A huge improvement over previous Disney offerings (Toy Story 2 (PS))

Member Name: lenny0

Product:	Toy Story 2 (PS)
Date:	15/02/01 (60 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good learning curve, imaginative locations

Disadvantages: Not enough tricky bits to allow fatherly input

I've just bought my daughter a few Playstation games for her birthday, and I was so impressed with the quality that I felt I had to write a quick review.

Toy Story II on the Playstation is simply streets ahead of the usual TV/movie-tie ins that generally pollute the games world.

While it tends to be the case that manufacturers take the view that, (a) "hey it's only for kids", and so chuck out any half-baked, poorly programmed piece of nonsense knowing that the mere presence of a favourite character on the front will ensure sales by the bucket-load (the Rugrats game for example, which could have been written by a child, never mind played by one), or (b) "hey it's only for kids" and so release a sideways scrolling pick-em-up game with rusty graphics and limited interest ("Hercules" for instance) in this case care and thought have gone into producing a game worthy of the movie froem which it was spawned.

Put simply, you play the part of Buzz Lightyear and, fairly widely, follow the plot of the movie as you run around a well-drawn 3D environment containing many different locations trying to save Woody. The idea is nothing special - collect coins and power-ups while jumping form ledge to ledge avoiding or shooting a variety of toy baddies, but there are loads of hidden areas, the animation is well done, the settings imaginative and - most importantly - the learning curve is set at almost exactly the correct level. Thus, unlike the dreadful Rugrats, it will take an average child of six or seven longer than an hour to complete but not be so hard as to render completion impossible.

Fortunately there are a few somewhat tricky bits which require the input of a dextrous parent (that being me) and thus allow said parent to hog the game for the following half hour, ignoring all cries of "It's my turn now" and "Mum, make dad give me the controller back".

Highly recomme
nded.

Summary: