Toy Story 2 is Mid (and I like it like that) | PS1 Retrospective/Retro Review
42In 1999's Toy Story 2's video game, you take control of Buzz Lightyear as he runs through 15 levels and try to rescue Woody from his kidnapper Al Mcwhiggin and Stinky Pete. Along the way, you’ll visit various areas from the film, battle characters from it alongside brand new ones designed just for this adventure, and watch snippets from the movie in between stages.
Interestingly, there are actually some fairly major differences between the title’s 5 releases. A lot of them come down to the sort of reasons you’d expect these versions to feature changes such as the limited cartridge space on the N64 leading to lower quality music or the removal of FMV sequences and what have you, but it does mean that every release of the game has its slightly specific flavor going for them. Either way, the music is also swapped out on some stages for the Dreamcast version and features some minor graphical changes due to the shading capabilities of each platform it was released on, alongside some voice snippets being changed between versions too.
It also was the subject of controversy when it came out in the US due to featuring a villain that, well, let’s just say fell in line with a racial stereotype for Latinos due to him having a mustache, rocking a bandolier and wearing a Sombrero. It culminated in a protest being held outside of its publisher Activision’s California headquarters and even led to Traveller's Tales replacing the character with a blonde-haired cowboy for the game’s international release that I’ve nicknamed “Andy” as a nod to the character from Toy Story and Spike’s lookalike in Cowboy Bebop, though Activision and Disney did also refuse to temporarily recall the game in the US or offer an updated SKU of it to retailers.
Upon its release, Toy Story 2 was met with a healthy spread of positive to middling and negative reviews across every platform it was available on. For example, while Greg Orlando at NextGen Magazine gave the Dreamcast version a scathing ⅕ star review and damned the game to the “Isle of Misfit Toys,” GameSpy’s review for that same version gave it a much more forgiving 6.5/10 despite being a bit fixated on the fact that the kids game for kids didn’t have the same kind of appeal for people that are old enough to drive as it did it’s intended audience.
But... Does it hold up?
Chapters:
00:00 - Disclaimer
00:15 - Cold Open (Toy Story 2 Commercial)
02:04 - Intro
03:50 - Background
11:09 - Question of the Day
11:52 - The Basics (Review)
27:29 - Looking Deeper (Analysis)
41:00 - But It Do Be Mid Tho (Takeaway)
44:50 - Summary
46:11 - Closing/CTAs/Tip Your Waiter
47:44 - Credits
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NichePlays is a retro gaming review, discussion, appreciation channel by Nicholas Caesar, a writer and video editor from New Jersey. In each of his videos, Nicholas tries to mix his love of comedy and pop culture with the video essay/game review format in a way that is part Girlfriend Reviews, Scott the Woz and Cinemassacre, and part Game Sack, SomeCallMeJohnny, and StopSkeletonsFromFighting. His favorite consoles include the Nintendo Switch, Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Oh and he (I, let's not kid ourselves) tries to do it in a fun, approachable and level headed way. Because like, they're games. It probably isn't that deep.
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