Marvel Battlegrounds Playset Review

The Marvel playset for Disney Infinity 3.0, Marvel Battlegrounds, was under a lot of scrutiny before it released. Between its multiplayer focus, and the fact it was only being bundled with a single character (who was similar to an existing character, at that) fans were worried that it wouldn’t offer the same amount of value that playsets usually do. Having spent a lot of time with it now, I can happily say that it’s much better than I was expecting. A lot of effort has been put into this playset, overhauling Infinity‘s mechanics to make something totally different. However, if you’re after a lengthy singleplayer component you’ll probably come out disappointed.

Marvel Battlegrounds is a brawler, similar to Power Stone, in which your Marvel characters come together to duke it out. There’s a singleplayer story mode and a set of challenges to be completed, but the focus is on the Versus Mode. In this mode, 2-4 characters compete against each other, with different rulesets available to play. These characters can be controlled by AI, or humans playing on the same console. Yes, that’s right, this is the first playset in Disney Infinity to not only allow 4 players, but allows four players to play together on the same console. Unfortunately though, they have to be local players – the playset doesn’t support online play, which is a big disappointment. To play multiplayer, each participant will need their own controller, but you will only need one Infinity Portal plugged in. Instead of each player keeping their character on the portal at all times, you simply need to tap a character onto the portal, and they’ll be unlocked until you turn the console off. Next time you play you’ll need to unlock each and every one again, which can be a tedious process.

You start off with the single character bundled in with the playset, Captain America: The First Avenger, who’s a remade Captain America. Within the playset there’s not a huge difference between The First Avenger and the standard Captain America from 2.0. The main differences being that The First Avenger has an attack he can pull off after a dodge roll, and his shield ricochets off enemies instead of stunning them like Cap’s does. Outside of the playset he really comes into his own, though. Kids who get by with button mashing aren’t likely to notice much difference between the two characters, but those willing to go deeper will find he’s a very technical character. He has a huge number of different combos on ground and in the air that combine physical hits and shield throws. He also has a brand new special move in and out of the playset. The First Avenger’s much more than a Captain America re-release, but I can understand people looking at the playset on the shelf and feeling disappointed when they see a single figure instead of two, and that character being a ‘remake’ of one they already have. Thankfully he’s much more interesting to play as than you’d first think.

Gamora and Ronan battle while Knowhere comes under attack

You can use every single Marvel character from 2.0 and 3.0 in the playset, and each has been radically overhauled to fit the new style of this playset. Within the playset, each character has a different moveset to put them all on a level playing field. There are some common actions between them that every character can perform, like a block-breaking attack used by holding the attack button, but each character will have their own unique take e.g. Iron Man’s block-breaker is the Unibeam, while Rocket Raccoon throws a cluster of explosives. These common elements make the game easy to explain, and simple enough for friends to pick up and play. But different characters also have extra tools they can use – some characters might be able to hover in the air for a few seconds, while others might be able to perform a quick follow-up attack after dodging. Judging the balance in these kinds of games is always hard, but each character seems effective enough while feeling unique from other characters. Some of them are actually more fun to play as in the playset than the Toy Box, like Ant-Man who has the ability to shrink on the spot and while leaping.

If you don’t have every Marvel figure, you won’t be totally limited in your character choices. A set of Trial Characters rotates out regularly who you can use for free in Versus Mode without limitation. As you play the game, you’ll also earn Trial Tokens, which you can use to play as a character you don’t own. These features mean that you can use a larger roster of characters even without buying figures, but this is only within Versus, not the singleplayer modes. At $35 RRP, having permanent access to only a single character from the get-go is a bit rough. It’s great value if you already have a stack of Marvel figures already. I mean, a full-fledged brawler with dozens of unique characters is more than worth it for that price if you’ve already paid it forward with the figures you already had. But it’s a less favourable deal if you’re a Marvel fan who’s only eyeing off Infinity 3.0 for Marvel content.

The Hulk gets Busted!

Battles in this playset are exciting and dynamic because of all the elements at play. Not only do you have up to four characters going at it with vibrant, powerful attacks, but stages have a number of interactive elements as well. Placed around each level are crates and other throwable objects that can be picked up and hurled at your enemies to break their block and deal some damage. There’ll also be buttons that trigger traps when pressed, like a sonic shockwave that rocks the stage, or a train that barges on through and rams any characters in its path. Some stages will even transition to different areas if characters damage the environment too much – if you smash the mining cart that you fight in at the Wakandan Mines, then it will crash, taking the battle to an exterior environment that plays totally differently. Characters will also make remarks and quips to each other while battling, and when a character defeats another they’ll take up the whole screen and taunt their opponent. There’s so much action happening on-screen that it makes battles a heap of fun to play and watch.

Matches can be customised with a wide variety of settings. There’s four game modes – there’s standard deathmatch and survival type modes, while the other two change the rules a lot more. Super Hero mode sets one player as the ‘Super Hero’, who has increased abilities and earns points from defeating enemies. The other players can’t gain points, and instead need to take the Super Hero down – the player who does so becomes the new Super Hero. There’s also a King of the Hill mode, where a section of the stage is marked, and whoever can hold control over this area gains points. This area moves positions over time to keep things interesting. Settings can be tweaked within these modes, like the timer and score limits. The power-ups available in each match can be customised, too, by placing up to six power discs on the base. These discs will appear in battle, summoning another character who will either attack your opponents or give you boosted abilities. Hectic fights break out over control of these power-ups, which add another dynamic to battles. However, you can only add them to your matches if you own the physical power disc, which is disappointing. It would’ve been nice if you could use Trial Tokens on the discs as well as characters, because if you haven’t bought any Marvel power disc packs then there’s a pretty big feature locked out for you altogether.

Ant-Man meets Rocket Racoon

So while the Versus mode is the big focus of Battlegrounds, it also features singleplayer components. Like other playsets, these can be played cooperatively with another player. There’s a Story Mode, which follows the Marvel superheroes as they stop Loki and Ultron from stealing an Infinity Stone from Asgard. To distract the heroes, the evil duo have created an army of robotic superhero duplicates, causing confusion and chaos. The duplicates sure make for a convenient reason for everybody to be fighting each other. huh? The mode can easily be cleared in less than an hour – it’s more of an Arcade Mode than anything. You won’t struggle too much either, as the playset’s AI is really easy, even on Extreme difficulty. There’s some interesting fights here that you don’t get elsewhere though, with scripted moments like a fight between the Hulkbuster and Hulk interrupting your own fight, turning it into a 2v2 team match. There’s also a boss fight in the last level that’s unique from the other fights in the playset. So the mode is designed to be replayed, although unskippable cutscenes make this tiresome to do too many times. There’s a different ending (paragraph of text) at the end of the Story depending on which character you beat the final boss as.

As well as the Story, there’s also the Challenge Mode. These Challenges are kind of like the Events in the Smash Bros. series. You’ll be put into a themed battle (which usually has some sort of gimmick) that you have to win. Some of these put unique twists on battles, like having an opponent that gradually gets stronger, or sending more enemies after you as soon as you defeat another, which are interesting. Others just pit you up against another opponent in a no-frills battle, which are lacklustre due to the fact you could easily replicate these battles yourself in Versus Mode. You want something unique that you need to come here to play! There are 28 Challenges, and it will take you 1-2 hours to complete them all. They add a bit more substance to the singleplayer but, again, the focus of the playset is definitely on the Versus Mode.

Venom fights an infestation of Rocket Raccoon duplicates in one of Battlegrounds’ challenges

If you complete each challenge with a specific character, it will unlock a new toy for the Toy Box. This playset adds a bunch of cool new toys into the Toy Box, but not all of them need to be unlocked this way, and can instead be bought from the Toy Store. A lot of the dynamic aspects of the game’s stages are available to use, such as traps and destructible decorations. The special crates like cryo and explosive crates need to be thrown in order to trigger their effects, which is a bit annoying. They’d be useful to spice up shooter Toy Boxes the way the explosive canisters in the Force Awakens playset do. Battlegrounds adds some fantastic toys which, for the most part, aren’t tied to Marvel and can be used very generally. The downside is that since about half of them are tied to Challenge Mode, the toys you want could require you to buy characters you weren’t otherwise going to buy. If you’re someone who’s terrible with money a big fan of the series and already owns every figure, then this won’t be an issue.

Battlegrounds is a playset that I’ve had a ball with, but the lack of singleplayer content and online mode will likely be a big turn-off for a lot of people. While other playsets can easily be enjoyed by yourself or with another person, to get the most value out of Battlegrounds you need to either replay things a lot by yourself or have people you can regularly play with. I’ve spent a number of hours setting up dream match-ups in the Versus Mode and playing that over and over, but I know that’s not for everyone. If you’ve got people to play with, then Battlegrounds will no doubt be the source of many a good time. I’d almost recommend it for multiplayer parties even if you’re not interested in other aspects of Infinity, but without purchasing extra toys you’ll be facing limitations on the character roster, and no power-ups. A lot of effort has been put into the design and presentation of this playset, and it almost feels like a different, separate game you can use your Infinity figures in. It’s hard to give an accurate score to something that has a more specific audience than other playsets, so add a point to the review score if you have people to play with, as it will offer a lot more value for you. But if you’ll mostly be playing by yourself, and the idea of replaying things with different characters doesn’t sound appealing, then take a point off of the final score. Leave the final score as it is if you’re keen to set up battles by yourself til the end of time.

This review was written based off some game content provided by the publisher, and some bought ourselves. Review scores are designed to be directly compared with other expansions in the same series, not other series. We use the full 10 point scale 🙂