Test drive Disney Infinity at Festival of the Masters at Downtown Disney this weekend

Creativity comes in many forms, and some might speak to youngsters a little more readily. Thankfully for kids who will be at Walt Disney World’s signature art festival this weekend, a video game will part of the artistic creations on display as Disney Interactive again has a presence at the Festival of the Masters. The event begins Friday at Downtown Disney.

The gaming division of The Walt Disney Company will offer guests the opportunity to play Disney Infinity at its booth at the festival. If you’re on the fence about whether to buy the game for a holiday gift, this is your opportunity to take it for a test drive.

The game was released in North America in August so many Disney fans, including my 11-year-old son, already own some platform of the system. For them, this is an opportunity to talk to the Avalanche Software artists and programmers who helped develop the game. They will staff the booth, giving players pointers at four Xbox 360 stations.

Disney Interactive had a similar set-up at its booth at Car Masters Weekend at Downtown Disney in June. The four stations were configured to allow guests to try playset-only and multi-player versions with the Toy Box feature. The Toy Box aspect is a key difference between Disney Infinity and Activsion’s Skylanders, which also uses collectible figures with in its video game. Disney Infinity’s Toy Box mode allows players to mix Disney and Pixar characters and environments, creating unique games that players can share with their friends. Play-set mode, by comparison, puts the game characters in their own self-contained world that is appropriate only to their movie or TV show franchise.

The new Toy Story playset and Jack Skellington figure will be among those available for the demonstration. My son had hoped that Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz from “Wreck-It Ralph” might be available for a preview, but a Disney publicist said they aren’t part of the booth. (Ralph is scheduled to be released on Nov. 22 as an exclusive at Best Buy. Vanellope will be a Target exclusive available on Nov. 24.)

Visitors who play Disney Infinity at the demonstration booth also will be given game merchandise, such as a T-shirt or hat, while supplies last, the publicist told me.

The Disney Interactive booth will be located outside the Once Upon a Toy store at the Marketplace, where the gaming division has set up before, such as when it was was promoting its Epic Mickey titles. The booth will be open during regular festival hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 8 and 9, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on November 10. Admission and parking are free.

To read my other stories about Disney Infinity, please click here, here and here.

There’s also another digital artistic creation on display that probably will appeal to old and young alike. I’m told Disney Interactive also will have a booth for its newest iOS app, Disney Animated, that showcases 53 animated Disney films. The app, which sells for $13.99, takes users behind the scenes of the animation process. That demonstration booth will be located on the West Side near Cirque du Soleil.

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