Disney/Pixar Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (PS1)
Disney/Pixar Buzz Lightyear of Star Command certainly looks and plays like an action platformer, but it might actually be best described as a racing game. There are enemies out to get you and dangerous terrain to traverse, but running past it all is the true objective as your main objective is try to keep pace with a galactic criminal so they don’t make a successful getaway. While this can mean certain foes or areas seem a little shallow on the surface, the fact you’re trying to moving as fast as you can means even a small impediment can slow you down, the design direction breathing more life into elements that might not have otherwise worked.
Based on a Disney cartoon that was in turn an effort to provide a history for the Buzz Lightyear toy in Toy Story, Disney/Pixar Buzz Lightyear of Star Command’s levels almost all comprise of Buzz’s space ranger work where you’ll need to chase down a criminal on an alien planet. Strangely enough though, you are completely unable to impede or harm the criminal until they reach their getaway point, but thankfully even if they beat you to it, there will be a fifteen second countdown so you don’t always have to win the race. Your fellow member of Star Command, Mira Nova, will inflict a great deal of damage to the boss if you arrive early, although the actual boss fight often isn’t too difficult, relying instead on using the right weapons to wear down their color-coded forcefields before you can finish them off. The race to get there is definitely the more challenging portion and there are a few interesting ideas at play so simply ignoring everything as you bolt to the finish isn’t often the optimal approach.
When you start a level, Buzz only has his standard laser to fight with, and it does its job even if it can take quite a few shots to take out certain robots or aliens in your path. Usually you wouldn’t want to stop and fight, but beyond points where there is essentially a blockade until you do so, they might be too annoying to leave be or you might want to utilize the rewards you get for destroying them. Money can be very helpful in a stage, and while there is often quite a bit lying around to collect, destroying enemies or heading off the beaten path will often reward you with the high amounts required for some helpful tool. Weapons are scattered around levels as well, but actually utilizing them requires you to spend some of your galactic credits. The game makes sure you can always have the weapons you need for boss fights, but if you want to survive to the end of some levels you will want to invest in better fighting options. The Arc Laser homes in on enemies making it a great gun to use on the run, but rockets deal heavy damage and can wipe out peskier foes like the turrets with ease. Weapons can even be upgraded by picking them up more than once, and with tools like the Icegun that temporarily freeze enemies, investing in its longer freezes has some obvious use when you’re mostly trying to get around enemies.
Collecting more credits can help with level navigation as well. Boostpads can be paid for to launch you down a shortcut or you can take a teleporter to quickly make up ground, but there are even unique tools like the jet bike and hoverboard that can completely change how a level is approached. In fact, a few levels have lone jet bike segments where it’s almost mandatory, but if you can’t afford it and fail to pick up the thankfully free fuel refills, you can find it hard to keep pace with the fleeing criminal. The vehicles help ensure the game’s 14 levels are a bit more diverse, but even on planet revisits you are still exploring new ground at least. Figuring out the terrain and the cost of a successful chase does feel important, although many levels don’t feel like you absolutely need the foreknowledge to succeed. Later stages do introduce time bombs that require you to speed up at certain parts though, again making your every action a consideration as you need to weigh up the value of actions over the time they’ll take to complete.
Many levels are introduced with and conclude with scenes from the cartoon and many recognizable characters from the series are present. Beyond Emperor Zurg being the main villain seemingly supporting all these criminals, you also have mainstays like Gravitina with her planet of a head and Buzz’s space ranger partner turned traitor Warp Darkmatter in addition to smaller or single episode characters. There are definitely times the game struggles to find appropriate cutscenes for the characters, but others like Ty Parsec’s well animated transformation into the cybernetic Wirewolf definitely do a good job introducing the level even if the bosses aren’t often too interesting in battle. Some have a gimmick like flight or relying on a lot of support from turrets, but they are often a less than thrilling conclusion to a stage compared to the lava worlds, swamps, and cities you run through to face them.
To unlock new stages requires you to earn medals though, and while you get one for merely clearing a stage, that won’t be enough to make it to the end. However, while in a level, you can earn half medals by doing things like collecting a certain amount of galactic credits or finding the LGM aliens. Buzz Lightyear of Star Command does unfortunately have a few rigid and rough elements that can hold back some of its play and how you approach these extra level objectives. The LGMS for example are small hopping aliens, and Buzz’s movement can feel a bit stiff. When all you’re doing is bolting forward trying to reach the level end, it does its job, but smaller actions can be a bit rough to line up. The LGMs in particular are very easy to barely miss because you have to run right into them to grab, something made tougher by their repeated hopping but in areas where you’re on the jetbike it’s very likely you can’t adjust your path well without losing a lot of speed just trying to angle yourself just so. Aiming your weapons can hit this snag too which is why rarely would you want to come to a stop and fight, although this harms boss battles sometimes as you’re just running about as the boss does the same, both sides hoping to get their shots to line up for a bit if they aren’t using some special tool.
Luckily things do still remain manageable even if you may miss out on some half medals thanks to bad hit detection, and there are other ways to earn medals too. Every level besides the final boss has a time trial version where you’re just racing the clock instead of dealing with a criminal, and having a visible timer counting down can actually make it feel less pressing to get where you’re going. You’ll be better able to judge how much time is spent on side activities rather than watching the meter that shows how far along an enemy is, but you can also earn more medals for clearing these time trials quickly, meaning they aren’t just a less troublesome sprint than the regular stage. The more interesting alternate task though involves Buzz’s buddy XR. XR the robot has been broken apart and his pieces are scattered across the level, the player again able to earn an extra medal for finding them quickly but there is still a general timer to follow. A faint arrow will point you towards them in the same way it usually indicates where the next LGM is, and the game does cook up a few cheeky spots to hide some robot parts. By their very nature most levels can be completed quickly so earning extra medals usually isn’t a rough process, and it does keep the game from feeling too small. The stricter medals do rub up against some of the game’s detection and movement issues again though, but you can clear the game just with the more achievable major goals of clearing all three major level objectives, this and not needing to worry about death since it’s just a level restart making Disney/Pixar Buzz Lightyear of Star Command feel like it isn’t out of reach for a younger player to complete.
THE VERDICT: The level structure of Disney/Pixar Buzz Lightyear of Star Command benefits a great deal from its contextualization as a race against a criminal rather than a space you linger in very long. Simple enemies are still effective when they’re present mostly to slow you down, and concepts like buying weapons and shortcuts with credits that necessitate slowing down some to collect money add some tension or ways to make a comeback. The action isn’t always the best when it gets a major focus, the bosses unexciting and the hit detection not the best, but because it usually keeps you moving, this sci-fi adventure can better hide its flaws while having a few ideas on how to keep the rush to the level’s end interesting.
And so, I give Disney/Pixar Buzz Lightyear of Star Command for PlayStation…
An OKAY rating. Once a player understands what’s expected of them in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, a lot about its design becomes clearer. Many enemies can be run past because they are meant to be little barriers to progress at best, but the game still lays out more dangerous foes and more advanced terrain that requires a little more work to overcome. The battles aren’t that satisfying, something that is a true issue since every level caps off with one, but your focus otherwise is in avoiding conflict if you can and only engaging with it if you need something from your foes. The credits being your source for better options in a stage is a nice way to make the player think as well, since it can be tempting to just sprint forward only to start feeling the toll on your health or falling behind in the race because you didn’t try to balance your resources with your level progress. The movement controls and hit detection are an unfortunate issue that can’t be completely covered up by the need to be speedy though. LGMs would otherwise work well as a side objective during your first playthrough of a level, but having to finagle Buzz to grab something that is so close to him but still not registering as acquired isn’t really the kind of interesting impediment worthy of interfering with the racing side of things. The two other ways to play a level probably do need to be made a bit tougher as well since their timers aren’t that tight, robbing some of the hectic energy the main stage easily provides with their bombs and criminals on the run.
Disney/Pixar Buzz Lightyear of Star Command definitely needs some more polish so some of its simpler interactions aren’t accidental time sinks, but its idea of turning its 3D action levels into one long race does still have merit. Rather than it being some optional mode layered over levels you otherwise explore slowly, this game’s stages are designed for a speedy sprint, but other tasks within the stage give it some more depth than trying to just run as fast as you can. Despite the need for refinement in some areas, Disney/Pixar Buzz Lightyear of Star Command still plays in an interesting enough way that it’s easy to get invested in trying to make it to the finish in time on every planet.