Watch our John Marston, as Woody is in town! At first I was a bit skeptic about how great can a movie video game be, but after playing Toy Story 3: The video game, I have changed completely my opinion and congratulate with Disney for the great experience they have produced. As soon as the boot screen shows up on your screen, you will be immediately set into a happy music and colorful territory with its captivating charm.

Movie games have a bad reputation to lack either originality or just being awful, but Disney have made an excellent use of the Toy story license with Avalanche Software hitting directly the right way to create the Toy Story experience in a game for players of every age. If you are new or a fan of the Toy Story series, you will surely like the game as it is very involving, bright color, familiar characters and excellent humor. In a nutshell, the game has a great storyline which of course has some bits here and there which touch the movie’s story and its innovative use of the open world environment.

The game is played with a third-person view and you can play with the three main characters of the story which are Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Jessie, each having their own special ability. But firstly, you are instantly thrown into the action from the opening of the movie playing as Woody who is being chased and attacked by Dr. Evil Pork chop which is played by Hamm while trying to rescue the orphans from the runaway train. It’s a very exciting moment and it immediately gives you the cinematic experience. A small surprise is a level which is all about flying around using Buzz Lightyear in a sublime experience for everyone where you will be flying, shooting and jumping which will end with a final battle with the evil Zurk.

The game offers a great in-game help mechanism where you will be presented with help bubbles which will either popup a hint or message on screen or showing what you need to do to surpass the obstacles in front without ever navigating away from the game. The game has the original cast of the movie like Tom Hanks and Tim Allen who have recorded extensive in-game dialogs in a perfect voice-over setup. This adds up to the game authenticity making you feel like you’re in the movie.

The game is a mixture of action, puzzling, racing, platforming and a number of mini games. The main story missions are a bit short but the side stories and the customizations are quite numbered. Thou the main story missions are few; the game offers a great replay value with the open world tool called the Toy Box. You, being the sheriff of a western town where you must protect the banks and help the people while there are infinite ways to customize the town with buildings, customize the town’s people, create building, paint buildings or furnish them with great add-ons. This is a great way to customize the town and all being with a simple interface. For example you can pick up a town person and throw him in the tailor shop to customize him with a hat, dress or hair cut.

The game offers a very strong level designing which will keep you going for a lot without disrupting your experience of the game with a big mix of different levels, environment and events which add up to loads of fun.

The game is a must on a single player or local co-operative mode which to be honest, it runs excellent allowing two player to basically do anything simultaneously. The players don’t have to be in the same area and with their action can affect the other player which is a perfect match for some family fun.

Conclusion

Toy Story 3: The videogame is a fine example of how a movie video game should be. Great level design, mixture of game events, co-operative play, funny and a good use of the open world tool ToyBox. The only thing to say about the game is that there aren’t a lot of story missions, but it’s compensated with a lot of mini games and side missions, along with a great customization tool for your own western town.