Each of Battlegrounds' eight arenas, all themed after famous Marvel locales - such as Guardian's of the Galaxy's Knowhere, Thor's home land of Asgard, or Black Panther's territory in Wakanda - has it's own set of perils and traps to avoid too, whether it's a train that ploughs through the train yard at top speed, an electrocuted floor, or traps that freeze whomever has the misfortune to step on them. Essentially, players simply duke it out in the tight, crowded arenas, whacking each other with their attacks (and whatever scenery you can lay your hands on), until their health reaches zero.
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Despite the action coming thick and fast, characters now have much simpler, more streamlined controls over your average Disney Infinity Play Set, with one button performing a standard three-strike combo, another picking your opponents up and throwing them, and the left trigger doing Groot's signature ground punch, which sends a tree trunk spiking up through the ground nearby to take our your opponents - a move that proved particularly deadly in multiplayer, given that it almost seems to 'home in' on the other players. Luckily, it's a lot easier than you'd think.
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So, Groot it was, and we kicked things off with a couple of rounds of the standard everyone-for-themselves, most-kills-wins mode, with a five minute time limit, as we strived to get to grips with things. Which you could undoubtedly tell by our penchant for pink, girly and all things cute. With a huge spread of Disney Infinity figures out before us, we could have gone for anyone from Spider Man and Thor to Rocket Raccoon and Iron Fist, but we have a bit of a weakness for the big, burly, smashy characters. With support for up to four players locally, we squeezed ourselves onto a sofa with the producer and a PR and picked up a controller to begin the agonising decision of which character to play as first - Groot or Hulk. Depending on which character you play through as, the story will subtly change, encouraging you to take it on again using your other figures, while character-specific challenges test your skills outside of the story.īut the meat of Marvel Battlegrounds lies in it's multiplayer mode, and this is where we spent most of our hands on time.
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Weighing in at around an hour or so long, Battlegrounds' story is very much like the arcade style story modes of Street Fighter or Dead or Alive, and splits the story - which sees Marvel villains Loki and Ultron teaming up and unleashing a load of robotic replicas of the Marvel Super Heroes on the world - over a number of beat 'em up stages. Past Play Sets have tended towards a largely self-contained story mode that lasts a good 5 or 6 hours, maybe more if you want to find and do everything going - but not Marvel Battlegrounds, which tries to craft a shorter, but more replayable, story mode instead. Each and every super hero has had a bit of an overhaul and their moves have been reworked and reimagined too, tweaking them to make the most of Battlegrounds new fast-paced beat 'em up gameplay. Whether they're Disney Infinity 2.0's Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy, or a hero from the new range of Disney Infinity 3.0 Marvel figures, any and every Marvel figures will work in the new fighting game-inspired adventure.
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That's interesting enough in itself - but what's perhaps most significant is that Battlegrounds will let you use any and all of your Marvel figures. Striking out with a load of firsts for a Disney Infinity Play Set, Marvel Battlegrounds is a four player (first!) beat 'em up (first!) set in the Marvel Universe. Disney Infinity 4) coming this year, Disney Interactive have decided to fill the gap with more Play Sets and figures to keep things ticking over - and if Marvel Battlegrounds is anything to go by, they could be a bit more experimental, and use more characters than ever before. Iron Man's really let himself go since Disney Infinity 2.0.Īt a recent press event in London, we got to sit down with Marvel Battlegrounds, the latest Play Set expansion for the game, and one that marks a period of change for Disney Infinity in general.