 That's drunk? Toy Story was a massively ambitious movie released in 1995 as the first entirely computer-animated feature film, so it would make sense that the video game tie-in would be ambitious as well, and not just with the graphics and sound, but also all the different gameplay modes that come into play, as you play through what's essentially the story of the movie. What's going to strike you first though is how the game looks, and it's pretty dang impressive that this game does in fact look a lot like the movie, making use of pre-rendered 3D graphics to represent all the different characters. Really, when it comes to representing its source material, there aren't many games that do that better than Toy Story. Okay, so it looks nice and it looks like how it's supposed to and all that, but how does it play? Eh, it's kinda complicated to explain. This isn't just your typical run-to-the-right hop-and-bop platform fest. Each level has you complete a task, for instance. In the very first level, you're told that it's Andy's birthday and you gotta set the miniature plastic army guys free from this bucket up here so they can head downstairs to see what other toys he got as presents. The existing toys have gotta scout their competition, just like in the movie. After that, you gotta knock down the baby monitor so the army guys can grab it and carry it downstairs to keep in contact with you. The next level has you knocking obstacles out of the way, set to a time limit so the toys can get back to their places before Andy gets back to his room. It's a pretty neat structure and it's a clever way of following the movie. The problem, however, is that the platforming controls aren't the greatest. Woody's jump is frustratingly limited, and because his sprite is so freaking huge, it's easy to take damage from absolutely everything around you. The number in the star in the upper left represents how many hits you can take, and when that number hits zero, you're dead. Your only attack is using your pullstring as a whip, but even then, you can only temporarily disable enemies so you can move past them. You can use it to swing on hooks and stuff, which is nice, but the enemy placement and design combined with the oversized Woody sprite makes these levels especially frustrating, because it's really easy to backtrack if you don't know where the stuff you need to find is right away. Or in the case of the third level here where you race Buzz Lightyear to show that you're just as good of a toy as he is, you've got stuff coming from underneath you, out of nowhere, to do damage. Ugh, come on. The hit detection in certain levels is also pretty bad, like where you have to fight Buzz Lightyear in a one-on-one boss battle? I mean, come on, I'm hitting the guy here. You get four lives with zero continues to start with, to get through 17 levels, and I say no continues to start with, but the game allows you to earn them by collecting stars throughout each level. But don't worry, you're not doomed to platforming and boss fights. Once you get to level 5, use a remote control car to run into Buzz. Later on, you ride Rex to escape Andy's bedroom, you sneak around in a master shake costume, and about halfway through the game, you go inside a claw machine to rescue all the aliens that are trapped, and the game switches to a first person perspective. That's right, when it comes to Super Nintendo games that feature a first person perspective, there's Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Jurassic Park, Super Noah's Ark, and Toy Story? Sure, okay. Hey, it even uses sounds from Doom. While this game has quite a bit going for it, one thing I have a really hard time getting past is how freaking cheap it can be, like this section here. You're on a moving platform that's straight out of a Sonic game, but you've got all this crap exploding around you. How am I supposed to see or anticipate any of this? You can't even make out what the trajectory is, so you can know where to move. It's ridiculous. And the second Buzz Light your boss battle is absurd too. You have to somehow avoid both Buzz, who's lost his mind, and this tire bouncing around, and eventually get the tire around Buzz, so he stops being insane. It is stupid hard. I should also mention the Genesis version of Toy Story. It's pretty much the exact same game, but with the usual caveats and hindrances, like yeah, it's got the wider resolution, which in turn makes the woody sprite a little smaller, which is certainly helpful. But the color palette here obviously isn't going to hold a candle to what the Super Nintendo version offers. Still, the Genesis edition does have an extra racing level, even if it's kinda boring. This version does feel a bit more forgiving, at least. So yeah, Toy Story is feast or famine. There's some great stuff here, but ultimately what this game is, much more than other Super Nintendo games or Sega Genesis games for that matter, is a product of its time in more ways than one. It does a really admirable job of staying true to its source material, especially the visuals and sound. Those parts of the game have aged really well. But the difficulty here is so frustrating that you can't help but think it was deliberately made this way, so you couldn't beat it in one rental. Yup, this is one of those games. Many titles that are structured that way are left behind, because the difficulty doesn't feel organic, instead it feels incredibly cheap. And yeah, Toy Story does feel really cheap at times, but I do think this game has enough going for it that it's worth your curiosity. Granted, the extra game modes aren't going to blow you away, especially the super low res FPS level, but I do like the mission-based structure many of the levels have, and the chase levels and racing levels go a long way toward keeping this game from getting bogged down. So while it's not a classic like some other Disney games, Toy Story still has enough to pique your interest. All right, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.