Disney/Pixar Toy Story 3 Complete Edition Review – A Satisfacto(y)ry Replacement

It has been sixteen years since Toy Story 3 ripped apart the hearts of children and animation fans worldwide, including my own, of course. Back then, when you came out of a movie and just couldn’t stop thinking about it, you knew there was a huge expansion of that story waiting for you. A brand new video game that was most likely crunched on to meet a tight deadline of a movie release, but nobody was aware of all that as a kid. More Toy Story, yippee!

The PlayStation and Xbox 360 versions of Toy Story 3 are the highest-rated Pixar tie-in games, but I only ever played the cut-down PC version, a port from the Wii. Different times. When I heard that, as part of the celebration for Toy Story 5’s release, the game would be remastered alongside a selection of older Toy Story games, I felt my love for old licensed games was finally being rewarded. I could finally see all those features I only heard about online for myself! The console versions had Zurg! I was so jealous!

What I did not know is that the original PC version was being delisted before the release of Disney/Pixar Toy Story 3 Complete Edition. Though the console version seems like a clear upgrade, Disney has been removing games from the Steam store at an alarming rate, and I expect few will get the treatment of a Digital Eclipse remaster. It’s awful to see parts of many people’s childhoods, something that shaped them and their gaming tastes, disappear without any announcement or time to prepare. Get me off this crazy Ship of Theseus, memory-altering ride.

Perhaps it’s fitting that one of the only Disney games to see a re-release is the story about entering adulthood, while keeping your childhood in your heart. For as much time has passed, I never forgot Toy Story 3. There used to be a time when it was undoubtedly my favorite, most-replayed game. And though I had a blast reminiscing, like Andy, I feel it is time for me to let someone else have their fun.

The eight-level campaign has some legs to stand on, but it wouldn’t be much to write home about on its own. Toy Story 3 has three playable characters, each with the same core moveset and one unique ability: Woody with his string serving as a grapple hook to swing from, Jessie with a Sly Cooper-esque ability to balance and jump off objects, and Buzz with the ability to throw others much further than they can throw him.

In a way, these feel like callbacks to previous Pixar games with similar or the exact same mechanics: the original Toy Story, Ratatouille, and Up, respectively. The first I had only played a few days ago through Toy Story: Retro Roundup!, which is bundled with this remaster on consoles, but sold separately on PC. The second was another childhood favorite, and a solid 3D platformer in its own right. The third was a co-op adventure, where the two main characters had to help each other across various challenges. Toy Story will now be available on modern platforms; the other two are only available via cloud streaming on consoles.

Half of the levels in the campaign, however, only have one character to play as. It wouldn’t be a tie-in game without varied gimmicky levels, but with how fast the entire thing is over, it doesn’t even feel appropriate to call them that. They’re an enjoyable ride, especially the imaginary playtime ones where you get to go through scenarios imagined by Andy and Bonnie, including a level based on the two playing together from the ending of the movie. Not nearly as emotional of a finale, but such a neat idea for a tie-in.

This time around, I had the most platforming through a stage like Fair Play, set inside the movie’s daycare. The level itself only needs you to complete three minigames to complete it, but has secrets hidden around lights and vents that require characters to find walljump spots and use their unique abilities. There’s something here, but no time for it to be explored.

It feels most of the development time, rightfully so, went into the game’s Toy Box mode, modeled after the in-universe puppet show Woody’s Roundup. The original developers at Avalanche Software (who also developed a licensed game from another collection released this year) had high ambitions of creating a grander idea of play—a living space that players would get to expand, taking on new missions from townspeople, including toys from all three movies.

For those who know ball, the Toy Box mode was indeed a sort of proto-Disney Infinity, which Avalanche Software ended up releasing three years later, after cancelling another Toy Story game—a sequel to this game’s version of the mode, this time based on Buzz’s space adventures. Perhaps Toy Story 3’s isn’t as expansive as the Disney Infinity trilogy, but it is a great time that unlocks everything naturally as you play instead of having to pay extra.

It’s here where you get to see most of the differences between the old and new PC versions. The campaign had one or two, like the reprogrammed Buzz appearing as an interactable and semi-playable character in the game’s sixth stage, but here, there’s a lot. More customization options for townspeople and buildings, re-shuffled mission order, entirely new areas, a big boss battle against the evil Dr. Porkchop, and of course highly-advertized playable Zurg! Well, three missions of Zurg, and some boxes for him to destroy throughout the play area. A bit disappointing for 11-year-old me, if I’m being honest.

That goes for the experience as a whole, unfortunately. I am glad I got to properly play the complete version of Toy Story 3, but there is also no way around the fact that I expected to feel something more. Fresh off Toy Story: Retro Roundup, I wanted to find some new appreciation for this game too, but I didn’t. It’s still a great, varied 10-hour ride, well-deserving of its title as the most beloved Pixar game, but the best thing I can say about my latest playthrough is that the wall jump can do some pretty cool stuff during foot races.

A lot of it just kind of clicks into place without much friction, which makes sense for a game about customization and setting up silly little moments for yourself. Meanwhile, control-wise, little of that toy-feel to the movement from some of the past Toy Story games remains, and driving through the many car challenges feels awful. The short special areas have a bit more content in this version, with an occasional random event spawning enemies in the town center, but they’re still impressively short.

On the remaster front, it’s a really solid, though not perfect, effort from Digital Eclipse on release. Some of the character models look a bit fuzzy from time to time, and the game can look a bit too bright when switching the time of day in the Toy Box, but other than that it’s a very colorful, great-looking game even today.

In the menu, you can turn up the framerate cap to 60, with the default being 30. It also sounds great, as most Pixar games do, though not without an occasional overly-loud sound effect. Huge shoutout to the now-Grammy-nominated Chuck E. Myers’s work on the soundtrack—add Toy Story 3 to the long list of licensed games with a fantastic take on the sound of a beloved world.

Though my experience was largely bug-free, I got a few crashes in my final few hours of playing around in the Toy Box. The game does not have an autosave, meaning any progress since the last manual save is lost whenever that happens. There were also achievements that did not pop for me, such as clearing the prison break level in the campaign without sounding any alarms.

If you’ve never played Toy Story 3 before, and are interested in it either as a fan of the franchise, licensed games, or Disney Infinity, I think it’s absolutely worth a purchase. Same goes if you only ever played the Nintendo DS or PlayStation 2/PlayStation Portable versions of the game, which were completely different (wish those got a port or a remaster too). The game’s a cherished memory of mine, and I believe it can still bring a lot of joy to people. Just maybe not me at this very moment in time. I had a solid time, and perhaps in the future I’ll think of it again and fire it back up to find something more. But for now, it’s so long, partner.

Mateusz played Disney/Pixar Toy Story 3 Complete Edition on PC with a provided review code. This review is based on the version of the game available at the time of writing, and our score will not be changed.