A Disney Park Classic Heading for Infinity

When it's used in-game as a vehicle, it had better play the music we're expecting it to play. I have a feeling the game designers won't let us down.

I'm a huge fan of the original Disney Infinity, but I love the game for the classic Disney elements, not the upcoming 2.0 Marvel infusion. Besides the impressive improvements to 2.0's Toybox mode, this float is the first announced new game feature to really make me smile.

Well...this and Donald Duck as a playable character.

Infinity's Soundtrack Includes Peter Pan's Flight, Toontown and Condorman

Abu, Mike and Luigi enjoy some classic Danny Elfman

The creators of Disney Infinity recognized the importance of having their game sound like a Disney universe as well as look the part. Players encounter an eclectic and colorful soundscape ranging from the light-hearted jazz of Monsters University to the pulsing electronic beats of Tron. One particular game item enables the option to select the background music.

The Radio Disney Boombox is a vault item every player should try to unlock as soon as possible for use in the world-building Toybox mode. Thankfully, what you hear is not taken from today's real-life Radio Disney, but from the company's films, theme parks and one certain show with a platypus. The selections include:

"Steamboat Willie" - The track fom Mickey's Toontown (listed simply as "Mickey Mouse")
"Peter Pan's Flight" - The queue medley from Disneyland
"Cinderella's Castle" - Music from Cinderella's movie score.
"Alice in Wonderland"- Loops the trial, chase, final scene and closing credits song.
"Nightmare Before Christmas" - The film's closing credit music.
"The Incredibles" - Features "Saving Metroville" from the film score.
"Jessie" - The Toy Story character's western theme.
"Condorman" - Henry Mancini's theme song for Disney's campy, legendary flop.
"Phineas and Ferb" - A remix of "Gitchee Gitchee Goo" plus an instrumental of "Ain't Got Rhythm."
"Finding Nemo" -Plays the "Wow" opening score from the film.
"Tangled" -  A pop instrumental of "Something that I Want."
"Emperor Zurg" - From Toy Story 2
"Sugar Rush" and "Suger Rush Showdown" from Wreck-It Ralph.
"Recognizer" and "Derezzed" from Tron: Legacy.
"Wall-E"- Music from the score. 
"Frankenweenie" - The "Re-Animation" track.

The boombox doesn't include all the game's music: Other tracks are triggered when a particular item is activated, and many are exclusive to the character adventures. Overall, it adds up to a soundtrack as diverse and entertaining as Infinity's anything-goes gameplay.

Disney Infinity: A Park Fan's Review

Disney Infinity will delight you, inspire you, challenge you and cheerfully empty your wallet. Its methods for coaxing you to buy more and more of its world could be considered ruthless, except for one important factor: Like a Disney park, it gives you more than your money's worth.

In that respect, you could easily think of Infinity, the company's toys-come-to-life-in-a-video-game juggernaut, as Disney Parks: The Home Edition. If you laid it out in theme park terms, the experience would look something like this:

The game is stuffed with elements geared specifically toward park fans, from actual park music and vintage sound effects to an impressive Matterhorn complete with a working bobsled rail slide. Epcot fans will love the inclusion of Spaceship Earth, plus the game's introductory sequence that casts you in the role of One Little Spark of inspiration.

Mrs. Incredible parks her Tron Recognizer in Tulgey Wood.

The clever design sends you into a vast, anything-goes "toybox" world where you can combine themes and characters in any way you wish, selecting from hundreds and hundreds of parts to build your own games with your own rules--anything from racetracks and shootouts to pinball machines, obstacle courses and soccer fields. You don't have many parts available at the start, however. To get them, you have to venture from the toybox "hub" into the Playset worlds, which are large, scripted film-specific adventures (Infinity's version of E-Ticket attractions).

Snapshots and Impressions of Disney Infinity

NOTE: All the pictures in today's post were snapped with an iPhone pointed at my (very cheap) little television screen. This game looks much, much better in person.

Barbosa finds the Hatter's tea party...and doesn't know quite what to make of it.

Disney Infinity is a huge, sprawling game, so full of possibilities and options that no two people will play it in quite the same way. We'll have a complete review later this week, but here are our impressions after several hours inside Infinity's strange, astonishing world.

Mr. Incredible borrows Mulan's horse. And yes, that's an Autopia Car

The game is brilliant, beautifully animated, and an absolute blast to play with. And that's the key to Infinity: you don't simply play through it like a normal video game. You play with it, tweaking it, experimenting and changing it around as you go.

Resisting Infinity Collector Madness

I love the design of these figures. I've just got to keep telling myself this is enough. This can be my entire Infinity collection. I don't need 'em all.

I don't need 'em all.

I…don’t…nnnnn……

A Toast to the Pirates Infinity Left Behind

As Disney Infinity approaches its Sunday release date, here's a brief clip of its iPhone tie-in App in action. Here, Jack Sparrow's trying out for a spot on Don Karnage's team.

Unfortunately, none of the Tale Spin crew made it into Infinity (unless there's a power-up or tribute tucked away in the game somewhere).

Reviews of this project, Disney's biggest-yet bid to make a splash in the video game market, should start appearing tomorrow as the toys and software hit the shelves.

Characters Invade Real World in Disney's Free Infinity App

He turns the photo around to reveal a surprise mini-snapshot of the player's face.

In advance of the much-hyped Disney Infinity video game, the company has released Infinity Action, a free promotional app for iPhone (the Android version is coming soon). An impressive little bag of magic tricks, it's definitely worth checking out.

A Sparrow Defends a Cat

The App features two main modes. In the first, you tap and swipe the screen to interact with an impressively animated trio of Disney characters: Sulley, Jack Sparrow and Mr. Incredible. Of the three, Jack Sparrow is, by far, the funniest. Be sure to try the toy props, which include a voice recorder and--even better--a cartoon camera which uses the actual phone lens to allow the character to take a shot of your face. The "goal" of this section is to earn coins for purchasing animated clips for the "Action" section.

He got a cookie for being a good sport (the dog, not Sparrow)

In this second mode, you bring the characters into your home through augmented reality as you stage brief videos combining animation with live footage. It's easy to do, and the results are amazingly smooth. Easily saved to the phone or posted to YouTube or Facebook, each clip is boldly tagged at the end as a Disney Infinity promotion...which, of course, is Disney's reason for creating this free App in the first place.

One warning: Extra coins can be purchased with real money, so make sure that feature's disabled on your phone before handing it over to children. Even without paying a cent, however, there's enough free fun here to make Action a clever little diversion for all Disney fans.

Holly Shiftwell in Tron-derland: Radiator Springs is Coming to Disney Infinity

Decked out in monster-truck tires, Holly Shiftwell from Cars 2 carries Violet from The Incredibles through a Tron loop in Wonderland as the Caterpillar's alphabet smoke rings drift upward.

I can't wait for the June release of Disney Infinity (the company's highly-anticipated answer to Activision's mega-hit Skylanders franchise) and its recently-announced first expansion set, Cars. Here's another shot:

Missile-equipped Mater somersaults in front of Cinderella Castle while Sully pilots a Recognizer. These images from the latest game trailer highlight a few of the potentially "infinite" user-created mash-up scenarios in the game's Toy Box Mode, which will also give players the ability to design their own race courses for use by all Infinity characters.

What if....Disney Infinity Extended Into the Parks?

Yesterday, Disney announced its big plunge into the collectible-toys-come-to-life-in-a-video-game genre (which the smash hit Skylanders had all to itself up until now). Starting this June, Disney Infinity hits store shelves, offering an expandable video game world which players enter via collectible Disney character figures.

That's real.

This next bit is pure speculation: What if the Infinity Experience extended out into the parks as part of the upcoming Next Gen additions?

Skylanders Meets Vinylmation in Disney Infinity. Oh, My Aching Wallet.

Disney just announced an upcoming product likely to drain Disney fan bank accounts around the globe. Get ready for Disney Infinity, a cross-platform game world that combines the figurines-beaming-down-into-a-video-game concept of the mega-hit Skylanders with the collectible Disney hook of Vinylmation.