A fun game for Toy Story fans, young and old.
GAMEPLAY - This is basically a 3-D platformer without too many special bells and whistles, but the platforming enough makes this game loads of fun. Most of what you'll be doing is running and jumping around, with a couple combat tricks thrown in depending on where you're at in the game. Riding Bullseye and other vehicles can be fun, too. The levels are all very unique, so you'll get a nice variety here. One level has a bunch of mini-games that you can compete on to get better scores, while another is almost like an entirely different game by itself. The sandbox mode can be a lot of fun, and it really feels like a kid-version of a GTA. No matter which mode you play, you pick up collectibles throughout the game that can unlock other fun stuff for you to do and get. The combat isn't very exciting, nor frequent, but this game is more about having fun without having to worry about anything spoiling that for you. - 8/10
STORY - This story isn't supposed to follow the movie, but it gives you kind of a bare-bones path that the movie's story is supposed to take. I kind of like this because it doesn't necessarily spoil the movie, but it doesn't leave you in the dark about what's going on. - 7.5/10
GRAPHICS - The graphics are pretty good, but it's a little disappointing to see the graphics in the cinematics be different from the in-game graphics. There isn't really much to complain about here at all though. It all looks very much like a Pixar animation style, and there's nothing wrong with that. - 9.5/10
SOUND - I could stand to see this aspect be better. The in-game music and voice-acting are pretty good, but the sound effects and menu music aren't so much. The only song they have for the menu is that "You've Got a Friend in Me," which is nice the first couple times you hear it, but it gets annoying after awhile...at least for me. I would have preferred an instrumental version of the song if anything. But yeah, otherwise no major complaints here. - 7.5/10
LENGTH/REPLAY VALUE - Both the story mode and sandbox mode are relatively short here. Chances are you'll probably be going back through to collect a lot of the stuff you missed after it's over, but otherwise there isn't a lot of replay value here. The sandbox mode helps keep things exciting, but this probably won't be a game you keep coming back to after you've collected everything. - 5/10
BOTTOM LINE - Toy Story 3 is actually a pretty great game, especially considering that it's based on a movie. You don't normally see games like that outside of the LOTR and Star Wars variety, but I've found it here in the Toy Story games also, dating back to the first game on the Sega Genesis. It may lack a little in depth in that it's hard to have fun here once you've collected everything, but it's still bound to give you many hours of fun. And if you're getting this for kids, it's sure to amuse them even after everything has been collected. So yeah, not a tremendous amount of replay value here, but it's definitely a rental at the very least for those of you who are curious about this one. Don't listen to Gamespot's criticisms here. If you're like me, you've pretty much about given up on their scores. You should play games to enjoy them first and critique them second, and Gamespot doesn't seem to want to do that anymore. Take my word for it, this game is fun for anyone, no matter what their age. - 8/10