Toy Story Review

The Toy Story flick was a huge commercial success for Disney. Its computer animation was deemed a major leap in the way children’s films were created. It jump-started a revolution, from sketches to computer models. It also had one of the best children’s movie licensed game on the market.

In Toy Story, you play as Woody, a cowboy doll that belongs to a child owner named Andy. It’s Andy’s birthday, and the goal of the first level is to release the Army Men, drop the baby monitor to them, then go to the second baby monitor to listen in to what presents Andy receives. You’ll need to use your string to disable toy planes and trains in this level. Bouncing on balls will help you reach higher ledges, and bursting balloons releases what look to be marbles, which hurt you.

In the second level, Andy’s returning to his room with an unannounced gift. Your goal is to get the toys in their correct positions before Andy comes into his room. Some will need freed, others will have things blocking their path, and three of them will need to be launched into the toy box.

Once this level is complete, you meet Buzz Light Year, an action figure from a new line of toys. He’ll fly around the level mockingly, but your goal isn’t to beat him, so pace yourself. Avoid the jumping toys (or hit them with your pull-string) and try to use the hooks to swing as often as possible.

You lose to Buzz Light Year automatically. It seems that he’s the better toy. That night, you have a nightmare. Here, in the fourth level, you will fight Buzz Light Year. Avoid his lasers and the balls that orbit him. Destroy the balls then hit him with your string.

When you awake, you find out that Andy is going to Pizza Planet, but can bring only a single toy. The goal in the fifth level is to knock Buzz Light Year into the cupboard, but you’ll end up knocking him out the window. Anyway, in this level, you play as R.C., a motorized toy car. Here you’ll race around the track, hitting Buzz Light Year. Be wary of your energy meter, and collect the energy tanks that Buzz drops throughout the course. Hitting the rails along the course will lose you much-needed energy.

The next couple levels will include one with Rex, in which you’ll have to ride past some loco toys. Following that is another fight with Buzz Light Year, and so on. Some details you’ll need to know is that Woody can only take 3 hits, depending on if you collect health stars or not. You only have X amount of lives, but can find more by finding a 1UP item, which are scarce.

The fact that the levels are sometimes trial-and-error, and that you don’t receive any continues from the start of the game, leads to multiple restarts. For some this will be frustrating, but the levels aren’t all that long, and are vibrant enough to keep interest flowing. I suggest looking into this title; it’s one of the best licensed games on SNES.