Toy Story: Retro Roundup! review for Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X

I am a certified Disney Adult. Well, not certified. I am not sure how to go about getting certified to be a Disney Adult. But if there was a certification, I’m sure I’d qualify. I love going to the parks, watching their movies, and wearing Disney clothes. I even got engaged right after watching Toy Story 3. (insert aww noise here)

So I jumped at the chance to review these ’90s and early ’00s Pixar games. Games I didn’t get to play when they first came out. So I’m playing these for the first time. Let’s see if my inner child loved or hated them.

A bit of a preface: I want to start by saying I played these games on Switch 2 with Switch 2 Pro controllers. I think that makes a difference as playing with the joy con controllers may be more challenging in my opinion. I played from oldest to newest, 1995 – 2001. The systems they were each released on is represented in this collection. For example, the original Toy Story game was released on Sega Genesis, Game Boy and Super Nintendo.

Nostalgia is the main driving factor with these games. In their time they were such fun cutting edge games that kids and adults wanted to play to experience fun moments from the movies over and over. Now it’s all about reliving that feeling as (spoiler) the games are no longer cutting edge. I want to talk about the games first then my favorite part: the extras.

In the first game, Toy Story, you play as Woody with all the leadership qualities and jealousy towards Buzz from the first half of the movie. Gathering the little green army men and the baby monitor you start off listening in to what Andy is receiving for presents. Through a cut scene we find out about another toy joining the group, Buzz Lightyear! GASP! (Btw, the cut scenes are a fun shortened version of the movie. You’re not guessing what is going on.) Getting used to old 1995 SNES moves with Woody was a bit troublesome at first, but I was able to get it worked out just like my childhood self would be proud of.

Toy Story 2 sees you playing as Buzz this time saving Woody, just like in the movie. I preferred Toy Story 2 to the original Toy Story for two reasons. The more sandbox-like style in the beginning got me used to the character. Controls were much easier not because I was used to it, but I think technically it was a better system, the PlayStation.

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command was based on the 65-episode tv series starring Patrick Warburton. In this you aren’t a toy but an actual space ranger trying to save the universe from the evil Zurg and other villains. In the game you’re racing the boss of each level but you can’t take them out until the very end of the race. If the villain gets to the end before you then you have 15 seconds to get there or you lose. Get there in time to battle it out! This was a fun romp through race levels where you can save little green men and level up your laser as you go.

I enjoyed the Bug’s Life game more than the movie. You play as Flik destined to have your grain taken by the grasshoppers led by Hopper. In the various levels you can collect the letters F L I K, grain and your berries that you use as a weapon. Again, a more sandbox style game I found fun to figure out puzzles and collect items.

Toy Story Racers is a Mario Kart style racing game from the PlayStation and Game Boy Color. I’m going to be talking about the PlayStation version of the game. The main portion of the game is laid out just like a Mario Kart tournament, winner of each race gets the most points, there are four races and whoever has the most points when done with all the races, wins. Weapons and boosts in each race help you to try and take victory, if the controls don’t knock you out first. The biggest problem is the camera doesn’t always stay behind you, so while you are looking ahead and going around a bend, if you continue to turn, you will turn around without the camera turning with you until you stop. This gets very annoying, especially around long turns.

Overall, the games themselves were a fun romp back in time. I’m being a bit forgiving of the controls because of how rusty I am at ’90s games. However, I would have hoped they could have polished it more. The quality-of-life enhancements really made those complaints about the controls bearable. With the help of Rex’s Cheat Codes settings, I got through some very stubborn levels. Using things like level skipping, invincibility, infinite lives, etc. could make me feel like a lesser gamer but honestly, I have less patience now than when I was a kid. Now I understand why game guide and cheat code books were so popular back in the day.

What I really loved was the extras. Under the music player you could listen to the soundtracks to each game, picking and choosing tracks to listen to in their original sound as you move around the rest of the menus. Under Toy History you could look at each game’s box(es), pencil and pastel sketches by the designers. Also, galleries showcasing fun things they did for the movie releases like the Toy Story Funhouse where you could be one of the first to play this very game!

The best part in my opinion was the incredibly in-depth videos they put together for this game collection’s release. Various 8-12 minute documentaries featuring Woody’s voice actor from the game (Tom Hanks’ brother Jim Hanks) and video game tech stories with the designers from both Pixar and Traveller’s Tales. I am a fan of behind-the-scenes documentaries of movies and games so this was right up my alley.

I recommend this be played by someone nostalgic for the early Pixar games, 90’s kids or anyone interested in the beginning of Pixar and Disney’s early days of video game production. It’s not as streamlined as I’d hoped, not as intuitive as other games from this era. My best advice is to lean into Rex’s cheat codes, be patient with the games and relive your childhood for a bit while playing these titles.

Note: Atari provided us with a Toy Story: Retro Roundup! code for review purposes.

Click Here to buy Toy Story: Retro Roundup! on Amazon