Playing through Rift Apart on PS5 made me decide to check out where the franchise all began to see what all the fuss was about. While I did think this game was a lot of fun, it’s a game that does sadly show its age in certain areas.

The game reminds me of the first Spyro the Dragon game. It’s got a really solid foundation for a great game - the base gameplay is really solid and the platforming is incredibly satisfying to play through. There’s a really solid story with some fun political commentary on capitalism, and the script is genuinely really witty. I do love the style and design of a lot of levels as well.

However, much like Spyro 1 a lot of these foundations are marred by some dated elements. The chief of these being the lack of checkpoints - dying in this game will set you back pretty far and this wouldn’t be too grating if your ammo count was reset after you die but that doesn’t happen, meaning that you need to reacquire your ammo which doesn’t come cheap especially during the final boss. Some of the compulsorily mini games are also pretty grating, and there is way too much backtracking to past areas.

However, it was a lot of fun seeing where the franchise began and I’m excited to see the evolution between this game and Rift Apart.

Movie licensed games were pretty overabundant throughout the 90's and 2000's. While most of these were cynically rushed out games made to make a quick buck from a popular IP, occasionally you’d get a gem of a game that puts the effort in. Traveller's Tales Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue is a shining example of one of these.

Clearly emulating games such as Super Mario 64 and Spyro the Dragon, Toy Story 2 is a collectathon platformer placing you in the role of Buzz Lightyear as you traverse the city searching for your pal Woody. The game perfectly manages to make you feel like Buzz Lightyear as Buzz controls very well and his move set feels very true to the character - preventing the gameplay to feel like a generic copy paste job.

The environments are all fun to explore, taking advantage of the fact that you are a toy in the real world. Platforming through landscapes which are everyday and mundane to us but incredibly perilous for a toy feels really satisfying. Each level has five challenges to overcome - finding five of a certain object, battling a mini boss, finding 50 coins for Ham, doing some kind of race/challenge within a time limit and completing a puzzle or platforming challenge. Due to the variety of the levels and the level design, this never feels repetitive even if you are essentially doing the same tasks in every level.

What also helps spice up the gameplay are the unlockable abilities which are unlocked via getting one of Mr Potato Head's missing appendages. While these can be pretty situational, they do add more to the game as certain things can only be accessed with these abilities which requires you to go back to previous levels to get 100% completion.

However, the game is not perfect. Certain levels (namely Allies and Gullies) can be a nightmare to traverse at best, the camera is pretty bad, the final boss is a large cop out, and while unlocking clips from the movie was novel at the time the game came out, nowadays they aren’t a big draw for 100% completion when you can just watch the movie on Blu Ray etc.

However, this is a rare shining example of a decent movie licensed game (alongside EA's Lord of the Rings games for the PS2) and is definitely worth revisiting today.