Toy Story 3 Review

I have long been a fan of Toy Story. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity when Disney Interactive offered me a review copy of the game based on the latest movie. While Toy Story 3 was arguably the best in the series – certainly better than Toy Story 2, at least – the video game just does not match the quality of the Pixar movies.

Toy Story 3: The Video Game is your standard platformer based on a children’s movie. It is overly simple and when you do encounter a problem, it is more due to poor controls. The game does not directly follow the movie’s storyline, which in my mind is a good thing. Instead, the developers chose to tie-in different scenes and expand upon them. For instance, the first level has you chasing the train to save the “children” with Woody. You get to explore a little more than the movie would allow.

The game allows for co-operative play, a definite plus for families looking to experience some game time together. Kids with a decent amount of experience with video games will probably even agree with me that Toy Story 3 is too easy (and certainly older gamers will). For a younger kid who has not had a lot of exposure to video games, it should be fine. The fact that you can play with more than one person adds an extra layer of fun to an otherwise boring game.

All of your favorite characters are here: from Buzz Lightyear to Woody and Rex. Unfortunately, their voice actors are not. At least some of them are absent (i.e. the major ones). Not having Tom Hanks as Woody or Tim Allen as Buzz is a tremendous letdown. The replacements do a decent enough job, but it still isn’t the same. On the plus side, characters like Hamm sound fantastic. Besides, kids might not even notice the difference.

Overall, Toy Story 3 is an underwhelming product for adults, but children may find it to be entertaining. The controls are not as responsive as I would like and the levels are not all that interesting. Fans of the Toy Story universe will undoubtedly be disappointed to hear that some of their favorite voice actors did not reprise their roles. Unless you have a young kid that you would like to play a children-friendly game with, Toy Story 3 is something that I would suggest avoiding.