A simple, sometimes challenging but fun game for a wide audience
The game pretty much follows along with the movies storyline: Woody has been kidnapped by Al and it is up to you, Buzz Lightyear, to save your friend. Some of the levels are shifted around, but the story is still the same and the characters are all there.
Toy Story 2 is not exactly the most traditional platformer, for the reason that it is harder. But not too hard that you will eventually break your PS controller. There are 15 levels in the game, all split into 'zones'. You will play through 2 levels, completing objectives in them to gain pizza planet tokens. These objectives are to collect 50 coins, solve a puzzle, complete a minigame, collect a certain amount of characters for another character e.g sheep for bo peep and defeating a mini boss. Each of these give you a pizza planet token. If you simply just breeze through the game, you will find that you have to occasionally go back and obtain the other tokens, making this game more replayable. There are also in a few levels a power up which you must obtain which will help you earn pizza planet tokens. Then after these 2 levels, you will fight a boss. Pretty swift advancing here.
The difference between the PS version and the N64 version is easily noticeable. The PS version is a lot more professionally finished, and has more packed in it. Better music, better graphics and cut scenes from the actual movie to help with the storytelling. This helps between the fight of the PS and N64 to the PS as it looks a lot more superior on the PS, making the N64 put it's head to shame.
Like I said earlier, the graphics are better on this console. The environments are colourful, full of depth and easy to navigate, although some places may present a challenge. A noticable graphic is how you can see Buzz's reflection in the helmet view.
The game can easily be called a game for a wide audience. The fact that its a pixar games makes it appeal to the little ones, but the challenges it gives you make it more of an enjoyable experience for the older ones, and heck, your little one may even ask you for help, as some of the bosses are difficult!
However, the camera brings up slight issues. You have 2 options: active camera which is the normal camera where it moves around with you, or the passive camera where you control where the camera looks. It can help you with some of the more tricky puzzles, forcing you into corners and obscure views. If you are stuck, you can change the settings on the pause menu but this can kill the pace of the game sometimes.
There is surprisingly a lot of moves that buzz can perform. He can shoot his laser, spin, jump, double jump, go into a helmet view and a fair few more. The layout of the levels makes it interesting to test these moves out.
The voiceovers in the game will and wont disappoint. You have the characters speaking some of the movie lines, but not too little so you get bored. Still though, some of the lines of characters get annoying when they shout it out the 6th time with you screaming "can you just shut up! Im coming".
Overall, Toy Story 2 is a diverse platformer which stands out alone from both its rivals and its movie. It is sometimes difficult and annoying, but for the most part it is a fun simple game which a wide range of people can pick up and play, making this a platformer you should check out.