Toy Story 3: The Video Game Review:

The latest Pixar/Disney animated blockbuster for kids (and big kids) has hit the cinemas as Sheriff Woody and Buzz Lightyear hit the big screen for the third time in Toy Story 3. Disney Interactive Studios have saw fit to release a video game adaptation based off of their latest flick, but does this fall into the category of mediocre movie based games or does it stand tall as a must buy for all kids, big and small?

Gameplay:

Toy Story 3 features two main modes of play, these being story mode and toy box mode, both of which are equally as good as each other. The game enables you to choose to play as Sheriff Woody, Buzz Lightyear, or cow-girl Jessie. In the game's story mode you can switch between these characters on the fly, and will have to utilize their unique abilities at times to be able to progress, fairly similar to the Lego licensed games, for those of you that have played with gaming LEGO.

Speaking of the LEGO games, these are without doubt the more popular titles for families to play with their youngsters as they offer up local co-op play, fortunately this is one of Toy Story 3's features as well. While the toy box mode offers up a customizable free-roam type of experience, it would be easy to assume that co-op play is unique only to the toy box mode. The developers thankfully have pulled off the co-op experience for the game's story mode as well, granted only one character can be seen in the game's story based cutscenes, and it's evident it's primarily a single-player based story mode, but still that ability to turn on a second pad and fire up a story mission in two player is most certainly welcomed.

The co-op offers up a split-screen affair, which is useful for the open nature of toy box mode, so you can go your separate ways to explore if you so wish, where as the story offers up more of a traditional linear experience where you could be based in Andy's bedroom (your owner) for one level, in the kitchen the next, and somewhere completely out of this world the next (most probably from young Andy's imagination), doing missions for the various characters in each location, or simply moving from A to B to complete objectives either solo, or co-operatively.

As you complete missions in toy box mode you are rewarded with gold (you can even find gold), and this can be spent on plenty of items from the toy shop, which can be found in the toy box world, such as Woody's trusty horse, to RC cars to ride around in as well as new buildings such as barber shops and the like to customise the townsfolk, and jails to bang up the local criminals, to name just a few. There's nearly the whole cast of familiar characters to do extra missions for from the likes of Hamm the Pig and Stinky Pete, to local townsfolk figures.

Toy Story 3 for the most parts is your traditional 3D platform game, with Woody, Buzz and Jessie playing fairly similar only separated by a unique set of abilities, such as Buzz can glide with his jetpack and can also grab a hold of either Woody or Jessie and throw them up "to infinity and beyond!" or just higher, otherwise inaccessible areas. Woody's ability is similar to that of a Lego-fied Indiana Jones, in that he can use his pull-string as a whip or rope to swing between areas, and his cow-girl companion Jessie is more the athletic sort and able to jump and land on the more smaller of objects. There are times when all three characters traits are required, which requires switching between characters and getting in position to get the task at hand done, which can prove somewhat more annoying for solo players, but some good communication between two co-operative players here will get things done in a more timely fashion, but more importantly the game controls well, and thus plays well, whether you're going solo or not.

Graphics:

Visually Toy Story 3 looks very striking, from the game's cutscenes, most of which appear to be in-game as well, with the exception of just a few, which look like they were ripped right out of the film. The gaming world looks detailed, if a little rough around the edges in some places, but overall the visual presentation is otherwise very much pleasing on the eye and clearly represents the film world and characters very well; kids will most certainly recognise their favourite Toy Story characters in an instant.

Sound:

The music first and formost is what grabs the attention, and let's you know that this is Toy Story, just with the familiar music alone, which goes a significant way to complimenting the games look and feel. In-game sounds are as you might expect with grunts and catchphrases galore from the cast of Toy Story 3 characters.

Longevity:

What I love about games such as this, really is the ability to play co-op. Clearly the game is targeted towards the younger gamer, and with the likes of the Lego games offering up Star Wars and Indiana Jones outings, secretly the big kid in us is happy to play co-op with our younger gamers as we are obviously familiar with those franchises.

Even with the likes of Toy Story 3, chances are depending on age a younger game will inevitably get stuck for a time at some points of the game, and that ability to play co-op and hop in right beside them, as opposed to taking the controller off them - which can be near impossible - is what makes these games so satisfying to play, no doubt both for us (the big kids) and them (the little kids). Toy box mode gives the game more playability, and we've probably had more fun in this mode either just messing around or doing a few missions, that's not to take anything away from the story mode though, this is equally as engaging for the most part, with only a few tedious sections.

Overall:

Toy Story 3 is obviously not so much for older gamers, but is fun non-the-less, and will surely be a hit with the kids with it's familiar pick up and play gameplay, and the ability to have a co-op partner jump in for 2-player is sure to adds tons of value to their experience. Toy box mode is the more stand out mode, and will even likely be the 'go-to' area, so make sure you fire this mode up as there's plenty to do here with other tasks, and just a general place to have fun, whether you've beaten story mode or not. Disney interactive Studios have gone to infinity and beyond to bring some fan service to this gaming outing, and made it an essential title to go in the family collection.