Toy Rescue Story - Buzz Lightyear

Follows the plot of the movie point for point

Toy Rescue Story - Buzz Lightyear follows the plot of the movie point for point (not that I've seen the movie already -- the game did a fine job of utterly spoiling the film for me by including cut scene FMV directly from the film, without a single frame of exclusive footage). Woody has been kidnapped, and it is up to Buzz Lightyear and the rest of Andy's favorite toys to rescue him

Your toy gang is rather incompetent, and so you'll spend most of your time rescuing them and doing menial tasks to win their favors rather than venturing forwards with your quest (kind of makes you wonder why the rest of them even went along on the journey). For instance, Potato seems to lose a limb or vital organ on just about every level, and you'll need to find the missing parts for him to gain a special power so that you can race your buddy

Actual gameplay in Toy Rescue Story - Buzz Lightyear is pretty solid. Buzz has a number of mascot moves at his disposal (the stomp out of mid-air, the double-jump, the spin move, the ability to grab edges and pull himself up a wall) in addition to his powerful laser weapon. The game's settings all look manageable, but run Buzz around in them for a while and you'll find that your space commander hero is a flightless bird, a feeble zero.

This makes the game really frustrating, and ruins much of the appeal that this general audience title reaches for (which would have included the rarely pursued pre-teen, female, and older players who help make up the broad-spectrum fan base that a big-name license such as Toy Rescue Story - Buzz Lightyear brings with it). When Buzz swings on poles, you'd expect to be able to just stand back and watch him do something neat as he glides from pole to pole

From the hand-painted 3D crayon-drawn hub that lays out Buzz's mission, to the footprints that trail behind Buzz as he steps out of a puddle of oil, to the splashes and water ripples that ebb away from Buzz as he wades through water, to the hundred-foot tall trees (with bushes of leaves that Buzz can climb through), to the glimmering lighting effects that reflect off Buzz's plastic body, to the moving lawnmower that throws grass in Buzz's face, to the cavernous toy store with Buzz's face plastered on every surface