtrusive) you respawn almost instantly, with little penalty. Normally this would beg for a disparaging word or two, but it does suit the bright, carefree mood of the game – and it’s much appreciated on levels where it’s easy to die a dozen times in a row.

Multiplayer is easily the strongest feature of Disney Universe. While nominally co-operative, it excels at bringing out the rivalry between players that is characteristic of other fantastically friendship-destroying games like the Mario Party series or Super Smash Bros Brawl. Beating up on your friends and bamboozling them out of their hard-earned powerups is way more fun than grinding away at the puzzles. Chasing after the many gold coins dropped by enemies (and found just about everywhere else) is a lot more agreeable when victory is at stake. Playing with three friends can be as chaotic and frustrating as it is in, say, New Super Mario Bros, but it’s also far more entertaining than going solo.

The bottom line of Disney Universe is that it’s a game for kids. It’s not the most thrilling and engaging experience out there, especially if you’re no longer in elementary school, but it’s also a vast improvement on typical movie-franchise shovelware. If you’re looking for a solid game to get as a Christmas present for your kids, Disney Universe might just be the way to go.