Toy Story was a terrific platformer for the Genesis and Super Nintendo back in 1996. The
game featured gorgeous graphics, a great soundtrack, tight controls, and a ton of variety. It is
a real hidden gem, and I was curious to see if the developers could capture the magic
on the primitive Game Boy hardware.
Like its bigger brothers, Toy Story is a side scrolling platformer, where you pilot Woody
through the various plot points of the Disney film. In addition to running and jumping,
Woody can use his pull string as a whip to stun enemies, and even use it to swing off
hooks, Indiana Jones style.
This is a gimmick I’ve always enjoyed, and helps Toy Story stand out in the crowded field
of 90’s platformers.
Unlike its bigger brothers, Toy Story for the Game Boy is strictly a platformer, removing
all driving and shooting levels, as well as all of the boss fights against Buzz Lightyear.
Still, even with a significant portion of the game cut, there is quite a bit of variety
here.
The first level requires you pop the lid off a bucket of green army men, and deliver them
a baby monitor, so the other Toys can listen in on Andy’s Birthday party.
The following level has you launch toys into a toy box before Andy returns to his room.
Another stage has you riding Rex like a horse in an auto scrolling stage. Things don’t
stop there. In the Pizza Planet level, you are hiding in a drink cup avoiding paper airplanes.
The adventure nears an end in Sid's room, with Woody being burned by a magnifying glass.
Toy Story always does a nice job mixing things up.
In screenshots, Toy Story looks fairly solid for a Game Boy title. The pre-rendered sprites
look alright, giving a 3D appearance despite being limited to just four colors. The developers
even included a custom color palette and border, taking advantage of the additional hardware
features offered by the Super Game Boy.
Unfortunately, the framerate is awful. At best, it cruises along at 15 frames per second,
however when there is too much going on at once, it will frequently dip below 10, which
is unacceptable, even by Game Boy standards.
If you’ve made it this far into the video, you’ve probably noticed something is off
with the controls, and you would be correct. Woody’s jump is delayed, floaty, and imprecise.
The hit detection is all over the map, making platforming needlessly difficult and swinging
from hooks can be a nightmare.
On top of the bad controls and painfully slow gameplay is some shoddy game design. Trying
to accomplish anything in Toy Story for the Game Boy is a tedious endeavor. Enemy placement
can be extremely frustrating, causing you to take hits in order to progress. There was
also little consideration for the reduced resolution, causing more than a few leaps
of faith.
There is absolutely nothing in Toy Story even remotely clever, and the level design can
best be described as uninspired.
Combine the bad frame rate, sloppy controls, and lackluster game design, and you have the
perfect recipe for a terrible game.
About the only bright spot is the music. While there is only pair of tracks, they appear
to actually use the Super Nintendo for a sound channel or two, resulting in some nice sounding
horned instruments. I could be wrong, but something about the music quality seems better
than normal.
I came into Toy Story hoping for a competent platformer, and would have settled for a generic
one. Instead, Toy Story for the Game Boy is shovel ware. Upon first glance, I was impressed
the developers attempted to re-create the CGI look of the film, and the music from the
Genesis game. But as the game progressed it became clear they were simply reusing other
art assets because it was the easy thing to do, and there is really nothing ambitious
about it.
The one word I have yet to use in this video is fun. And this is because there is none
to be found in Toy Story for the Game Boy. Avoid this one at all costs. 1 out of five.