Disney Universe Preview

{sidebar id=1}Disney Universe is the first Disney game that incorporates beloved Disney characters from a variety of different Disney films together.  This is an action-adventure game where players don costumes of the favorite Disney characters to battle through each of the six Disney and Pixar themed worlds and five to six levels within each world.  Players can defeat enemies, collect coins and power-ups and unlock new costumes.  They can explore worlds of Disney in a cooperative manner which allows children and adults to play together.  One of the greatest features of this game is that its cooperative nature lends itself to disabled gamers with precision issues; if a player is not able to surpass a particular obstacle after a few attempts, the success of another player will slingshot that player forward to keep the player from becoming frustrated and to ensure that gameplay moves at a rapid pace.

Disney Universe will be available for every platform as well as PC and Mac, releasing in the Fall of 2011.  Gameplay is very whimsical and entertaining as players follow missions based on the storylines and characters from forty classic Disney movies including Alice in Wonderland, Tron, Lilo & Stitch and many others.  I personally found that playing as Stitch interacting with Tron highly entertaining.  Players can jump in and out of the game easily without affecting gameplay in this “couch cooperative” game.

There will be a considerable amount of downloadable content post release at a nominal cost.  This content will include new costumes and worlds to expand gameplay and replay value.

Accessibility is very easy, simply jump, move and attack on the controller.  It’s a three to four button game that is designed for children primarily, so accessibility is not an issue and there are no “crazy combos.”  Shapes are used rather than color-coding, despite it being a very colorful game and there are visual indicators to help players along through the game.  There is no closed captioning as of yet, but it doesn’t seem like it is needed, as the game guides itself through the world and there are no story cinematic sequences.

Each level has a mini-game that can be played either against another player or cooperatively.

Despite this game being designed for children, everyone we spoke to was very excited about this game, including myself.  It is certainly an entertaining game for adults and children alike and looks to be easy for our readers to play successfully.  Disney Universe can be played by all including hardcore gamers as there are many items to find while playing through.  This feels like Disney’s response to “Little Big Planet.”

The avatars are very expressive with their emotions and facial expressions.  When your avatar is dragging something you’ll see them grimacing and struggling whereas you’ll see them very happy when they’ve accomplished something within the game.  The avatars all have different little personalities as well and you’ll see them dancing, pouting, cheering etc throughout the game.

Overall, I think this game is highly entertaining and does not pose obvious issues for disabled gamers and gamers alike.  It definitely is a title that I, myself, will be picking up upon release.