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One of my favorite party games is called “Smash Brothers.” It’s a Nintendo game wherein players control various famous characters from across the company’s franchises in a series of knock-down drag-out battles. I find getting to control Yoshi one minute and Link the next more enticing than Nintendo’s other common multi-player games, such as any of the sport or arcade games featured on Wii Play.
Anyone who’s read my Disney blog for a while knows that my favorite video game is “Kingdom Hearts,” and no small part of that is because during it I get to play and interact with Disney characters. “Kingdom Hearts,” however, is a single-player game. What if my preferred multiplayer game combined with that element from my all-time favorite video game?
I don’t have to wonder any longer. The Disney Blog has news that Disney Interactive Studios, the Mouse House’s video gaming division, announces “Disney Universe,” a game that might allow me to do just that.
Well, not quite. “Disney Universe” won’t follow in the footsteps of “Smash Brothers” and feature the venerable studio’s characters fighting each other. Walt Disney Co. has a family-friendly image to maintain, and only its most subversive fans would take much pleasure in watching Goofy locked in fisticuffs with Winnie the Pooh. Even conjuring the image makes me shudder a little.
No, the element “Disney Universe” takes from “Smash Brothers” (and “Kingdom Hearts”) is of multiple Disney characters from across its various films all appearing in one game together. Though I have to admit that even that isn’t quite accurate. In Disney Universe, tiny light-blue avatars (and we’re not talking the James Cameron film, just the video gaming term that means the character on the screen that the player controls) dress up in Disney character costumes.
The game comes across like some giant Disney costume party. The little characters bedeck themselves in the likenesses of Mickey, Minnie, Nemo, Mike from “Monsters Inc.,” Stitch, and more, and run across six various worlds from Disney movies. You might have Pumba from “The Lion King” exploring the electronic world of “Tron,” another element reminiscent of “Kingdom Hearts.”
In each level characters solve puzzles, collect items, and fight monsters. Most of the time the game’s up-to-four players work together, but sometimes they might be pitted in competition against one another (likely in the puzzle solving or item collecting).
An interesting new element of the game is in its difficulty level settings. Usually if the setting is adjustable, players choose at the beginning of the game if they want to play easy, medium, or hard. Instead, “Disney Universe” gages a player’s ability level and adjusts the difficulty to suit the player’s presumed level of experience.
That’s both neat and problematic; it’s cool to see the game interacting with the player like that, but sometimes I want to play through a game one time just to explore. If the game senses I have a lot of experience it might set me on hard, even if I want to run through it once on easy just for fun. Though there’s likely still an option for the player to set his/her own preferences.
The game’s set for release this autumn. I’m intrigued to learn more about it. Despite “Epic Mickey” Disney Interactive still doesn’t have a great reputation with serious gamers, so it will be interesting to see if “Disney Universe” helps to change that, or if it will prove another poorly-made dud.
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A Study in Princesses: Belle and Jasmine
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*(This image by popculturegeek.com is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
