Toy Story Mania (Wii)

i bought this game for me and my 4 year old and have been really pleased with it. its eay enough for my daughter but not so easy that its boring for me to join in, its a mixture of puzzles and arcade style target shooting, brilliant fun

The first time I played this at the Disney theme parks, I thought it would be perfect for the Wii. And now here it is. It is certainly lots of fun. Unfortunately, it isn't quite as cool as the theme park version.

In many ways, this game is a collection of mini games with a boardwalk theme. Just like the attraction, the games are separated out into five different categories. You've got Hamm's egg toss, Bo Peep and her balloon pop, Buzz LIghtyear's ring toss, the Army Men's plate breaking, and Woody's suction gun shooting.

Each of these five areas combines several levels of game play. There are at least three variations on the throwing or shooting theme per area. The controls here are pretty obvious. You point the control at the screen and push A to fire. There is a little target on the screen that shows where you are aiming. You can turn it off it you want, but since I have been known to not be point at the screen, I like to have it on.

In addition to these shooting levels, there are other midway type games. They range from the fun of trying to roll a marble through a maze (by tipping your controller) to following a ball mixing through various cups. They've got a variation on skee ball and one where you shoot a ball through hoops. Unfortunately, a couple of these are rather stupid, like the version of hitting a target to ring a bell at the top of a tower. And don't get me started on trying to spin the controller to twirl a rope like Woody.

In addition to trying to get a high score, you also have other objectives you need to meet. Some of those objectives are rather hard to find because you have to do other things to get them to appear. They make a couple of the levels needlessly hard, but they add fun to most of them.

There are two ways to play, Story or Free Play. In Story, you must meet at least half the objectives to move on. Once you've met all the objectives, you unlock the level in free play. Fortunately, you also earn tickets along the way, and you can redeem them to unlock the games in free play. In free play, you can choose the exact level you want to play and skip those you find annoying or difficult.

The game is multi player. Up to four people can play. You'll take turns on whatever game you've selected, either one at a time for some of the games or two at a time for the shooting galleries.

And there are some 3-D levels. You get two pair of 3-D glasses and can unlock 5 3-D levels. These are the most like the original attraction. To unlock these levels, you need to use the tickets you've won playing others games and trade them in for access.

As much as I love the source material, I must admit, this game doesn't have quite the replay appeal. It's probably because it is targeted at a younger audience. The encouragement from the characters gets annoying quickly (they really needed more lines for them to say). A few of the additional games are fun, but most of them are stupid. And almost every level ends with you shaking your remote for bonus points. I find that extremely annoying.

Despite the flaws, I do find this game highly addicting. Once I get going, I don't want to stop. And playing it with other people can be quite fun as well. I'd still say this game is targeted more at kids than adults, but if you love the theme park attraction and want to give this a whirl, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

I bought the game after going on the ride at Disney World. We had trouble getting past the practise games, but once we had we had so much fun playing. Ideal game for christmas.