Toy Story 3 the Video Game: An Exciting and Magical Addition to the Film Franchise

Over a decade ago, Buzz, Woody, and the rest of the Toy Story gang wowed movie viewers with films that set the standard in computer animation. The fun, the adventure, and the antics of the beloved characters also brought joy to gamers as they made their appearance in a number of entertainment and educational software titles on a variety of platforms. Now, in conjunction with the third installment in the film franchise, comes a new fast paced action packed game.

In Toy Story 3 the video game, gamers enter the world of the three movies, and no toy gets left behind! With two modes of gameplay available, a sandboxed style mode called Toy Box mode, and Story mode, the title offers seemingly endless hours of gameplay. In Toy Box mode, players take control of the Toy Story environment and characters by free playing as they like, building their own stories and completing tasks by interacting with characters and the world around them. In story mode, there are missions to follow, however, that does not mean that the fun found in the freedom of Toy Box mode is lost.

Regardless of the mode, overall gameplay is based by visiting locations found on a game board that closely resembles The Game of Life. Familiar locations such as Andy's house, Al's Toy Barn, and the Toy Box, are available at first, and need to be visited in order to progress and unlock other areas and characters to include in the fun. By visiting the Toy Box, players embark on their own creative journey set to the Wild West theme of Woody's Roundup, wandering around, exploring, speaking with characters, and completing small missions in order to be able to buy new toys from Al's Toy Barn. Andy's house and Al's Toy Barn are just two of strictly mission based areas in the game. In the mission mode, players will find in-depth challenging stories that are theme based, such as the Buzz Lightyear video game played by Rex, and others that will sometimes require in-game character swapping and the use of their specific abilities to succeed as found in Andy's room.

Adding to the challenge and fun are a variety of collectables that can be used to unlock features of the game. Not required to solve any particular missions, Collector cards, Coins, and Andy's childhood drawings can randomly be found throughout the game and used for certain additional features. As the game is addictive and fun, it can also be very challenging at times. To assist, players will also find numerous in-game hints in the form of question marks, or at particular times by hitting F1. Viewing one of the available hints provides help with various objects, or provides a ghosted character showing a particular maneuver, along with the required controller commands.

By providing an exceptional experience, Toy Story 3 is an overall fantastic game to play for gamers of any age. Visual quality for cut-scenes and actual gameplay are at the standard that lives up to the Toy Story name. The game is ESRB rated E for Everyone, and contains Cartoon violence. This review is based on play using the Windows PC version of the game, while it is also available for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, and Playstation PSP systems. Actual gameplay will vary by platform.