Since video games aren’t the primary focus of Comic-Con, you sometimes have to hunt for them a little bit amid all the various other things that are going on in San Diego. In the case of Disney Infinity 3.0, Disney Interactive had it set up in a pop-up shop a few blocks away from the San Diego Convention Center last week, a short walk that was well worth it to get a chance to try out the Star Wars characters before they go on sale next month.
More from Chewbacca
- Star Wars comics review: Han Solo & Chewbacca 6
- New Star Wars comics this week: Charles Soule’s Star Wars, Darth Vader and more
- Han Solo has entered the MCU
- Han Solo and Chewbacca #2 reveals Han’s father
- Chewy launches Chewbacca pet lookalike search (Find out how to enter!)
With a press appointment, I was even able to go inside the shop and talk to some of the developers before the public lined up outside was admitted. A bunch of the Star Wars figures were on display and playable (as well as other Disney Infinity 3.0 figures from Inside Out and Marvel). Impressions? Yep, I’ve got a few.
In general, the Star Wars characters build upon the advancements in combat and movement that entered the game in Disney Infinity 2.0. Any lightsaber-wielder is especially fun, as they just feel great whether you’re fighting one enemy or a whole crowd of them. Force users have a Force push to clear opponents from your path if necessary, and the ranged attacks make sense for each individual. For instance, Darth Maul has a dash move that allows him to get up close in hurry, while Darth Vader throws his lightsaber and has it come back to him.
Speaking of Vader, he doesn’t run. One of the Disney Infinity 3.0 producers mentioned that as one of the few things Lucasfilm insisted upon, because the Dark Lord of the Sith never does that in any Star Wars film. Instead, he “walks with a purpose,” slightly faster than his normal pace. It’s a good example of how the team working on the game is making sure the small details are just right.
I also got to briefly try out Boba Fett and Chewbacca, and they were both fun as well. Characters with primarily ranged attacks always feel like they might be at a slight disadvantage in Disney Infinity, but Boba Fett manages to dish out damage in all the ways you would hope. He can also fly, which should make him a popular choice in the Star Wars Play Sets, especially since all of the Star Wars characters can be unlocked for use in any of them. All of the figures also have their own unique finishing moves that can be executed with the proper timing and button presses, though I wasn’t so great at pulling them off.
Last but not least, I got to play a brief section of the Rise Against the Empire Play Set, which features gameplay based on the original Star Wars trilogy. It was the famous trench run from the assault on the Death Star, kind of an on-rails shooter where you fire at defenses on the surface while avoiding fire from the TIE fighters chasing you. Naturally, you get to fire the proton torpedoes that blow the thing up, and you don’t even need to use the Force to guide them in.
A producer told me that the idea was to fit as many iconic moments from the original trilogy into the Play Set, so you can expect to find a battle on Hoth and a level set on Endor as well. Should be lots of fun.
Once the doors were opened to the public, people eagerly flooded into the pop-up shop, and with everything else they could have been doing at or around Comic-Con at the time, that was probably a good sign of how eagerly anticipated the Star Wars part of Disney Infinity 3.0 really is. The wait is getting shorter all the time, as the game and the new figures go on sale on August 30.