Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!
PlayStation
Before Playing:
This was a game that escaped my attention when I was a kid. I wasn't really into the whole Disney thing. In the PS1 era, I tended to gravitate towards more dark and mature titles. I would've been playing Resident Evil, Parasite Eve, Metal Gear or Silent Hill. Not a Toy Story game. So it's understandable that I'd skip over this completely. I mean, I liked platformers. But to me, Toy Story was probably a little too "child-like" for me.
I would have never given this game a second thought, but then it started popping up in some of my online gaming circles. People really seemed to like the game, praising it and saying it is one of the best (and most underplayed) 3D platformers of the PS1 era. Of course, my interest was piqued by this. I'm a big fan of 3D platformers where you collect a lot of stuff. I fondly remember enjoying games like Croc, Jersey Devil, and Gex when I was younger.
I made an oath to play this game someday. And here we are. What would I think of it? Let's find out.
Story:
I haven't seen Toy Story 2 in a very long time, but this game follows the story pretty accurately (from what I can remember). Woody is taken by the evil toy collector man. You play as Buzz as you pursue him and try to get him back. You progress through a series of stages representing different parts of the movie. You start in Andy's room, and have to explore the house. Then the next level is the area outside the house, and the intersecting yards of all the neighbors. And then the next level is a construction area down the block (which I don't remember from the movie). Things eventually take you to Al's Toy Barn, where the main events of the movie play out through the game.
Cutscenes from the movie fill in the action in between stages. In fact I think some of these scenes must have been created just for the game. You have to say: they really nailed making this a great Toy Story themed game.
Gameplay:
Like I said before, this is a 3D platformer. You control Buzz Lightyear. Each stage is filled with pizza tokens, which act as the game's "gold stars" - to make a Mario comparison. You have to collect enough of these tokens within a stage before you can move onto the next one. They are hidden in several different ways. For example, you may collect one from beating a boss. You may collect one from winning a race. You may collect one by climbing to the stage's highest point. You may collect one from finding all the five hidden items in a stage. These hidden items all vary from stage to stage. The most memorable one for me was collecting army men, because they would fire off explosives 'n shit to signal to you where they were hiding. Another thing you must do is collect 50 coins, and bring them to the piggy bank toy. He is hidden in each stage. When you bring him 50 coins, you get a pizza token.
I was pretty thorough as I played, making sure to get as many tokens as I possibly could before moving onto the next stage. I'm a big fan of collectathons so this game was right up my alley. Occasionally I would run into a roadblock, as there are sections you can't do until later in the game when you unlock an ability. Then you have to come back at a later time. That was a little annoying, because this game doesn't make it clear that it is one of "those games" at any point as you are playing.
Overall, my main complaint about the game is how you have to be 100% precise in the 3D platforming segments. You're constantly battling the camera and the occasionally jank controls at the same time, so it can get ugly. I hate how you can't adjust the camera yourself. A game like this should be using the trigger buttons to move the camera. But no. It is all automatic. The camera will pan and turn behind you whenever you turn Buzz to look in a certain direction. But there is a slight delay to it. It really messed me up as I was playing. I am not normally one to complain about controls or the camera, but this was annoying.
Because it is so difficult to make precision jumps, this made some areas of the game nearly fricking unplayable for me. The construction area was one of those areas. You have to jump from beam to beam and platform to platform within this giant construction tower. If you mess up once you will fall all the way to the bottom and have to start over again. And this is a really long, painful segment. It can take five or more minutes to get all the way back up there again. Luckily I was playing the game on PlayStation Now, which includes the ability to rewind the game when you mess up. I would have ripped all my hair out if I didn't have that rewind feature.
Frustrating parts aside, the game is not too difficult if you are looking to just race through it and not collect everything. It can likely be beaten in a day or two. I was aiming to get the platinum trophy, so it took me a few weeks of intermittent playing to get there.
Graphics:
The game looks good. Obviously it is not going to hold a candle to, say, Kingdom Hearts III and its Toy Story stage. That game is freaking incredible looking, like they pulled everything straight from the movie itself. This game is much older, and shows its age. It's definitely a PS1 game, with its polygons, messy textures, and glitching graphics.
That said, I still like how it looks. I grew up in this era of gaming, so it doesn't look ugly to me at all. Never at any point were the graphics a hindrance to my enjoyment of the game. The camera maybe, but not the actual graphics. The game does a fine job at capturing the look and feel of the Toy Story universe.
Sound:
Ironically, the sound that plays during the cutscenes is terrible. Since it is mostly pulled straight from the movie, you'd think it would be good. But no, its muddled, too quiet, and the quality is flat out grainy and bad. You'd think they would have noticed this when testing the game? IDK, man. Maybe it is just the version I played.
The sound that plays during the actual game is fine. The music is catchy. The sound effects fit the tone of the game. There are tons of voice acting clips taken from the movie that really help to sell this world of Toy Story coming to life. No complaints here.
Overall:
I had a decent time with this game. I'm not going to say that it was on the same level as Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie, because that would be a lie. It's more along the lines of something like Jersey Devil, Spyro, or one of the 3D Gex games.
If you are a big fan of the 3D platforming genre, you'll probably feel the same way I do. I think the people that rabidly seem to love this game are either massive Toy Story fans or they grew up with the game. Or both. And there is nothing wrong with that. I'm never going to shame someone for liking a game. Heck, I liked this game. But I can't say that I loved it.
It's good for what it is worth. I like that the worlds are more open, and not as linear. I like interacting with the Toy Story characters and looking at all the creative ways they brought the world of this game to life. The game is relatively easy, though (aside from some of the more unforgiving platforming sections), and it can be beaten in a relatively short amount of time. Unless you are a completionist, there is not much reason to stick around or play through the game again. I played long enough to get the platinum trophy, and then I was out.
While this is an enjoyable game, I question its legacy. I've played through it once, and I doubt I'm ever going to play it again. It's a fun and enjoyable game, and it is good for what it is. I just can't muster too much excitement over it.
THE GRADE:
B-
For a complete index of all my past posts and game reviews, click
>HERE<
No comments:
Post a Comment