Review: Toy Story 2 (PS1)

It may be hard to believe but there's a game better than Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue. Yes a game better than that genre busting, decade defining jumping simulator. People of the internet I bring you 1999's Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue. A godly game whose game play warps, rends and tears reality into something quite wonderful. A game that was my video game training arc of my childhood. As you may have gathered its the the tie-in game to Toy Story 2 for the PS1 and you most likely think it's crap as it's a licensed game but I'm here to prove otherwise. Oh, and its jumping is fairly good too.

Well as it's a film licence the plot is the same as Toy Story 2, Buzz puts a team together to rescue Woody who's been toy napped by the evil collector AL. It does what most tie in games do; expanding on the plot. Mainly because most film plots don't involve platforming, but this game gets away with it and I hold most of the expansions canon to the film series. Yes even the slimy energy being but we'll get to that later. You play as the legendary Buzz Lightyear, who must have had some upgrades at some point as his laser works, like EXPLODE other toys works and he can kind of fly but only to end the level also he seems to be made of some sort of Nintendium alloy. I guess this contradicts the core character development of the first film that he is a toy but to hell with that, his best friend has been kidnapped, clearly we can chalk one up to FIGHTING SPIRIT?

There are 15 levels, from the safety of Andy's house to the rain soaked airport tarmac for the final showdown with Stinky Pete. From Andy's neighbourhood with its towering bloody tree to a construction site with its towering skeletal building, this game has a thing for climbing - you have to climb stuff in every level but there's quite a few that are built around it like Andy's neighbourhood with that bloody tree! It gave me hell as a kid but this is where you are thankful Buzz is made out of that Nintendium alloy, yes lasers could hurt him but that fall from low orbit just kind fazes him for a second then he stands right back up again.

To progress in the game you have to collect Pizza Planet tokens, and to get them you will have to collect things. Lots of things, it's that kind of game. For example, Mr Potato Head keeps losing his parts or Bo Peep her sheep. Fair enough that's basically their thing but I find it hard to believe Hamm keeps losing all his coins in every level. Then again, it is exactly 50 coins he needs in every level so maybe its having that number of coins in him unlocks some kind of super mode for him, all fiery eyes and tron lines but we didn't get to see it for budgetary reasons. You also get tokens by racing other toys like RC or completing puzzles. Potato Head does help you out with more than just tokens though - getting him his parts back will unlock upgrades like rocket boots and grappling hooks. These upgrades help you get through the level at hand but some tokens in earlier levels can only be gotten with upgrades. Sneaky.

Then there's the bad guys you will face on your perilous journey, they're pretty awesome actually what with them being toys. That's right, you gotta KILL other toys to save dear old Woody, and they re-spawn as soon as you move away from where they EXPLODED so that's always fun. What's cool about them isn't just that they are just toys, it's that for most of the game they're toys from what seems to be the Buzz Lightyear toy line. There's Zurg mooks which explains why they want to kill you, and they're programmed like Buzz was at the start of the first film. That doesn't explain why they are every where though - like in Andy's house and in Al's Toy Barn yeah I get that - but at the construction site or in alleys and gulleys? The second lot of mooks follow the same way of thinking, they're cowboy mooks might not be from the same show as woody but they certainly fit with the theme which is damn cool and makes the world feel bigger with some thought out history.

The bosses in this game are just god damn awesome. Each level has its own mini boss usually at the top of something - like I said this game likes climbing. In addition there's the big bosses that have their own level. There's the ones you expect like the evil Emperor Zurg and Stinky Pete but most of the others the developers just made up. And they are GLORIOUS. There's the angry tin robot in Andy's attic (which despite the kill bot looks quite a nice place to be, just saying Toy Story 3, just saying) to the construction site's jack hammer Gurren, and of course the slimy energy monster that lives in a rubbish bin and gets stronger the more you shoot it. You may say this guy doesn't fit the tone of the Toy Story-verse but dude he's green so he's made of FIGHTING SPIRIT. Moving along. There's one boss I've never forgotten about - one boss that soars above the rest. Yes it's the ZURG KITE and my god he's awesome, you find him at the top of that bloody tree and he totally makes that bloody tree worth it because he's a thousand foot tall and made of fire - not really he dose spin though. In my head he went on to have adventures of his own after the end of the game.

This game was one of the greats, I'm sure you big bad people of the internet played bigger, badder games when you were kids but if you did play this game as a kid then you played it a lot as it's HARD, so many falls and that BLOODY TREE. But it was never so hard it was unplayable, in fact it's so hard it was addictive and to me that's the sign of a true great. To me its aged well and still looks pretty but I may be alone in that. I think some times I turn off the part of my brain that knows what current gen graphics look like. I'd recommend this to Toy Story fans, kite enthusiasts and fans of 3D platformers of its age.

10 ZURG KITES OUT OF TEN.