Good with kids
I was finally able to see Inside Out in theaters recently, and although I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, I mostly came away unimpressed. While I loved the internal bits with the emotions themselves (albeit, with a bit too much slapstick), the external parts with Riley and her family were a bit too derivative for me. That’s why I was excited for the Disney Infinity 3.0 Play Set, which takes place entirely within Riley’s imagination.
The end result was a bit too simplistic, but kids will love it.
Whereas the Star Wars core set managed to tweak Disney Infinity‘s combat system to cater to all ages, Inside Out is decidedly focused on exploration. Players are tasked with getting through levels from start to finish (the hub is a menu, not an open world, and has a match-three minigame to boot), collecting optional balloons along the way. It’s basically a Mario game through and through — some stages are even presented with a 2D camera.
The Mario comparisons started to become more apparent as time went on, as players don’t really die in co-op — they come back immediately in a bubble, similar to the New Super Mario series. Enemies are few and far between, which is a shame, as it basically renders half of the emotion’s skill trees useless.
Said emotions are actually pretty robust, as they not only have some of the most detailed work on their real life figures (above), but also sport unique identities and skillsets. For instance, Anger is more powerful in combat, Joy can use a glide ability similar to Princess Peach in Super Mario 2, and Fear runs faster than any other character. Everyone either is the same cast or sounds exactly like their counterpart, with the exception of Fear, who sound nothing like Bill Hader.
If you have a child, picking up the Inside Out set is probably a good idea. I have every set to date across all three games, and this is definitely the most straight-forward and whimsical one of the bunch. Everyone else can probably wait it out for the other Star Wars set and other future releases.
