Disney’s Playmation is like Disney Infinity without the graphics — and it’s just as pricey

Disney Infinity has new competition in the toys-to-life genre. And the game is from … Infinity’s own parent company?

I kept getting a sense of déjà vu when I attended the announcement event for Disney’s and Hasbro’s Playmation, a line of interactive toys aimed at kids and families. It’s sort of related to toys-to-life games like Disney Infinity and Skylanders, where you can buy toys that add more characters and levels to a game. The biggest difference with Playmation is that while it incorporates traditional role-playing game mechanics, it doesn’t have a video game attached to it. Instead, it uses old-school audio narration and sound effects to tell a story while kids pretend to blast their imaginary enemies.