Toy Story (video game)

Toy Story
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)
Composer(s) Andy Blythe & Marten Joustra
Platform(s) Super NES, Genesis, Game Boy, Windows
Release date(s)

Super NES

  • NA: December 1995
  • EU: 25 April 1996
  • JP: 26 April 1996
  • AUS: 1996

Genesis

  • NA: November 1995
  • EU: 25 April 1996

Game Boy

  • EU: 1996
  • NA: May 1996

Windows

  • NA: 31 October 1996
Genre(s) Platform
Mode(s) Single-player

Toy Story is a side-scrolling platform game released by Disney Interactive Studios in 1995 for the Genesis, Super NES, Game Boy and Windows 95. It is based on the movie of the same name, and closely follows its plot. The game was followed by a sequel based on the second film. This is the only Pixar game that had a Kids To Adults rating in the USA.

Plot

The game closely follows the plot of Toy Story, with a few minor differences.

It's the day of Andy's birthday party, and his toys are riled up about the possible newcomers and their potential replacement. In an effort to calm their nerves, Sheriff Woody sends a troop of green army men, along with a baby monitor, to report. The mission goes over smoothly; however, they receive an abrupt warning that Andy is returning to his room, sending everyone in a frenzy to return to their positions. Once things have settled down and Andy has left the room, the toys find a lone newcomer: Buzz Lightyear. They are impressed with him and his features and Hamm decides that Woody and Buzz should have a race to settle their argument. Buzz wins the race, but Woody, still unfazed, challenges Buzz to fly around the room with his eyes closed, which Buzz does. Woody finds that he is being replaced by this newcomer in status, both in the eyes of the toys and of Andy, and is relegated to the toybox. He begins to have nightmares about Buzz (which never happens in the film version, but was based on a deleted scene) which he ends up confronting.

Jealous of all the attention Buzz has been getting, and wanting to be the toy Andy brings to Pizza Planet, Woody grabs R.C. and knocks Buzz out the window. This draws all the other toys' ire at Woody. Woody escapes from the angered toys with the help of Rex as he does not like confrontations. Woody is chosen as the toy to go to Pizza Planet, but during a stop at the gas station Buzz hops in the van and attacks Woody. Woody defeats Buzz by trapping him in a spare tire. However, Andy and his mother leave, without noticing their absence.

Woody and Buzz hitch a ride on a Pizza Planet van to return to Andy. Once there, the two toys disguise themselves as litter and sneak into Pizza Planet, avoiding contact with humans. Buzz sneaks into a claw machine, mistaking it for a rocket to return to his home planet; Woody sneaks in the coin slot and works through the hazardous innards in pursuit. Woody is greeted by the aliens inside, who task him with saving some of their own, lost even deeper inside the machine. Woody is successful with the task and the aliens thank him. However, Sid Phillips, Andy's neighbor and notorious toy destroyer, notices Buzz in the claw machine and tries to fetch him out. Woody delays Buzz's capture by launching the Aliens at the claw, but is unable to prevent it, and instead goes along with him.

Woody and Buzz try to escape from Sid's room, which is overrun with metal bugs and live firecrackers. Sid occasionally pops in to torture Woody by setting his head on fire, sending Woody dashing for a nearby bowl of cereal to douse it. Woody and Buzz have a run-in with Sid's collection of mutilated toys, keeping them back with Buzz's karate-chop action. Sid decides to destroy Buzz with a large rocket, and takes him away. To save him, Woody then befriends the toys, and riding on the back of Roller Bob, sneaks out into Sid's backyard, dodging various pieces of litter and Sid's dog, Scud.

Woody saves Buzz, but the movers leave without either toy. Woody manages to catch up to the truck, but Buzz falls behind. Woody finds R.C., hops on his back on the road, and drives back for Buzz. Securing him, they proceed to ride R.C. back to the truck. However, R.C. runs out of batteries. Buzz and Woody light the rocket on Buzz's back, cutting it off once they gain enough airspeed and glide all the way back to the van of Andy's mother. The two toys have gotten over their differences over the course of this adventure, and go on to be good friends in Andy's new house.

Gameplay

Players control Woody through 17 stages (18 for the Mega Drive/Genesis version and 10 for the Game Boy version) that encompass the entire plot of the film. Several obstacles lie between the player and the goal of each level, not least of which is a wide assortment of enemies. Woody is equipped with a pullstring whip, which will temporarily "tie up" opponents, letting Woody pass by unharmed. It cannot, however, kill enemies (with the lone exception of Nightmare Buzz, the only boss in the game to be permanently defeated through the whip). This whip can also latch onto certain hooks, letting Woody swing above perilous terrain (similar to Earthworm Jim and its whip mechanics).

The game occasionally changes genres for a stage. Players control R.C. in two stages: one in which Woody knocks Buzz out a window, the other in which they both race back to the moving truck. Both play largely the same; the game takes an overhead view of the level, giving the players basic acceleration, braking and steering, and tasking players with reaching the end of the stage while not running out of batteries (which drain constantly, but can be replenished by bumping them out of Buzz in the former stage, and merely finding them on the ground in the latter). The Mega Drive/Genesis version also has an exclusive level in which Woody rides R.C.'s back while rushing back to Sid's house to fetch Buzz; this stage plays very similar to OutRun, but has the same condition of maintaining a battery level. Lastly, one stage takes place in a first-person maze similar to Wolfenstein 3D, in which Woody must find alien squeaky toys lost inside the claw machine and return them to the play area, where the rest of the alien toys reside, all within a time limit.

Difference between versions

The Genesis and SNES versions of the game are largely identical, aside from the usual differences that multiplatform titles of the time had (i.e.: the Genesis had fewer colors on screen, while the SNES had higher-quality sound and up to 256 colors, albeit at a lower horizontal screen resolution, which in turn crops out 32 pixels from each side of the play-field). However, the Genesis version has an extra level that the SNES version doesn't, "Day-Toy-Na", in which Woody rides R.C. from the moving van to Buzz in a segment very similar to Sega's Outrun (except without any additional vehicles on the road, and with the added condition that a "battery" must be picked up every so often, or the player will lose a life and start the stage over). The Genesis version also included an extra music file not present during gameplay on the SNES, You've Got a Friend in Me for the cutscenes. This track is however present on Game Boy and PC. In addition, the Genesis and PC versions had a voice clip (Buzz Lightyear: "To infinity and beyond!") upon starting the game. This was absent on the SNES and Game Boy. The PC version is identical to the Genesis version, apart from having the "Really Inside the Claw Machine" level missing, but its music still remains in the game files. The Game Boy version is the shortest version of the game with only 10 levels.

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
Game BoyMega DrivePCSNES
AllGameN/A[1][2][3]
EGMN/A6.875/10[4]N/A6.75/10[5]
GameFanN/A87%[6]N/A80%[7]
Game InformerN/A8.75/10[8]N/A8.75/10[9]
GameSpotN/AN/A6.4/10[10]N/A
PC Gamer (UK)N/AN/A69%[11]N/A
PC Gamer (US)N/AN/A27%[12]N/A
Next GenerationN/A[13]N/AN/A
Aggregate score
GameRankingsN/A80%[14]70%[15]71%[16]

Toy Story was met with mostly mixed reviews. It was praised for its impressive visuals,[4][5][8][9][10][13][17] varied gameplay,[4][5][8][10][13][17] and the PC version's enhanced soundtrack,[10] but criticized for its poor control[4][5][10][17] and uneven difficultly, with some levels which reviewers found to be too frustratingly difficult, particularly for the young target audience.[4][5][10][17][18] The visuals were best received on the Sega Genesis version due to the game's 3D-rendered graphics, which had several precedents on the SNES and PC but were completely new to the Genesis.[8][9][10][13] Critics were varied in their overall impressions; GamePro concluded that "Despite the stunning graphics, Toy Story's uninspiring gameplay makes for merely fleeting fun",[17] while Game Informer decreed the game "a humorous and fun adventure that will certainly entertain everyone in the whole family."[8]

According to Disney Interactive, the Super NES and Genesis versions were both "tremendous successes", though a Super NES chip shortage prevented them from producing as many copies of the Super NES version as they believed they could have sold.[19]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Weiss, Brett Alan. "Disney's Toy Story (GEN) - Review". AllGame. Archived from the original on 13 November 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  2. ↑ Smith, Nick. "Disney's Toy Story: Power Play - Review". AllGame. Archived from the original on 12 December 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  3. ↑ Weiss, Brett Alan. "Disney's Toy Story (SNES) - Review". AllGame. Archived from the original on 16 November 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Review Crew: Toy Story". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Ziff Davis (78): 39. January 1996.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Review Crew: Toy Story". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Ziff Davis (79): 30. February 1996.
  6. ↑ "Toy Story (GEN)". GameFan. December 1995.
  7. ↑ "Toy Story (SNES)". GameFan. 1996.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 "Toy Story (GEN)". Game Informer (32): 10–11. December 1995. Archived from the original on 20 November 1997. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 "Disney's Toy Story (SNES)". Game Informer (33). January 1996. Archived from the original on 20 November 1997. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 East, Mark (17 December 1996). "Toy Story Review (PC)". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 5 February 2004. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  11. ↑ "Toy Story". PC Gamer UK. 1996.
  12. ↑ Douglas, Adam (April 1997). "Toy Story". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 8 March 2000. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  13. 1 2 3 4 "Rendered". Next Generation. No. 13. Imagine Media. January 1996. p. 169.
  14. ↑ "Disney's Toy Story for Genesis". GameRankings. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  15. ↑ "Disney's Toy Story for PC". GameRankings. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  16. ↑ "Disney's Toy Story for Super Nintendo". GameRankings. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 "ProReview Genesis: Toy Story". GamePro. IDG (88): 92. January 1996.
  18. ↑ "ProReview SNES: Toy Story". GamePro. IDG (90): 62. March 1996.
  19. ↑ "First Look at the Games of CES". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Ziff Davis (80): 50–51. March 1996.
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