Open-world sandbox-style of play
Toy Story 3 is split into two separate modes. You’ve got the main story mode that follows some of the events in the movie and you get to choose between Sheriff Woody, Buzz Lightyear or Jessie and Emperor Zurg (who’s exclusive to PS3 gamers.) This is great mode for younger kids and their families to enjoy together, but unless you're looking to pick up all the collectibles you'll have finished it by the end of a weekend.Then you’ve got Toybox mode, a brilliant feature that really elevates Toy Story 3 way above the average movie-tie in and gives the older, or more experienced player, a ton of stuff to mess around with. In this mode you're thrown into a Wild West inspired universe where there's over 300 missions available. You customise your own cities, choosing textures and painting buildings among many other things. Build a barber's shop and you can cut character's hair, or build a tailor's and you can dress them up. There's a lot of depth to it and the more you build your world up the more objectives, characters, buildings and much more you'll unlock. There's a great pace to this game mode as you'll unlock extra items on a regular basis to keep the interest flowing. It's a mode that adds vast replay value and entertainment on top of the enjoyable story mode.
It's not all great news though. Toy Story 3 is still littered with things that you could complain about. Poor camera angles sometimes make it hard to judge a jump and therefore can be frustrating, while the lack of the big star voice actors is a bit of a disappointment, particularly Woody whose actor doesn’t sound anything like Tom Hanks at all. Missions are easy to complete in Story Mode and will be a breeze for more experienced gamers and the control mechanics do feel loose in some places and could have done with a little more refining prior to launch. Toy Story 3 may not be as polished as it first looks, but it never fails to entertain and the audience it's meant for probably won't even notice its few poorer points.
I can categorically say that Toy Story 3 is the best Disney movie-tie in game I've played - and better than a lot of other movie tie-ins.This is largely due to the excellent Toy Box mode which makes it much more than your standard platformer. Furthermore, the story mode captures the playful vibe of the film and the scenarios that you come up against are largely fun and entertaining. Fans of the film should get a lot of joy out of playing with and meeting their favourite characters that have been wonderfully bought to life in Toy Story 3, but I'd highly recommend exploring the interactive game world where the only limits imposed on your imagination will be your own creativity.
