To Infinity and whatever – Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue Review

Developer: Traveller’s Tales | Platform: PS5 (PS1) | Playtime: 5:20 | Platinum: 5:45

While it’s been on Playstation Plus’ premium tier for a good while now, the retroactive addition of a Platinum trophy sparked my interest in playing the game. That mixed with enthusiasm from Jade meant this one shot to the top of the list. How did it fare then?

The game follows the plot of Toy Story 2, the only one of the original trilogy that I’ve not seen. Your knowledge of the movie is mostly for flavour, some of the gaps filled in with the low quality clips from the movie. Even at the time, they couldn’t let you watch the movie for free. Regardless, the general premise is Woody has been taken so Buzz and Co set out to rescue them.

The game takes place over 15 levels, 5 themes each with two levels and a boss stage. I completed each level fully (as fully as you can on a first playthrough – more on that later) before progressing so I’m not sure if there’s any kind of lock on progression. If there is, I assume it is from the Pizza Planet tokens, the games main collectible.

Each of the 10 main stages has 5 Tokens apiece, meaning there are 50 to collect – I finished my playthrough with 47 of them. The requirements for the tokens remains universal throughout – One is obtained for giving Ham 50 coins, one is for finding the 5 level specific objects or people, one is for a race or other timed event, one is for the mini boss of the stage and finally one is found in the world – either through platforming or a little puzzle of some description. You can’t track the collectibles in level, only being told at the end but since every level has the same requirements, it can be tracked that way.

Jade would not let me write this review if I didn’t mention my more than fair share of the PS5 emulator’s rewind function. The platforming in the game is generally pretty solid, but the dogwater camera at times accompanied by a weird model problem where Buzz seemed to stick to whichever wall or other item he came too close to. My use of rewind came from a place of time saving more than frustration. If I hadn’t used it, there would have been frustration.

It may not be to everybody’s taste but I enjoy the simpler level layout the game offers – each level has a larger hub area in which the rest of the level spins out into, as the majority of the game is set in houses or gardens, these are rather box like and almost artificial feeling. On the flip side it feels good to go into an area and know that it’s completely done with. This may be why (Level) and (Level) are my least favourites as they lack this central location.

Which bring me nicely to the powerups – there are (6?) of these that offer temporary powers like speed, special bullets, grappling hook and more. These are accessed by bringing Mr Potato Head back his missing piece. Not every level has a Mr Potato head but each level with him in has his piece – you won’t have to cross level for it. What you will have to cross level for is a handful of objectives that can only be handled after having unlocked the powerup in later levels. Fine on paper but again roughly 5 of 50 objectives, you could quite easily forget about them and never go back. It’s purely a 100% thing which won’t motivate the vast majority of players. Something like the Ratchet and Clank approach where you unlock 2 new levels and the item you need is in one of the two could have worked but perhaps that was too ambitious for a PS1 movie tie-in game.

I can see why people hold the game in high regard. Without nostalgia for the game and just a decent amount of love for the Toy Story brand, this is a very competent and fun 3D Platformer. By no means perfect but with the rewind feature built into the emulator, this is probably the best version of the game to play. It’s a fun way to kill an afternoon if nothing else.