Disney Universe Review

Well, I wasn't expecting this. I hadn't kept up with exactly what it is that Disney are releasing, thanks to to a low level antipathy towards everything Disney. Well, everything Disney that that isn't Pixar, Emporer's New Groove, and Kingdom Hearts. And that Robin Hood cartoon where they played football, I loved that as a kid. And Herbie Rides Again, Duck Tales, Escape From Witch Mountain, and Lilo & Stitch. They're all great.

See, this is the problem with feeling like I should hate Disney. All I really hate is The Jonas Brothers, and when you spend too much time and energy hating foreign teenagers, you probably need to stop and take stock. As a game, Disney Adventures is predictably polished, methodically sweet, and on the whole, great.

It's very much in the vein of the Lego Star Wars games - collectibles everywhere (mostly gold coins, that you'll use to unlock new worlds), densely interactive levels, and some genuinely amusing cutscenes. Death isn't punished by anything more serious than a few coins disappearing, and the puzzles are neat, and not too complicated. They're not going to challenge a hoary games veteran who ground his teeth on Monkey Island, but they'll give one of those there youngsters (with their upbeat attitudes and dancing music) enough satisfaction to keep them engaged.

There are six world to fight through, with each taking just over an hour. There's not much in the way of replayability - like I said, most of the collectibles are coins. But there's one key and chest per level, and three other items that change with each world. The chests contain blues stars, which power up the costume you're using - but the precise effects of that power up are hard to determine. They don't seem to give you new powers - just very marginally stronger attacks. The other collectibles just give you bonus items - artwork, and that stuff that I'm fairly sure developers overestimate the public's desire to see.

You start off with Pirates of the Caribbean world, where the puzzles revolve around cannons, transforming into a waterproof zombie, and switch puzzles. After that, you'll have enough coins to unlock any of the other five worlds. There's Monsters Inc, where the game revolves around magic doors and collecting scream power to open doors. Then there's Wall-E world, with its magnets, garbage, and plug sockets. The other worlds are Lion King, Alice, and Aladdin, and they all have a great soundtrack, and their own stylistic flavour of the same puzzles.

The screen can get a bit busy - especially when there are four players involved - and it's difficult to avoid taking damage. In keeping the combat simple - there's just one attack button, which you'll hammer constantly - your main tactical decision is to jump out of the way. The only reliable way I found of avoiding regular deaths was to whip out the double jump and ground pound attack with regularity that bordered on mindless spamming.

As a grown up, who likes the complex flavours of a ripe stilton, and who can legally get drunk and drive lorries, I grew a little bit weary of relying on that one attack to survive - but having said that, I do remember finishing Double Dragon in the arcades, only ever using the back elbow attack. Perhaps that's enough. I suspect todays children will be slightly more sophisticated than the slobbering idiot I was.

Disney Universe is a sweet game, as you'd expect from the saccharin mouse. But it's not an ambitious game, and after playing for a couple of hours, the illusion of the dense level design wears off, and you might feel it's a little bit thin. With more going on, and more reasons to go back to conquered levels, this could have been brilliant.