Disney Universe (Hands-On) (Wii) Preview

Up to four players can join in at once, stumbling through the Disney-themed worlds as avatars that bear a passing resemblance to MySims’ stars. Rather than playing as the Disney characters themselves, Disney Universe takes the novel approach of dressing up the little guys in suits instead, fancy dress style. The result reminds of Sack Boy’s numerous costumes in LittleBigPlanet, and the range displayed included representatives of Tron, Alice in Wonderland, The Lion King, Finding Nemo, Wall-E and Lilo & Stitch. There are sure to be plenty more on disc, and extra downloadable characters are already planned.

Disney Universe’s gameplay will be familiar if you’ve ever scraped the surface of LEGO Star Wars or another of the other block-related games. Enemies are fought, basic puzzles solved by transporting item A to location B, platforms are hopped upon. Players will have to work together if they are to progress, often required to perform actions simultaneously before a pathway will open. Though if that feels too much like hard work, you can always take a break and batter each other, too. Should your character fall victim to fate, they re-appear almost immediately to have another go.

There’s a degree of competition to proceedings in the form of Mickey Mouse-shaped coins that litter the levels. The secondary aim - aside actually besting the game - is to greedily dump as many Disney dollars down your drawers as possible, stealing them from under the noses of your rivals. At the end of each stage these are tallied up, displaying who has managed to secure the most wealth. We’re not sure if that’s just for bragging rights or if it’ll lead to unlockable treats and trinkets.

We were able to test out and witness two stages in action: a Pirates of the Caribbean-style jungle island and Monsters Inc.’s power plant. It was the latter that particularly impressed, with elements from the film such as dozens upon dozens of doors on racks spinning around at high speed. To stop the game from getting stale, there’ll be multiple objectives in each area depending on how many times you have played them. For example, a lever may need to be pressed to help cross a bridge in a first play, but the second play might remove the lever altogether and put in something all-new; a third play could change things yet again. This should ensure a decent level of replayability if each act does indeed significantly alter.