We don’t really get movie tie-in games that often anymore, but back in the noughties we were flooded by them. Any animated film from Pixar, DreamWorks or other less beloved companies would have a video game accompanying its release, and for the most part they were a bit rubbish. They were perfect for parents to buy for their children though, and so they kept appearing because Roblox didn’t exist yet. Sometimes diamonds in the rough appeared amongst the shovel ware, capturing the attention of more than just youngsters. One such example was Toy Story 3, and now thanks to Toy Story 3: Complete Edition we get to see if it still holds up.
Toy Story 3 loosely follows the plot of the movie as you’d expect, but for some reason is also board game themed. Levels are different spots on the game board, and you’ll get to play through lots of fun moments from one of Pixar’s finest. In its eight stages you’ll get to platform through Andy’s room, the day-care, the junkyard, and all the other places Woody, Buzz and the gang go to. Yes some of the stages are a bit tenuously linked to the film like a space stage for Buzz, but it’s all lovely and Toy Story themed.
For the most part Toy Story 3 is a 3D platformer, but some stages are slower and puzzle based. There are different characters you’ll play as throughout the game, Woody, Buzz, and Jessie,etc. Each of them has slightly different abilities, so Woody can swing by his pull string whereas Buzz can throw his friends further to reach other places. A lot of the time this means switching between characters which is rather cumbersome, but it at least requires some slight thinking.
Some stages are more about action set pieces than puzzle solving, but even these feature plenty of colourful collectibles related to the films. These come in all sorts of forms, and will really appeal to those who loved Toy Story as a youngster.
Nothing about the main campaign of Toy Story 3 Complete Edition is particularly revolutionary, but it’s only one half of the game. The other half is toybox mode, which is a sort of sandbox themed around the in-universe TV show Woody’s Roundup. I actually spent much more time here than I did in the campaign stages, and there’s good reason for that.
There’s a lot to do in Toybox mode, but the main goal is to rebuild the town and add lots of new toys to it. To do this you’ll need money, so you’ll need to do lots of quests to gather it. Sometimes this involves helping Slinky Dog garden, sometimes this involves covering a corn in goo to make it grow for the county fair. It’s basically like you’re just playing the side quests in a much more impressive RPG, but I can’t deny it’s oddly compelling.
I’d heard a lot of positive buzz (no pun intended) around Toy Story 3 before this remastered version released, and I have to admit I was disappointed in it when I finally played it myself. A lot of this is down to the actual platforming, which isn’t just clunky, and by today’s standards can feel broken in places. There was one stage that involved hanging from ledges, where it took over ten attempts for me to actually attach to a specific ledge. This wasn’t because I was doing it wrong, it was because the ledge just wasn’t working. Another stage which involved a lot of swapping characters has a finale when you need to flip two switches before throwing a rock into a machine to break it. I timed out and failed this multiple times despite doing it right, and even had to find an old Let’s Play to prove to myself I wasn’t going mad. It’s just not acceptable by the standard of any year in gaming, let alone 2026.
On top of these issues, there are just a lot of annoyances in Toy Story 3. It has really grating voice lines every time you switch characters, and most of the time they don’t make sense. Why is Buzz just repeating that his name is Buzz Lightyear and he comes in peace while he stands motionless on a coffee table? We’ll never truly know. There’s also nothing really added to the game to make it more appealing to fans who played it before, like extra content or bonus features. It’s just a shinier version of an Xbox 360 game, with a new character skin to unlock. It’s such a disappointing package.
Toy Story 3 Complete Edition is a nicer looking version of a very outdated game, and isn’t something I could recommend to anyone. Even without the outright broken platforming and issues I had with some stages, it’s just dull to play. It’s entirely possible other versions of the game have less of these issues, but the one I played certainly did. Nostalgia will mean that some players have a better time with it, but it doesn’t have a friend in me, rather sadly.
