Review: Toy Story 3: The Video Game

Video games based on movies have a reputation of being terrible, but there are some exceptions. Toy Story 3: The Video Game is exactly what it says, a video game, with less focus on sticking exactly to the movies’ story line and instead becoming more of a standalone experience. The game has two main modes – Story Mode and Toy Box Mode – and you may be surprised to hear the story mode isn’t the game’s main mode.

First and foremost, the gameplay is standard but works perfectly well. Character control is similar to any other platformer out there, with the face buttons performing the usual array of jumps and attacks. Story missions are played as Buzz, Woody and Jessie, switching between them to complete certain sections and puzzles. Each have their own special ability which is necessary for progression: Buzz can throw the other 2 characters further than they can jump, so is useful for crossing big gaps; Woody can use his pull string to swing across certain gaps; and Jessie can land on smaller areas. The shoulder charge is a move all characters can use, with its main purpose to attack enemies, although it can also be used to break things and solve puzzles. Some missions even give you the chance to drive vehicles, ride Bullseye or other creatures which are found in the world. The vehicles and creatures control and handle well; not realistically, but like they should, like toys.

The Story missions are only based on locations from the movie and not actually what happens in the movie, so nothing will be spoiled, although it’s advisable to watch the movie first to help you understand the locations and characters more. There are 8 story missions in total which will most likely take you around 3-4 hours to complete. The missions themselves are very enjoyable and a lot of collectables in each level definitely gives them replay value. Despite this game being aimed mainly at younger children some of the levels and puzzles have difficult parts, however the game does have a very good help system. Simply ask for a hint or just get told what you need to do.

Toy Box mode is the bigger of the two game modes and where you will probably spend most of your time. Completing little tasks or big missions for the townspeople will unlock more toys for you to purchase, which then unlock more missions. This mode is long, funny and enjoyable, and you can even fully customise the world and all of its inhabitants by bringing up the customise building tool or throwing people into the hat store, tailor or the salon. Toy Story 3 has some long loading screens, which you’ll notice most whilst playing Toy Box mode. Most of the time when you move from one part of the sandbox to another a short loading pop-up will appear, which gets old very quickly. I can’t see the younger generation of gamers being very impressed with having to wait around for a few seconds every time they move.

Gold serves as the main currency, which you earn by doing missions. This can then be spent at the toy store to unlock new gadgets, weapons, townspeople, areas and more. Some missions require you to buy certain things from the store and others will have you dressing people in a certain way, taking photos of things or throwing cows about (trust me, it happens more often than you’d think). Certain missions, however, will even seem difficult to older gamers, let alone the younger ones, so parents should be prepared to step in and lend a hand if needs be. After earning enough gold and completing enough missions to unlock it extra areas can be opened up, such as Sid’s Haunted House and Zurg’s Space Port. A handful of missions will reoccur once you open extra areas, such as Pixies and Zurg-bots attacking town, but overall there is a wide variety of missions available and some of them require thinking outside of the (toy) box. Toy Box mode offers lots to do and is definitely the better of the two modes, but sadly gets old quicker than you would want it to.

Overall, you will not be getting a lot of game time out of this title so a £40 RRP may seem a bit steep – I would imagine children could get many more hours out of it but still not enough to justify paying full whack. It’s a great game and is definitely worth playing but there just isn’t enough of it, so I recommend renting it.