Toy Story - Sega Genesis Review
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- čas přidán 18. 12. 2023
- Donkey Kong Country wasn't the only pre-rendered 16-bit wonder.
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Opening "Sega" jingle is from Astal for the Sega Saturn.
Ending Music during the credits is from Batman for the Sega Genesis.
SLX Logo
By: Jan Neves
CZcams Page - / jan3d
Intro by Evan S.
portfolio.tsestudios.com/
Outro Animation by Kevin Bhall
CZcams Page - / nigh11
Episode Notes:
1. Captured via the Mega SG.
2. You'll notice a few of the captures has the life star spinning. This was an invincibility that I somehow activated. No kidding. I never put in any invincibility code or did the stage 2 trick. It cut itself on automatically during one of the later stages. No clue if this was because of the Mega SG or what. It stayed on till the final stage.
3. There are lots of little differences between the SNES and Genesis versions. Details in the backgrounds, color changes, and the SNES has little load times between deaths. The 3rd person driving segment is missing from the SNES, and the SNES first person stage is much shorter. Largely they are the same, however.
4. This was also available for the PC and Gameboy, though I have played neither.
5. I wasn't kidding about a Saturn version. Use that pre-rendered animation and have the Saturn put up polygon backgrounds and this would have been a hit I feel. A real missed opportunity.
6. The PAL version is region locked, so if you want access to the password system, be sure you have a way around it. - Hry
You don't wanna be in the way when my laser goes off.
Hey, a laser. How come you don't have a laser, Woody?
@Matt-Rat It's not a Laser! It's a little light bulb that blinks!
Take that!
Never got past that part
Here it comes!
Jon Burton, one of the guys that worked on this game, has a CZcams channel where he talks about coding and such. How this and other games were actually made and capable of adding so much stuff. He also worked on Mickey Mania and a couple of Sonic games. Travellers Tales, name of the company.
Legendary!
Highly recommended channel, that one. Too bad he has not delivered more insights in a while, but his Toy Stoy one really showed the kind of work he did. And he explains it pretty well,too.
@@datassetteuser356 Fun fact: this Toy Story game was going to be Mickey Mania 2. In one of his videos, he mentions it and the reasons why it got cancelled. In fact, he even has a "prototype" of what the first level was going to be. Interesting stuff. He has lots of prototypes of other games he worked on. Another reason to check out both his channels.
I'm still mad that Game journalists (activists) tried to cancel him. They found 2-3 employees who said that he "overworked them." Then it came out that the journalist intentionally targeted him because he's a religious guy that put Christian Easter eggs in his games.
His channel is brilliant and it almost got derailed by activists
@@themeangene The absolute worst! Didn't they try to do the same to the creator of earthworm Jim?
This is better than most 32x games and could easily pass as a 3DO or Jaguar game. One of the most impressive visually on the old sega genesis.
Agreed on 3DO for sure, but jaguar games couldn't pass as jaguar games so this was a cakewalk for jag. 😅
Traveller's Tales and Psygnosis understood the assignment. This game is an example of a movie-based game done right.
The developer of this game made a CZcams channel and explained how they achieved the impossible on Genesis.
Also, he made a Director's Cut for Sonic 3D Blast.
A game journalist literally tried to cancel him because 2-3 former employees complained that he was too demanding. It was later revealed the journalist just didn't like that he's religious..we almost lost a living legend because of activists once again
Toy Story and Vectorman were the two biggest hit exclusives for the Genesis during holiday season of 1995. The Snes version of Toy Story didn't come out until early 1996.
These two games also highlight just how absurd the 32x was in hindsight.
I wish sega would've pushed the genesis in 1994 like they did in 1995 and 1996. Most likely the 32x add-on would've been cancelled had this happen.
From the moment I popped this game into my Genesis I knew it was something special. It's almost as if TT unlocked a hidden graphics processor in the Genesis. I still love this game today. BTW loved the awesome animations in your end credits. Keep up the great work.
Thanks and happy holidays.
Got this game for my birthday back in 1995! I was 11 at the time. Still have this game and still play it occasionally.
One of the coolest things about this game is that the main menu usic is actually a ported Amiga MOD player, it doesn't use ANY FM synth at all! IT uses 100% of the CPU to play multichannel PCM audio.
There is a doom level and a dog chasing level in this game. I saw it in the malls back then. This game have very impressive graphics back then that can made people forget ps1 and saturn were already released at the time. The game actually still look nice to this day. And glad to see the toy story franchise is still alive and kicking too even til now.
It was my Christmas in 1995, very special because I was eight years old, I had seen the movie and I was very excited. This game sold very well in Spain and technically it's one of the most powerful games they made for Mega Drive.
One of the few games I still have the cart for, super underrated by collectors. Jon Burton was the John Carmack of console development IMO. Seriously, anyone with an actual Genesis should get this game while it's still $10 or so.
It sold extremely well when it came out. Then Majesco in the late 90's flooded the market with copies as well. It is destined to be a $10-20 game forever.
@@supersexysegaInteresting context, didn't know about the Majesco thing. All the better for people who want good games and don't really care about collector status
Collectors fuck everything up, so who cares if it’s underrated for them
@@mcgritty8842 Nah, collectors are fine. At one point I managed to acquire about 1/2 the NES library, but I wasn't fucking anything up for anyone else. It was fun to collect, and fun to try out new-to-me games on real hardware. You're probably thinking of that rash of WATA-fueled investors calling themselves "collectors" that made for a few catchy headlines and Karl Jobst videos in recent years. Not the same thing. THOSE people can jam it in their 72-pin, but people just having fun are fine.
The only experience I had with the Genesis until 2021 was Toy Story and Sonic 1 on the Genesis in the waiting room at my childhood orthodontist’s office.
I specifically remember reading the GamePro review for this game back in the day and getting a chuckle out of its closing remarks being something along the lines of "Why bother with Clockwork Knight on Saturn when you have Toy Story on Genesis? Why?"
Nice! I remember when my neighbor got this for her Genesis. I was blown away by how cool it looked. We played it constantly.
This era of gaming when movie-video game tie-ins were at its peak. Toy Story nailed it for sure just like the other Disney movie games that came out at this time
Yeah, movie tie in games were so good, timecop, Wayne’s world, Batman Forever, Batman Returns on Sega, 3 ninjas, back to the future, knight rider, etc… all classics, especially with the LJN or flying edge seal of quality. Chef’s kiss.
Disney IP was the exception to the rule, and you had some developers do good things with movie based IPs, but most were generally poor as they had to meet deadlines in a world of difficult approval processes.
Aladdin and Lion King were also really good on Genesis.
I've held onto my cartridge only copy of Toy Story for years now, definitely agree it's the superior version over the SNES for the extra driving level, extended first person & a few extra lives to make the game slightly easier
I'm still amazed at the amount of gameplay modes they crammed into this game. I hope it gets a modern rerelease someday like Disney did with the Aladdin, Lion King and Jungle Book collection.
yes and castle of illusion, maybe qackshot I wish cold shadow was released on Genesis It was in Europe, would be cool to see these come as well
I remember watching Toy Story back in day when I live in Mexico and being amazed by the movie and later on the sequel especially since i didn’t even have to own or buy the DVD or VHS since the Disney channel in Mexico would do Friday and Saturday movie nights they’ll show some Pixar Classics and some Disney Channels OG Movies like Highschool musical which thx the channel alongside other shows i go introduce to a ton of classic movies
I spent a lot of time on this game as a kid, and I had a blast. The RC car levels were tough but fun. Cheers for the coverage as always!
glad you covered toy story! having played through both the genesis and the SNES versions, i've always felt like this game deserves more love these days than it gets, despite its flaws. what would be really cool, i think, would be if someone were to make a "definitive" updated version of the game with all of the levels / cut-scene images / bonus levels of the genesis version plus the superior colors and soundtrack of the SNES version, and add back in the password system (or just add unlimited lives) and maybe toss in some quality-of-life tweaks to the controls as well.
This game got my attention when I was a kid because of the graphics, but I could never get past the second stage so I'd go back to playing Aladdin and Quackshot.
This game holds a very special place in my heart, flaws and all. The soundtrack is also incredibly underrated, and the fact it's GEMS at all doesn't detract from the Sonic levels of quality that these catchy compositions never cease to reach, especially Inside the Claw Machine and Roller Bob. I hum that stuff all the time.
Traveller’s Tales were a bit special in their handling of audio. They pulled off some magic wizardry streaming high quality wave music straight from the cart for the main theme while everyone else was struggling to make voice clips not sound like they were spoken through a kazoo.
@@InsideOutAnus I think what helped with this game in particular was not only using the Amiga to transcribe the movie's songs into Genesis hardware, but to also outscource the audio handling to an external company who could really make it work, and they used Mickey Mania's composers to churn out such a fantastic soundtrack.
The fact that this game uses GEMS is the reason it’s underrated, GEMS doesn’t have a great reputation.
Facts
I still remember the first time I saw this game on the demo screen in Sears, was and still am impressed by the graphics.
It's crazy we all remember it from Sears lol. I was like 6 and the tiny video game section was between the boys and girls clothing department. It was fun back then when you'd find out about new games from going to Sears/Target/K-Mart and seeing them in the kisoks for each console.
Boy, this is pure nostalgia. I still have the game in it original box. Tried playing it again a couple of months ago, forgot how difficult it was and made me wonder how the hell did I mange to finish the game when I was a kid.
Also, you gotta love those Silicon Graphics Computers!™- Georgie Peorgie, 1992
"The first thing you'll notice is the poor edging on Woody" - George Wood
I have this game it is crazy how this franchise came along way after almost 30 years.
I got this game for Christmas one year, it was really hard but the graphics and sound were amazing.
Back in the 90s we had this game and man it was so hard but one summer my oldest sister beat this game like a speedrunning pro and then never played a video game ever again after. I watched in pure amazement.
THANK YOU SEGA LORD X🎉🎉🎉 I've been singing this version of Toy Story's praise for years❤❤
This is one of my favorite Mega Drive games that seems to get overlooked. It's a little more punishing than other games, especially due to Woody's size. It's pretty learnable though if you stick with it, and the level skip cheat makes the difficulty spikes much more tolerable. EDIT: And if you give yourself extra lives in the option menu. It's slightly hidden.
How do you do the level skip cheat?
@@SuperHns On the "press start" screen, press A, B, Right, A, C, A, Down, A, B, Right, A. You should hear Woody say "Hot hot hot!" if it worked. Then start a game, and skip a level by pausing and pressing A.
Also, you can give yourself extra lives than normal by going to the option menu and pressing down, then you change the number of "tries" with left and right.
Don't forget crouching in the toybox (in the level where you're hiding all of Andy's toys) until Woody's badge starts spinning for invincibility (works for enemies, but you can still fall off ledges or run out of time in the timed levels).
“You don’t wanna be in the way when my laser goes off”
Completed this so often as a kid as I was slightly Toy Story obsessed... still am thinking about it.
this game looked incredible and played better than almost any licensed name title. it can be pretty reminiscent of earthworm jim which is a compliment
This game blew my mind back when it released. No other game pushed the Mega Drive like this.
lost world also smilar 3d sections and even those sections playable 2 players. it was more than toy styory actually.
100% my favorite Sega game of all time. I know thats crazy but I just love it to this day.
TT games were some of the best optimized games in the 90s. They went out of their way to really understand the hardware which is why games like Toy Story and Sonic R are viewed as some of the best games graphically for their platforms.
I never gave this game a second thought when it came out because i wasn't a big fan of the movie. But I have to admit they did a great job of recreating the "Toy Story" world.
How can anyone not like Toy Story?!
@@tveye363 "you've got a friend in me"
played this all the time as a kid I think it's a good game the later levels get a little hard but a lot of these Disney games on the Genesis were great
I remember renting the SNES game and getting to the Big Buzz battle. I still think well of it.
Later, a cousin’s house would be home to the Genesis game and I got as far as the second boss. Still pretty great.
Can be tough on that first playthrough but had a lot of fun with this game. Belongs in that top echelon of best 16 bit era Disney games.
Mickey Mania, Aladdin, Quackshot and The Jungle Book are all far superior to Toy Story
@@eponymous7910 Why would they be far superior? I dont see them as far superior at all
Disney really knew how put out good games for the most part back in the day
I remember cheating the heck of this game, because they had the classic "traveler tales" scummy difficulty, to make you rent the game more than one time to finish it...
I always felt that the Genesis could have done a nice little conversion of clockwork knight. This game always reminded me of the Saturn game, though I was never a fan of the gameplay of toy story.
Good call
This was a childhood favorite of mine. Played it from start to finish many times. It also looked sharper than the SNES version
I NEVER played this game, so I'm guessing that it came at the end of the Genesis life-cycle. By 96, I had already moved on to the N64 so I never got a chance to play this. But I'll definitely emulate it on PC now since I know physical copies of most retro games are costly nowadays and emulation is the way to go.
This one is pretty cheap actually.
I got the SNES version of this game when I was a child. I could never get past the top-down RC car stage. Also the Buzz nightmare fight actually scared me immensely at the time. There's something strangely eerie about the atmosphere and music of this game that's hard to put to words until you try it yourself.
Fun fact: The Buzz nightmare fight was actually based on a deleted scene from Toy Story that didn't make the cut in its final release; when Woody was put in the toy chest while Andy slept with his Buzz toy when he was first introduced. Guess John Lasseter and others thought the nightmare scene would have been a bit too thick(too much) to leave in a family friendly film at the time. It's available on CZcams if you want to check it out!
Thanks for being one of the channels I can confidently give a video a Like before watching it knowing it will be good. Merry Christmas and happy holidays SLX.
Happy holidays to you and yours, as well. Thank you for the kind words.
One of my first and only Genesis games back then.
I really do like this one.
Woody sprite its a bit huge for his hitbox sake and it needs a better hurt animation (its pretty easy to take two hits in a row). Otherwise, very solid.
Toy Story was one of the first two games I got for the Genesis, the other being Sonic 3. My sister and I had a ton of fun with it, passing the controller between deaths and unfortunately we never beat it, not until I was much older. Still though I've held onto my copy all these years and every once in a while I pop it in and play a few levels. It's one game I'm never letting go of.
I played this game SO MUCH as when I was a kid, I could beat the RC car and Doom-style levels at what must have been record times. Coming back to this as an adult, it's much harder, and I somehow don't have the motivation to master this game anymore, especially since this game has invincibility and level skip cheat codes.
The game does have a contine. They're earned by collecting all the stars that are scattered throughout the level(s).
As for the visuals, the sprite for all of the characters that do show up in the movie were assets provided to Travellers Tales by Pixar themselves. The game clearly runs on modified engine used in Mickey Mania.
the scene where the dog runs in the background 06:34, no way this can be a 16bit title, this is some kind of magic
Had this as a kid (PAL) version. Really liked it and also the movie. Nowadays I find it less fun and a bit frustration. But I could complete it when I was twelve.
I'm really glad you decided to spotlight this one. If I was going to suggest some games to someone new to collecting to the Genesis that HAVEN'T been anthologized to death and that DON'T cost an arm and a leg, "Toy Story" and "True Lies" would be at the very top of the list. Also, on the password system situation, it is true that the NA version is missing that, but it did include some cheat codes that made returning to later levels relatively easy. For me personally, I both loved and didn't love this game's variety -- the driving stages were a pain and a half, even if I did find them graphically impressive. As always, kudos on the thorough and balanced review!
Hey there... you don't even know how much I appreciate what you do and the effort you put into those videos. Your voice really suits the narration too. This might sound a bit cringy, but sometimes I play your videos in the background during tough times. They're just the perfect comfort zone for me...
I appreciate the admission. I'm glad the videos help.
Agreed a Saturn enhanced port should have been a priority! This game should get a remake that addresses the shortcomings!
I remember going to the local mom and pop rental store by my house as a kid and renting toy story on Genesis and snes at different points in time and beat them both. I remember being amazed by the graphics in this game and when I got to the RC racing (not the overhead stages, those were ass), I was absolutely blown away by how much fun I was having
Just one thing to add - the Amiga tracker music for the titles and credits.
Virtua Cops was my favorite game back in the day... "Ready to go, bull doggy. I'll take care of you myself!"
Man, I have watched so many of your reviews of all the games you've covered, but this one is awesome!! Believe it or not, I only just got this game about 2 years ago! SLX, thank you so much for this review! Merry Christmas mate!😎🎄👍
I definitely rented this game a few times because of the difficulty. Probably the first "hard" game I ever beat.
Perfect timing. Right before Christmas!! (You probably got something REALLY GOOD FOR the 24 or 25.
Love the new animations in the outro.
Thanks. My friend Kevin Bhall actually drew it by hand and animated it himself.
I was 7 when I got this game as a kid. I remember being genuinely shocked at the graphics, and honestly thought that graphics couldn’t get any better! 😂
Gamehut has the ‘how it’s made’ video and it’s crazy
Great review and thanks for reminding me about this one! I played this game a ton as a kid! Such an incredible title!
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching.
13:24 So many 2D games that never saw life on the Saturn. I still get nauseous asking Why!? LOL
I forgot about this one!!! Banger 👹🤫 so diff. from the rest 😶🌫️
Always thought that skateboard guy was creepy A.F. lol
Loved this game when i was a kid. Beat this game so many times. The claw machine boss was the due or die level if i was gonna beat the game each time.
There's a level skip code in all regional releases of the Genesis/Mega Drive version that can be entered from the game's title screen (you spell ABRACADABRA using the buttons on the controller), thus mitigating the need for the password system in the PAL release. In fact, I'd say it works better than the password system because you only ever get passwords for every 4 levels in the PAL version, meanwhile the level skip cheat can be used at any point to return to whatever level you last died on. I would argue though that given the game's simplicity and relatively short length, it kind of feels like it was designed around the lack of a password system. The primary challenge being to see how far you can get without losing all your lives. Sort of like an old arcade game.
5:24 - "when things were firing on all cylinders..."
>shows footage of exploding cylinders
...clever work, there :P
Aside from that, I played this game to death on the Genesis, I still love the music and definitely the graphics was ahead of its time... and needless to say, despite the lack of a password system, there IS a cheat code that can let you skip levels, which was just pressing "ABRACADABRA" on your Genesis controller in the title screen... Also I can see you've (rightfully) activated the invincibility cheat which required you having a certain number of stars collected before ducking inside the toybox in level 2
I remember Disneyland turned their Innovations building into a Toy Story experience to hype up the movie. They had Sega Genesis kiosks with the game. I had more going with that than the actual rides at the park
I can’t find what Psynosis roll was other than being listed as part of development. They did amazing looking games on Amiga which has the same 68k processor.
This game, Sonic 3d, virtua racing ... were true miracles graphically besides genesis+ svp chip should have been pushed further instead of 32x to enlarge console's life
I too remember this game from back when, played the SNES demo here and was really impressed with the various stages... when I understood what you were supposed to do. A lot of objectives here that are described in text, and little Swedish 8-year old me wasn't super-far in my English homework at the time, so to speak... still, I had way more fun in emulation later on in life.
one of my fav games as a kid.. i used to play with my dad.. amazing game
Ah, the first Toy Story
most impressive full length animation movie of its time,
and also most impressive videogame of its time. (Both SNES & SG)
I'm really surprised the tech/programming behind the FPS and driving sections weren't employed in their own full-fledged games...
Great game, great review. Blockbuster surprise rental
Man! I miss Sears! There's only 1 or 2 or few left in the US.
There's a snake in my boot.
Sega Lord X you got a friend in me
The dog in this game looks phenomenal for 16 bit graphics. It's aged better than the dog in the movie lol
TITLE SCREEN OF TOY STORY
A,B,A,RIGHT,A,C,B,A,DOWN,A,B,RIGHT,A.
DURING GAMEPLAY
PAUSE GAME & PRESS A.
MOVE TO NEXT LEVEL
Love this Game on Sega Genesis one of my First games along With Sonic 2, Ecco 2 , Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition and NBA Jam Tournament Edition
I've always ignored this game for some reason, I know the graphics are top notch but I think the GEMS music is what has always made me pass on it. I bet if Matt Furniss stuck around for another year in the 16-bit era he would have done the sound and music to this game. After watching this video I will give it another try. Merry Christmas Sega Lord X and a Happy New Year!
I had the SNES version. Naturally it didn't look as good, but had *slightly* better sound. Still up there as one of my favorite games, like many other Traveller's Tales + Psygnosis titles like Leander (aka Galahad)
Mr Burton runs a channel called GameHut in which he goes over the Claw Machine level among others and it's pretty interesting. Definitely worth a look, especially if you enjoyed the TT Mickey Games or Sonic 3D Blast.
And I won't poke fun at you for using invincibility. Beats having to do the first RC level again.
That's because the SNES version was just a port. It was designed for the Genesis/Mega-Drive in mind back then. And it would've cost TT and Psygnosis more money to even try and make a Toy Story game from scratch on SNES.
Nice with the new fanboy outro🤘trying not to get too excited for the ip reviving, and as always great content 👍
8:49 that world is unwieldy, there’s no second -L between the d and the y. Just so you know.
Love ya, buddy, hope you had a great holiday season with the family!
Toy Story is one of my favourite movies of all time. It’s why I’m a big fan of Pixar’s work, regardless of what anyone says.
Great game glad we had the password system here in the UK. Hard game The Roller Bob level is the hardest in the game after that the last few levels are luckily a breeze.
Would've been great if there was a ps1 and saturn port. Travelers Tales was known for their 32bit ports, like Mickey Mania and Sonic 3D Blast.
Holy mackerel this looks just as good as Clockwork Knight!
The guy that programmed this and sonic 3d is on youtube, forget his name unfortunately, and he explained just how they managed the black magic used to get it looking this good.
Jon Burton, his channel is Game Hut.
@@polycube868Thank you.
Because of a piece in a past issue of Retro Gamer, I finally added this to my collection. The game did more tricks than the SNES version.
Travellers Tales were wizards for the Mega Drive
I played the living crap out of this when I was a kid. The graphics seemed practically next gen at the time and I couldn’t believe the genesis was running it
I rented it because i knew i only had a weekend and I knew the codes.
An amazing game and it is unbelievable that this game runs on a 1988 console…
The base console at that...not any of the add ons
it's one of the best looking MegaDrive games out!!
Thanks for this awesome and honest review!