Though there’s been a distinct lack of games related to Toy Story 4, as there are so many new toys fans want to see again, the Toy Story franchise has been surprisingly active in the video-games industry. Working with a slew of different developers over the past 25 years, there have been a ton of Toy Story tie-in games that have, against all odds, been shockingly great.
Even the worst of the lot aren’t as offensively bad as many tie-in games are known to be. Whether it’s a game based largely on the movies, a detailed kart racer, or the best skateboarding game that isn’t in the Tony Hawk series, these games make up one of the pillars that makes Toy Story one of the best film franchises of all time.
Toy Story: Smash It (2013)
Being a take on the old game style, as the game sees the player trying to knock down giant structures a la Angry Birds, Toy Story: Smash It is a largely uninspired and pretty standard mobile game.
Unlike Angry Birds, the game was fully 3D, which makes the gameplay look great, but aside from that, Smash It pales in comparison to its peers due to the lack of customization, and the levels not being as varied as they should be.
Toy Story Mania (2009)
Being based on Toy Story: Midway Mania, a theme park ride that can be found at Disney theme parks, the video-game version is everything to be expected from a game based on a theme park ride. As there wasn’t much material for the game to be based on in the first place, Toy Story Mania is simply a light-gun game where players have to shoot at targets.
The game lasts for just a couple of hours and there isn’t any story surrounding it. And if the visuals of Woody and Buzz were taken away, it wouldn’t have anything to do with the franchise whatsoever.
Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure (2012)
Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure was an Xbox 360 exclusive, as it made use of the short-lived Xbox: Kinect, which is a motion sensor that captures players' movements as part of the game.
Rush provided eight worlds from the Pixar movies for players to freely explore, including several Toy Story locations, The Incredibles, Cars, and Ratatouille. Though players never really got used to the gameplay, there was a lot of depth in the worlds.
Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command (2000)
Surprisingly enough, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command isn’t based on any of the movies, but on the morning cartoon of the same name, so it has a completely different approach from the other games. As the show is about the fictional character Buzz Lightyear instead of the character knowing he’s a toy, it sees the Buzz travel to different planets to race against alien villains, including emperor Zurg.
The game suffered from what most cartoon racers do; repetition and lack of variety. And though players can collect coins to upgrade vehicles, it wasn’t enough to distract from average level design and the underwhelming dialogue from Buzz Lightyear.
Toy Story (1995)
With Toy Story being the movie that kicked off the beloved franchise, the video game is also what started a fairly great string of tie-in video games for the series too. The game lets players play through some of the funniest scenes from the series as a 2D platformer for SNES and Sega Genesis, and despite being more than 25 years old, it’s still looked at as a fun game.
It may not hold up by today’s standards, the camera is irritating and the gameplay gets a little repetitive, as players control Woody in levels extremely similar to one another. However, for the time, it was considered the gold standard in movie-based video games.
Toy Story Racer (2001)
Toy Story Racer was released on two platforms, the handheld Game Boy Color and the PlayStation. While the Game Boy Color version wasn’t anything particularly great, the PlayStation version is held in high regard and is mentioned along with the likes of Crash Team Racing and Mario Kart.
There are over 18 tracks in the game, and it makes creative levels out of the movie locations. Surprisingly, Toy Story Racer was one of those games that pushed the console to its absolute limits.
Disney’s Extreme Skate Adventure (2003)
Though the game isn’t exclusively Toy Story affiliated, as it features many characters from both Disney and Pixar, Woody and Buzz were the big selling point of Disney’s Extreme Skate Adventure.
A skateboarding game where the playable characters are from Tarzan and The Lion King might not sound great, but the video-game is actually brilliant, which is largely due to the fact that it uses the exact same engine that was built for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4.
Toy Story 3: The Video Game (2010)
Toy Story 3: The Video Game is very much that, as it’s the most fully fleshed out video game that the Toy Story franchise has seen. Going up against the best animated villain of the past decade, the game was praised for being completely faithful to the movie, and it even featured a totally open world, which are lengths that developers very rarely go to for video-game tie-ins to movies.
It’s one of the best 3D platformers for that generation of consoles, and even though fans might not want to relieve the saddest moment of the series, it’s mostly exciting, even if it does clock in at just a few short hours.
Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear To The Rescue (1999)
Not only is Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear To The Rescue the very best Toy Story video game, but it’s also one of the best games on the PlayStation too. It’s also one of the best video game tie-ins to a movie, and the way players control Buzz instead of Woody this time around was one of the best changes that could have been made, as Buzz has so many more capabilities than the stuffed toy with a pull-string.
Whether it’s exploring huge locations such as Andy’s entire house, Al’s Toy Barn, and other areas found in the second movie, or finding creative ways to reach high points that toys otherwise couldn’t, there’s so much to love about Lightyear To The Rescue. And it even holds up when played today.