When you play at first , it will be a fun and a great game to play
The design is a nice balance between adventure and arcade-type gaming. On the one hand, the adventure component follows the basic plotline of the movie pretty literally: you alternate between being Woody and Buzz Lightyear, and you have to navigate the same sorts of obstacles as they did in the movie. What that amounts to, mostly, is jumping on top of blocks and beds and cabinets and other obstacles to collect bouncy balls and fulfill various mission objectives. As the game proceeds, Woody and Buzz develop new skills you can manipulate with buttons: such as twirling his lassoo, for Woody, and gliding through the air or leaping and flipping, for Buzz.
What adds to the intrigue is that every once in a while their real-life obstacles turn into an arcade-style game or puzzle, that seems to exist in their imaginations: for Woody this usually means you're in the Wild West avoiding obstacles; for Buzz it usually means flying through space and, well, avoiding obstacles (and sometimes shooting). You can either follow the story directly or, once you've unlocked a game, you can play it anytime. One thing that bugged me a bit is you can only save one game at a time. I've got two children who both like to play this game, and I tried it out a while too, but this meant we couldn't play at different levels and could only basically continue each other's games. If you start over you have to start from the very beginning and getting through the various levels can take some time. (As another reviewer noted, though, it doesn't take all that much time - and the fact that you can't really vary from the basic story line means that in a day or two of play you could basically have worn out the excitement of this game - which makes it unlike the truly classic games like Super Mario Brothers that take weeks of dedication to crack - and where in spite of general uniformity of game play each level feels fresh and challenging.)
In addition to the main story, with its "realistic" and "fantasy" components, there are also stand alone games you can gradually unlock. As it turns out, these games are fairly similar to (i.e. they are basically the same as) the games within the story. So while at first the little games within the story seem like a refreshing change of pace, the similarity of many of the games (dodging obstacles, jumping over stuff, going through hoops, or playing "tower defense" type games on a pre-school mat ) ... after you've seen each variation once or twice, it starts to get old.
I think this would be a great fighting games for very young children, who love Disney (or Pixar) or just Toy Story and who are just starting out with video games. First of all, it looks great - the little universe they built for these toys does a good job of seeming like the one in the movie. There's a little bit of puzzle to it, so it would give inexperienced gamers a chance to work on problems that take some time; it's also very forgiving and includes a lot of helpful hinting. It's also not very violent - and wherever there is anything like violence the game is very clear that it is our toy heroes making believe and that it is all imagination. Finally, it moves at a fairly slow pace. You never really get to anything that's impossible at first and you have to spend hours building the skills to even approach it - as with some video games. Of course, all those features that make this great for kiddies mean it's not a very exciting game for adults. There are a few games that my kids have played on their DS's over the years that have gotten me addicted.
