Disney Universe Review (Xbox 360)
Posted by Dan Watson on 11.09.2011
Come see why this isn't just another cash grab from a major corporation
Title: Disney Universe
Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
Rated: E 10+: Everyone 10 and older for cartoon violence and crude humor
Players: 1-4 (Local Only)
Everyone once in a while a platform game comes along that is meant for kids and gathers a larger audience. Lego captured this with their series and Disney really gives it a valid attempt here. I really wasn’t expecting much out of this game. Honestly, I was more or less expecting to drag myself through it and get a review done more as work than fun. Everyone has to review games that no one wants to play; otherwise all we would have is reviews for Call of Duty, Madden, etc. This game pleasantly surprised me.
The story is a simple concept. A digital world that is meant to allow children to live their Disney fantasy has been hit with a virus of sorts. Instead of cute and fun areas, there are now enemies wielding various weapons. In all there are eighteen different worlds with three parts in each world. So you have a total of fifty four stages to battle through, which isn’t too bad at all. The average three part world takes about a half hour to complete and that is if you are collecting everything. If you are looking to find each costume, you will need to go through the world twice. So ideally, if you are collecting everything you could spend anywhere between twelve to eighteen hours playing this game.
The game plays a lot like a Lego game. The buttons are simplified and you are to go through defeating enemies and collecting different items. You still build cannons or switches but in a more simple way. You just drag whatever part you need to the other half and boom, it is done for you. In each stage there is an arcade machine which creates a challenge for you. The challenges help gather more points so that you can buy costumes or stages.
If you are a Disney fan this game is right up your alley. The eighteen worlds are based off Disney movies or stories. Pirates of the Caribbean is the first story, then you can choose where to go next with Aladdin, Lion King, Alice in Wonderland, and many other stories to pick from. Additionally, you get to choose which costume you wish to wear. You can level the costume up which gives you different weapons to choose from. As you progress through the story, you unlock other costumes to buy and then can continue to level them up.
Visually this game is great. The colors are vibrant and the overall feel really does put you into the Disney Universe. The characters are fun and many make you think back to that story to understand their weapons. Each costume is done with precision. There is no question when selecting a character that they are and what world they come from. The costume screen even details where to unlock that costume which makes for an easier time if you want one story’s full costumes you just unlock the stages that it says.
The sound in this game may be its biggest issue. When playing, my wife who loves Disney, asked me to mute the annoying sound. The in-game soundtrack is terribly annoying and full of high pitch music. I honestly expected to hear more Disney songs that would relate to that area. Sadly, those memorable songs were not present in this game; which at times made it feel more like a Disney rip-off than a true Disney game.
The difficulty in this game is a bit different than I expected. Overall it isn’t impossible or really that hard. The difficult part is more the annoyances of dying and how at times the boss fights seem to be never ending. In Pirates for example, there is a point when you are fighting a ship from a ship. The enemies never seem to end which causes you to become very frustrated with such a simple task.
As for replayability, after you run through the game, if you are interested in getting the costumes that will help for how long you play. The achievements are attainable by playing through the game so that will not be a factor in replaying the game. Realistically, after going through it, there is no other reason to keep playing which really does hurt this game a bit.
The pros of this game heavily outweigh the cons. The pros are the fun nature of the game and the low learning curve that it takes to play the game. Additionally, it is a decent story that encompasses a large set of worlds and has a long playability. There are many collectibles and most of your favorite characters are in it. The cons are the annoying soundtracks as well as the frustrating number of deaths in the game.
In the end this game is great for any Disney fanatic or younger gamer. If you are a fan of the Lego series, you will like this game. Each character is well represented and the stories really are fun to play through. Recusing a costume at the end of each stage is also entertaining as you then start to wonder who is at the end of each stage. If you are a Disney fan pick this game up and spend twelve to eighteen hours playing through some of your favorite stories.
