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Toy Story Sega Genesis Review

I got a Sega Genesis rather late in the game…and by late I mean Dreamcast was out. Oh well I loved it nonetheless because my parents were awesome enough to get me one for my birthday. With it came Ms. Pacman, Jurassic Park, Sonic Spinball, and Toy story. I’ll get to the other games later I promise, but now we are on Toy Story, focus people focus!

This is a game by Disney Interactive Studios. It came out in April of 1996 on SNES, Sega Genesis, and PC. These versions were pretty much identical save one or two levels that Sega threw in so this review could technically cover those systems as well. First things first lets get to the story!

STORYLINE

So if you don’t know this storyline…Randy Newman’s piano gently weeps for your childhood. However I will give you the basis you sad misguided individual (Seriously why are you still here? Go watch this its 2013! Are you back? Great wasn’t it? You’ve got two more movies, the last one makes grown men cry, have fun). For the rest of you, the game storyline is exactly the same as the movie. Moving on to-

CAST OF CHARACTERS 

Woody-The main character that you will control. His basic functions are pretty easy to grasp. A or C to jump and B to use his drawstring as a whip. This can disrupt flight patterns and tie up other enemies. 

Buzz- You never play as Buzz but he has a new incarnation in the game. Nightmare buzz! He fires real lasers and is surrounded by fireballs. But usually he’s just you’re average, everyday, toy that thinks he’s a real “space rangeeeeeer.”

R/C-This is a nice change up, in the Sega version there are two levels where you control the R/C car. You must pick up batteries to keep the car running and complete your tasks. He is the only other character you control outside of Woody and technically Rex.

Rex- Rex is here and you ride on his back for one level.

The rest of the cast all make appearances and at one point are your enemies after you knock Buzz out of the window.

GAMEPLAY

A lot of variety here, usually it is a 2D scroller, however it makes a switch notably in the claw machine to a 3D format.

Woody’s whip doesn’t destroy anything, rather it wraps them up temporarily. This gives you the need to keep going forward as to go back would be to put yourself in harms way again.

For children this game may be rather tough. I remember when I first got the game I could not get past that 3D area in the claw machine.

The R/C controls are slippery but doable.

It gets a little repetitive around the Sid level, but the bosses and R/C mode move it along nicely.

Overall the gameplay is pretty good. I have a few gripes about the R/C mode, the difficulty regarding the target demographic. You can go into the options menu and add a few lives, and there is a option to take off the story leaving straight gameplay which is cool but, I have to have my stories. Overall a good time could be had by all.

GRAPHICS

Graphics are pretty good for a Sega Genesis game. Not as bright as the SNES version but still good. The 3d levels look GREAT though a little pixelated until you move Woody in closer.

DOES IT STAND OR FALL?

Well as I was playing this game several times I found myself a little bored, being used to high impact, shocking games from today that need a twist every two seconds, or a vehicle or a new way to destroy something. It had a few things thrown in to catch your attention but not quite enough. I’d say it kneels. It doesn’t completely fall on its face in today’s world, you can play it but you’d put it down before finishing it. I would still recommend it for a new gamer to play just for the reference that movie games CAN INDEED be good.

Four Stars! Not a bad game right? But still its starting to creak in it’s old age, we still love it but it just doesn’t grab that Frisbee out the air like it used to.

What would happen if it were released today?

Well lets just look at what happened when Toy Story 3’s video game was released. Positive reviews all around mate! Many were surprised but the game did really well on every platform except the Wii, which, is a whole ‘nother review for a whole ‘nother day.

So if you have someone who incessantly babbles on about how it’d be impossible to make a good video game from a movie, get a Sega Genesis with Toy Story, and turn it on.

Thanks for reading! My readers are awesome! Stick around for more articles!

Sincerely,

Just some guy with a computer

Video Games Based on Movies

What happened to those great games like Aladdin, Toy Story, Goldeneye, Super Star Wars: Empire strikes back. Why is it that today movie studios don’t give the video game industry the respect it deserves? They could probably double their profits if they just would give the video game studio a little more time to develop the game. Unfortunately now when a game is released along side a movie (or a movie along side a game…Miss Chun-Li) The verdict is usually bad reviews all around. Granted all movie games back in the 90s weren’t great, I’m looking at you Back to the future NES and you, forever you E.T. However it seemed a lot more went into the movie video games back then. So my next review will be Toy Story on Sega Genesis. And then after that I will post a good ole fashion movie review of a movie that if you haven’t seen it you should! Thanks everyone you’re great!