Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

"Oh the heart wrenching disappointment..."

From the outset I'll make it clear that I really wanted to like this game. Being a big fan of the Toy Story movies and loving the Toy Story 2 game, I'd been waiting for ages to get my hands on this. The fact that it's by Traveller's Tales who handled TS2 and numerous underrated titles like Sonic 3D and some of the Crash Bandicoot titles, also heightened my expectations. One thing though - before playing this game, I'd never seen the spin-off cartoon series which this was based on. In retrospect I wish I had, as it might have given me some warnings as to the horrors which lay within...

But first, here's the setup - Buzz Lightyear is the Buzz Lightyear which the movies character is a toy off - ie. - a cartoon space ranger, so any thought's of sailing through any of the movies locales is out of the question. Anyway, the Evil Emperor Zurg (yes, him) has sent numerous cronies to various planets around the multiverse to cause havoc and it's up to Buzz and the rest of his Star Command team to stop them. Basically it boils down to you chasing the aforementioned crony through 3D alien worlds whilst blasting everything in site and then fighting the boss once you reach the end.

Before and after each of the game's 14 missions, you are ''treated'' to clips from the cartoon series. Alas these are terrible. No, it's not the picture quality or anything like that, which is nigh-on perfect, no it's the sheer fact that the cartoon is so soulless, tacky, unfunny and badly animated it's untrue. Alas, this really sets the tone for the whole game, as what we have here is a horribly simplistic game aimed at sprogs. Now whilst there's nothing in itself wrong with aiming a game at a younger, perhaps less discerning audience, there is something wrong with giving us a tedious and utterly brainless game. All you do is race through the worlds as quickly as possible (you have a time limit I'm afraid, so exploration is out of the question), shoot as much as you can, which proves largely fruitless as destroying most things takes too long, and then shoot the boss at the end.

Ok, to earn extra medals which you'll need to unlock more missions, you need to collect tokens and green aliens (cool!), and complete it in lighting fast time, but the basic template of ''run like hell and shoot like mad'' is never changed. Ever. On the third mission hopes are raised by the boss telling you that bombs must be defused - but lo! You'll soon discover this is by SHOOTING THEM! Oh lordy. Another thing is that it's way too easy. If you spend a day on it you'll probably see all of it and have got all the medals. Bummer.

Thankfully there are some (albeit precious few) redeeming features. The first is the graphics which are largely very nice. The stages are very cartoony (although look far more Warner Brothers than Disney!) and each of them have a suitably different style. Buzz himself is cel-shaded to create a cool cartoon effect, which is a nice touch, even if this effect is far more effective in Jet Set Radio. On the downside however, the NPCs are awful. Lacking any sort of imagination and featuring pretty much no animation, they are some of the worst I've ever seen. Soundwise though, I was impressed. The music is pretty and suits the mood adequately and the sound effects are very good. Sadly though, Buzz is not voiced by Tim Allen. And doesn't sound anything like him. And in fact sounds like he's voiced by a drunk redneck vagrant. It is actually quite amusing, but not for the right reasons (in fact the games attempts at humour are painfully unfunny). The final, although admittedly minor, redeeming feature is the use of vehicles in the game. You can use a hoverboard or a hoverbuggy type thing, which actually makes the game far more interesting. In fact the best levels in the game by a mile are the ones where you're permamently doing this.

Overall it's very hard to recommend this game. The gameplay is simple and banal beyond the point of no return and it's way too short in any case. Being a semi-sequel to the fantastic DC version of Toy Story 2, I expected so much, but like the cartoon which it's based on, it's alas nothing more than a brain dead cash-in. Although clearly aimed at the very young (or stupid), it'd be unlikely that even they'd get much enjoyment from this. Ok, the graphics are quite nice, apart from the truly awful NPCs and the sound is well implemented, but slightly above average aesthetics alone do not make a great game. You need the playability for this and sadly Buzz falls way short here. Such a disappointment.

GRAPHICS - 6/10 - Some wonderful, if limited, environments are spoilt by apalling looking and even worsely animated sprites. Beauty and the beast all rolled into one.

SOUND - 6/10 - The music and sound effects are fine, but the voices lifted straight from the cartoon series are pretty awful. Particularly the Buzz ''impersonator'', who creates laughs for all the wrong reasons.

GAMEPLAY - 4/10 - Run, shoot, run, jump, shoot, run, repeat. And that's pretty much it, I'm afraid. Get's dull very quickly indeed...

LIFESPAN - 4/10 - Despite the fact that there's 5 medals to collect for each of the game's 14 missions, you'll still complete it in a matter of hours. Tiny.

OVERALL - 4/10 - Being such a fan of Toy Story, I wanted to love this, but alas there's nothing here whatsoever to make this a neccessary purchase. With tedious and repetitive gameplay and extremely questionable lastability, this is one of the most gut wrenchingly disappointing games I've ever played. Avoid.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 11/17/02, Updated 11/17/02