Toy Story (Game Boy)
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 A very BAD port of the very GOOD 16-bit video game.
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Toy Story is a 1995 2D side-scrolling platformer developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Disney Interactive Studios initially for the Sega Genesis and SNES in 1995, with the Game Boy and PC versions coming in 1996, this game is mostly based on the Pixar film of the same name.
This page will cover the inferior Game Boy port, developed by Tiertex Design Studios and published by Black Pearl Software.
Plot
The plot is similar to the console versions, but with some parts and levels cut out, such as the Nightmare Buzz and the Buzz Battle boss fights, two of the Claw levels, Roller-Bob, Day-Toy-Na (like the SNES version), and Light My Fire.
Gameplay
The game controls the same as the 16-bit and PC version, where you control Woody through locations of the movie, attack enemies with your pullstring, and collect stars along the way, along with continues and lives at the end.
Why It Doesn’t Go Infinity and Beyond
- Mediocre pre-rendered graphics for late Game Boy standards, this game uses the concept from Donkey Kong Land, and while it isn't a bad idea on paper, the execution in this game (like Sonic Blast) is terrible, the sprite work is also poorly made, with Woody being the biggest example since he has a barely made-out face, or doesn't look he has a face at all, much like Shrek in Shrek: Treasure Hunt.
- Horrendous music, with The Old Army Game and You've Got a Friend in Me being the biggest examples, most of them sound off-key and kinda unsettling compared to the PC and 16-bit versions, to make it worse, you'll hear the same two songs over and over again in the whole game, which are The Old Army Game and Stranger Things as if the developers were too lazy to add more music to the game and wanted not to go too over-budget.
- Terrible frame rate, no matter how you play, it will never get to a solid frame rate or never even goes up by 30 FPS, it mostly stays at around 10-20 FPS, which is unacceptable for a late Game Boy game.
- Does a very poor job at telling the main story of the film, because a few plot points which are crucial to the story are removed entirely, with the biggest example being two levels of the Claw Machine, one of them where Woody has to save Buzz from the Claw, and the RC levels are completely absent, despite being the main point of how Woody and Buzz got back to Andy, which can confuse people who never watched the first movie or people who played the 16-bit versions.
- Woody has been severely downgraded from the console and PC versions. Firstly, he moves slower than the aforementioned versions, making some levels longer than they need to be; secondly, his pullstring takes way too long to come out, which can sometimes cause you to get hit or not grab on ledges; and thirdly, his jumping is way too floaty and very imprecise whether or not you're going to land on the platform, or fall from the platform, which could make platforming a bit harder.
- Laughable animations, such as Rex's walk cycle, which looks quite stupid and looks like he's floating on the surface, Buzz at the start of level 3, where he looks like he's swimming in an imaginary pool instead of flying, and Woody's swinging animation, which looks ridiculously stupid.
- To add more to this, Woody's victory animation is literally the running on fire animation, which is an odd choice for a victory animation.
- Abysmal controls, with most of the controls feeling very delayed, such as Woody's jumping and his pullstring, which can also lead to cheap hits and deaths.
- Hit detection that ranges from passable to outright shoddy. This problem is noticeable in the Buzz karate section in Sid's Workshop level, where some enemies don't take hits and instead you get hit, causing you to sometimes damage-boost just to progress.
- Just like the North American version of the 16-bit console versions, there is no password feature, meaning if you die and don't have any continues, you may have to restart from the beginning. To make matters worse, the European version also doesn't have a password system, despite the European 16-bit versions having one, which makes no logical sense.
- Swinging on hooks and climbing on ropes is mostly broken and works when it wants to. Sometimes, it lets you swing on the hook no issue, and other times, it doesn't register at all and you fall down, which can be very annoying. There is also no clear indication whether you're actually going to land on/swing on the hooks or ropes because Woody feels like a magnet coming into contact with a metal object, where he feels like he will fall, but automatically clings onto them, making it feel even more broken.
- You can't change the controls in the options unlike the other versions, you can only change the number of hats/lives and turn the story mode or music on or off. Even the NES Bootleg allowed you to change the controls, and that had the same control scheme as the Game Boy, so it makes no sense why the developers couldn't implement a changeable control option.
- Only 10 levels in this version, which makes it the shortest version of the game (second if you count the bootleg); in fact, the game can be completed in less than an hour mainly due to how little there is to do in the game.
- The most infamous omission is the DOOM-style "Way Inside The Claw Machine" level, which, while many blame technical limitations, there's actually no reason for it's omission because games like Faceball 2000 and X had emulated 3D visuals.
Videos
Reception
While this port received little coverage, the reception for this port was mostly negative from critics and audiences, often calling this the worst version of the game to play.
GamePro stated in their review that “This game feels like a low-tech throwback than a high-tech triumph the movie and the 16-bit versions were.”
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