Toy Story (Genesis) Review

                                     A Journalistic Review by DefiantParrot

                                       *Warning: May Contain Spoilers*

                                        Originally Written: 02/29/2020

Memories!!!

Developer: Traveller's Tales, Psygnosis

Publisher: Disney Interactive, SEGA

Platform: SEGA Genesis

Genre: Side-Scrolling, Platformer

Release: November 1995

     Toy Story was a big deal when it came out back in 1995. It was the first full length computer animated film. It was the first major slam dunk of Pixar Studios and it's a movie that I loved back when I was 4 years old and first saw it and I still love it today.

I've rewatched Toy Story more times than I can count and I never get tired of it, but today we're not looking at the movie. We're looking at the game for the SEGA Genesis.

Now the Disney games around this time had a reputation, a reputation for being pretty decent games. Usually well put together, looking nice and good music too. Oh and also being harder than Link in a room full of breakable pots.

I fucking love Woody's face here

But let's really dive in here Toy Story was developed by Traveller's Tales you know those guys that make all those LEGO games these days? Of course I'm familiar with some of their other work.

The game follows the same basic plot as the movie as most tie-in games do and I feel does a better job of leading the player along better than say The Incredibles did. 

You can't always assume the player has seen the movie so I feel this tells a decent story and explains why we do what we do here. Mostly.

The stills used for the text based scenes are pretty garbled compared to the film but you can always turn these off in the options menu so there's that.

There is a certain charm to them however

The game was praised for its looks as a whole when it came out and I can see why. The color limitations on the Genesis were notorious, but Toy Story looks great, It was the end of the Genesis' life cycle so that probably had alot to do with it, but the point is the game looks really good.

The game also sounds pretty good. The music and voice clips are compressed as hell with it being a Genesis game and all. But I did love the sound in this game from the stage music to the character lines.

Fucking love these

Before each level there's a briefing given to you via Etch-A-Sketch and it's charming as hell and also helps the player understand what they're going to be doing for the level, since not every level is as simple as reaching the end. 

For example the first level consists of you having to free the Army Men from their bucket and then finding and giving them the baby monitor so they can spy on Andy's birthday party.

It's a good level but my favorite level in the game is actually the second level where you have a time limit and have to free all of the toys and get them into the toybox then make a mad dash to the bed before Andy comes upstairs.

I love it because the timer is generous but still a constant threat and having to quickly think on how to free the toys and getting them put away is really fun.

No, it's nothing groundbreaking or really thought provoking this is a kids game after all, but I think it's just challenging enough to keep you moving yet great for younger players. 

Something else I love is how during gameplay in the upper left hand corner of the screen is an Etch-A-Sketch that gives hints on what the player should do next. Just in case they do get lost or confused.

Right I guess I haven't adequately described the gameplay here have I? There's actually a variety of different gameplay styles here but we'll start with the one you'll be doing the most.

Woody can run, jump and his attack is him whipping his pull string at enemies with a crouching and high attack as well. The attack can either cause damage or tie an enemy up for a short amount of time rendering them harmless. 

Get to da choppa!

I do like how Woody controls here aside from a really annoying bit later in the game, I always felt in complete control here, Woody moves quickly but will stop suddenly if you let go of the D-Pad, none of this slipping off ledges crap. 

Woody's pull string can also be used to swing on hooks and this also works pretty well, for the most part, we'll come back to that later.

I wanna praise the game a bit on its level design, the first two levels in Andy's room are great. I love how it looks just like the movie. There's a few different ways to progress and explore and it's  well put together.

But later levels I feel don't have this same effort put into them, they're not awful by any means, But I feel the game is at its best early on.

Done hog-tied me a train partner

In each level there are stars littered throughout that you can collect. There's fifty in total in each level, if you collect all fifty you get an extra life. Above 45 and you get a Hit Point. Under 45 and you get shit.

I like these as collectibles and I like being rewarded when I go out of my way to collect them. These are nice.

After accumulating 200 throughout your playthrough you'll be taken to a bonus level where you basically play an Etch-A-Sketch version of tic-tac-toe where you can earn more hit points.

It's a bit of a pain in the ass with hitting the points in the diagonal corners of the screen because of the controllers D-Pad but it's not too bad.

Nightmare Buzz Indeed

If you get over 300 stars you'll be given a continue.

After a level where you have to race Buzz across Andy's Room, you come to the first boss. Nightmare Buzz which really did give me nightmares when I was a tiny bird.

Can you blame me this fucker is terrifying and his voice clips here are haunting!

But I do really like this fight challenging but simple once you figure it out. Again great for kids. Also really interesting when you realize this is basically a deleted scene from the movie. Pretty cool, pretty cool indeed.

Ah but yes the challenge. I mentioned the Disney games of these times were difficult. So is this game any exception?

Oh god no, this game will kick your ass. The first two levels, which as I said are where I think the game shines, are great. But as soon as you reach the level where you race Buzz the game starts throwing a bunch of stuff on screen at once and it just gets worse from there.

Some of it is fair and you can have several hit points and extra lives. Bottomless pits also don't kill you right away, but some of this turns into bullshit difficulty instead of fair difficulty. 

Part of its difficulty may come from how your hit points don't reset after each level. That's just mean game.

There are times where you are just going to take damage, there's no way around that and I can see where as a young hatchling I was never able to beat this game.

But after the Nightmare Buzz fight we reach one of the lowpoints of the game. Where you play as RC attempting to run down Buzz.

This is an overhead driving level and it fucking blows. It's slippery as hell to control, RC will spin out of control if he slightly bumps into anything and he requires fuel that you have to pick up everytime you hit Buzz.

God this sucks

I mean if you take it slow and only drive in bursts never holding the accelerate down you'll be fine but going slow is pretty counterintuitive in a level where your supposed to be going fast.

A couple levels later there's an autoscrolling level where you have to ride Rex to freedom as the other toys try to attack you for running Buzz down. Which absolutely does not happen in the movie but Rex does control a bit better than RC did.

MOVE YOUR BIG GREEN ASS!!!!

Although with the size of Woody and Rex here it is borderline impossible to avoid getting hit with everything the game throws at you. 

Pixel perfect precision is a damn near necessity here and it can be pretty unforgiving. I must state here that I think one of the games biggest problems is its multiple playstyles. I said the same thing when I reviewed The Incredibles.

I know Jak II had several different playstyles too and not all of them were amazing, but I felt they flowed alot better into the overall game than Toy Storys do.

Anyway there's a second boss fight with Buzz later on that is nowhere near as good as the first one. You have to dodge Buzzs attacks and whip a tire onto him to deal damage.

It's a bit clumsy but isn't too bad. It's just nowhere near as fun or memorable as the previous fight.

There's a level where you have to sneak into Pizza Planet while hiding in an empty drink cup. You take damage however if you bump into Buzzs dumbass behind you so you have to be careful. 

Woody doesn't have a mask so this is how he avoids Covid

Theres obstacles to avoid and you can crouch to avoid Buzz bumping into you and to avoid the kids passing through the restaurant.

It's fine if a little slow and tedious.

Then we go into the claw machine and I gotta say these are my least favorite levels in the game. The aesthetic just doesn't do it for me, I really don't like how it looks in here and this is where I feel the level design is at its laziest.

It's not that difficult I mean there are exploding obstacles here and falling coins that can damage you but you can avoid it all if you're paying attention. It just feels slow to me and the moving platforms annoyed me a bit too. This was the only time where I felt like I wasn't in complete control, like I'd miss a platform I shouldn't have.

But then after that level we get. Well, we get Toy Story Doom folks.

I mean I'm still amazed/confused by this one

You go into a first person mode and have to navigate this maze like area and find and release the eight Pizza Planet Aliens. It's not difficult I got it on my first try but, I mean it's impressive of course the level of coding here is jaw dropping, but why is this here? 

This is a radical shift in gameplay and honestly hurt my eyes after a while. I don't know why maybe it was the colors or my TV but I was really happy when this level was over. 

There's a boss fight with The Claw after this and it is abysmal. You have to use your pull whip to launch an alien up into The Claw to damage it before it takes Buzz away, combining your regular whip attack with you high whip attack. 

Sounds like a challenging combination of two moves you've been using the whole game so far, but the timing here is pretty strict. Too late or too early and you can kiss your continues and lives goodbye. 

The level after this is Sid's Room and it is utter hell. Everything here wants you dead. Mechanical Spiders, Darts falling from the ceiling, explosions, fireballs this kid is fucking demented!

This is like 2020: The Bedroom

Which is proven when towards the end of the level the little bastard himself burns Woody with a magnifying glass causing Woody to start burning and melting and running like a goddamn madman. 

There's no way to make him stop and you cannot jump. So you have to attempt to carefully control the burning ranger to a bowl of milk to save himself. It's tricky but I kind of like it, and I do really like the music when Woody's burning. 

After this is the level I despise the most. I know I said The Claw levels were my least favorite levels but this level I actively hate. 

This level is all about swinging and this is the level I talked about when I said it mostly worked. You have to work your way up so many different hooks and swinging from one turning in midair and getting the next one is clunky as hell.

These were the only points where the swinging felt poorly implemented and by the end of the level my hands were cramping like you wouldn't believe.

So I got eye cancer from the Doom level and hand cramps from this level. Thanks alot Toy Story.

The level ends with Woody using Buzzs karate chop action to fend off some of Sids creations and escape.

There's a level similar to Rexs where you ride on Roller Bob in an auto-scroller. But if you thought that level threw alot at you oh boy you haven't played this. There's so much coming at you and there's no way to avoid it all plus Sids dog Scud is a part of this level and I hate that fucking dog! 

SUCK MY NUTS SCUD!!!!!

It's tedious, annoying, unforgiving and just not fun. 

After that is yet ANOTHER gameplay change where the game turns into Pole Position. Traveller's Tales made not just a 2D platforming engine. not just a 3D raycasting engine but also a Line Scrolling racing engine. 

WHAT?!

There's clearly talent here but again I must ask, WHY!?!

The level isn't that bad to be honest but it doesn't feel finished. There's no traffic, no real obstacles and nothing can really hurt you.

God it looks like I'm driving through a coloring book

You have to collect fuel again and the 3D objects look, well bad. 

Again impressive as all hell and it's better than the other RC level.

Somebody REALLY liked RC

But then there's yet ANOTHER  RC driving section. 

This one is also top down and again it's a bit better than the first one with a larger track to drive on. But it's still a bitch to control and the fuel to pick up makes it annoying to play.

The final level offers one last final gameplay change which involved Buzz and Woody leaving RC behind to no doubt be killed and taking to the skies avoiding obstacles to make their way to Andy.

It's another autoscroller and I think it's better than the others by a wide margin. But still frustrating as all hell. 

Better but still not great, I think it's because the sprites of Woody and Buzz are so big that it's easy to slam into things that you just can't see coming.

But that's it, that's the last level in the game. You get the final cutscene and congratulatory message and a roll call of all the characters in the game.

How many gameplay changes is this? I've lost fucking count, Buzz!!!

Well yeah that's alot for just a 16-bit game based on a kids movie isn't it? The difficulty here is one of the biggest sticking points for people however there is a level select code to get you back to where you need to be. 

And even an invincibility glitch if you wanna blow through the game that way, but you can look that up yourself. 

All in Toy Story was mostly a unique game to finally finish. The graphics, sound, and standard gameplay are all pretty good. But the onslaught of different gameplay styles and crushing difficulty makes it hard to recommend.

For when you fall, with style

In any case Toy Story receives my Bronze Seal of Acceptance

The game is not awful by any means and it's clear that alot of love and effort went into this game. So if you have an old copy and a Genesis or even a SNES I'd say it's worth a revisit but If you don't have it. There's really no need to seek it out.