Review: Playmation

I will cut to the chase. I love Playmation. Never have I seen a toy with greater attention to detail that provides so many hours of fun. So where should I start? Well let me start at the beginning, the box.

Storytelling is key to Playmation and the story begins as soon as you open the box. Inside Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, welcomes you to the Avengers Initiative and introduces you to the tech that comes with the set. You are given your repulsor gear, two power activators, and two smart figures (Iron Skull and Captain America). Just in case you were wondering, the repulsor gear fits most sizes so it is great for family play.

I will give fair warning that set up takes some time. The battery compartments for the repulsor gear and the power activators require a philips head screwdriver. Also, if you want to use the Avengersnet app, there are two bluetooth updates for your repulsor gear following a brief registration process. Currently the app is only available for iOS but an Android version is coming.

A tip, while you are updating your repulsor gear (each update seemed to take about 10 minutes), you can explore the app to learn about the heroes, villains, missions, involved in Playmation. Just don’t get yourself overwhelmed. To ensure that you are getting your money’s worth for your $119 investment, that are mission and options galore. You can’t master Playmation in a matter of days or even weeks. Based on my progress so far, I will probably still be working on these mission when the next edition of the product is released.

Once your gear is ready to go, J.A.R.V.I.S. speaks through the repulsor gear and gives you a tutorial on how to play. You can battle the smart figures included or they can be your allies. A neat detail is that the character voices come from the power activator that they are placed on. When they are defeated they launch into the air. While the sparring mode is fun, I enjoyed the storytelling mode much more.

There are a series of missions that take place in various locales such as New York, The Raft, and Wakanda. Some of the missions require certain your gear to be at a certain level or ownership of one of the Playmation accessories. You can upload additional missions from the app, but the starter kit comes with 25 missions preloaded.

The missions are a blast! They require blasting, running, jumping, and other sorts of physical activity. The missions gets more complicated as time goes on as the villains get more complex. For example, blaster bots explode after they are defeated so you have to run and hide once they start blinking yellow.

The amount of variety in villains and activities is surprising. If you have trouble figuring out how to defeat a bad guy, the app provides tips and tricks for each villain type. But for example, when the power activator is blue, that means the villain has shields. You have to lift your wrist and point it in the direction of the villain to blast through the shield. Another tip? Use the green guide laser to help you guide your attacks. (It also doubles as a great way to play with your dogs).

As you battle, your figures and your gear levels up allowing you to use extra moves and abilities. You can track your progress through the app.

I have only begun to scratch the surface of the fun that comes with Playmation. I will probably be buying more figures and gear as it gets released. I also can’t wait for the Frozen and Star Wars versions that are said to be in development. Buying in to Playmation isn’t cheap, but it provides a great alternative to video games as the active play and amount of content makes it a worthy investment.

Full Disclosure: Disney sent us Playmation starter kit, but due to its earlier arrival, the version I reviewed was the one I preordered at Disney Store. Disney had no influence on the contents of this review nor did supplying product influence our review.