I’m of the opinion that kids games shouldn’t be garbage.

Just because a game is licensed or made for kids, this should not be used as an excuse to shove shoddy, unfinished games out the door. More often than not, short development cycles thwart any attempt to make a licensed game good, because much of the sales come from hitting the shelves at the same time as the movie a game is based off of.

That’s why I was happy to see that Toy Story 3 felt like a real game.

You would expect the game to simply follow the story of the movie. While it does to a degree, it is much more clever about it than the usual licensed game. If you’ve seen the Toy Story movies, you are familiar with the “imagination” sequences. Rather than seeing the world as it is (a child playing with his toys), we see what he is imagining is going on.

Several of the levels in the main story mode fall under this. As Woody the cowboy, you make your way along a train to stop an evil pig in his space ship (this is supposed to be a young boy’s imagination, remember). As Buzz Lightyear, you are on a mission to stop the evil Zurg in a level that feels straight out of Ratchet and Clank. These are easily the most visually interesting levels in the story mode.

The “real world” areas keep things interesting with a mechanic reminiscent of The Lost Vikings. You switch between three characters, each with their own special ability that lets you solve the puzzles presented in the level. Buzz has the strength to throw his companions farther (and aim better), Jessie can stand on objects too small for the others, and Woody can use his pull cord to lasso and swing across wide gaps.

Getting through the story is pretty easy, though younger players might need some help on a few of the trickier parts. There is a mechanic built into certain areas where if you fail enough times, something will change to make it easier. The only example I found was in the Buzz level. In a sequence that involved a fairly complex platforming puzzle, a set of easier platforms eventually appeared after failing it a couple of times. I was unable to determine if this type of thing occurred in other sections of the game or not, as this was the only time it came up for me.

Each level is filled will collectibles, which adds to the replay value. The collectibles go towards unlocking characters and items for what feels much more like the main mode of Toy Story 3, Woody’s Roundup.

In Woody’s Roundup mode, you play fully in the imagination world. You choose Buzz, Woody or Jessie, none of which carry over their moves from the story mode. It’s really just down to personal preference at that point.

This mode of Toy Story 3 is a sandbox game. You are given tons of quests from various characters throughout the town, and most can be done in whatever order you choose. Or if you prefer, you can completely ignore all of that and spend your time searching for collectibles, re-painting the town, dressing up townsfolk, or riding around on your trusty horse, Bullseye. This mode even has a drop-in, drop-out split screen so two people can play off of one console simultaneously.

While the difficulty curve is a little steep in a few sections of the story mode, Woody’s Roundup makes up for it with its open gameplay. Most kids will be much more attracted to this mode of play than the rigid structure of the story mode.

There is plenty to do and see, and more collectibles than you’ll know what to do with.

As far as kids games go, this is one of the best ones I’ve played this generation outside of the Lego games. If you have kids, especially ones into the Toy Story films, you should definitely give Toy Story 3 a chance.

This review is based on the retail version of Toy Story 3 for the Xbox 360 rented by the reviewer from Gamefly.

Tags: Disney Interactive, DS, licensed games, PC, ps3, psp, sandbox game, Toy Story 3, Wii, Xbox 360

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.