Toy Story 3: Complete Edition review for Nintendo Switch 2 and Switch

Toy Story 3: Complete Edition review for Nintendo Switch 2 and Switch

Posted on October 16, 2026 by Richard Ford in Reviews, Switch, Switch 2

System: Switch 2 (reviewed) / Switch
Release date:October 15, 2026
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Publisher: Atari

You’ve got a playdate with destiny, folks! When Toy Story 3 released back in 2010, audiences across the world laughed and cried with Andy’s toys in one of the best endings to (what we thought at the time was) Pixar’s trilogy. In the decade and a half since the film came out, there have been two more films in the series, specials, crossovers, and even a world in Kingdom Hearts. Following on from the global success of Toy Story 3, a game was developed and released by Avalanche to a quite warm reception. People really dug it, and viewed it as a worthy entry to the franchise’s game catalog. Nobody felt like it was a cash-grab film tie-in, which so many games were doing in this era. That cult following for this particular licensed title has resulted in a new, remastered Complete Edition.

First, let’s talk about the plot. As one would expect from a game called Toy Story 3, it does follow the beats of the film, but not to the letter. This is quite a loose adaptation of the movie, retold to Bonnie’s toys by Andy’s toys – specifically Hamm, Slinky Dog, and Rex, from their perspective. The writing is really fun here and most of these toys are voiced by their film actors. None are phoning it in, either. They are full of life, to the point that I see this game’s narrative as like a fun epilogue to the film. Joan Cusack is also back as Jessie, but Woody is voiced by his long-time game actor Jim Hanks (Tom’s brother) and Buzz isn’t voiced by Tim Allen (though he is in the portable versions of Toy Story 3, funnily enough). However, the substitute voice actor does a stellar job in his place.

The game is a linear campaign in which you go from stage to stage, and this is shown through a game board that Hamm and crew narrate over. Alongside these menu screens and the rather impressive amount of recorded dialogue in-game, there are also cutscenes between levels in the same style of Pixar’s animation. Although it isn’t movie quality, they are a hell of an achievement and these animated scenes feel in keeping with the overall series. For the original release, a small team from within Pixar assisted Avalanche to make sure the game follows the look and feel of the films and it really shows – they do a spectacular job. 

Some might criticize the narrative for not doing anything especially new, but again, for a game released under the name Toy Story 3, I’d imagine people would be upset if they made a purchase and got a completely original story. Instead, this Lion King 1½ approach was a fun way to handle it. Besides, there are some other original bits and pieces here, but I won’t spoil that stuff. 

Gameplay revolves around three playable characters: Buzz, Woody, and Jessie. All three have a largely similar move set, in which they can all shoulder-charge into enemies, pick up their partner and toss them. They can double jump and wall jump, too. That isn’t to say they don’t have their own little tricks to get around. For instance, Woody can use his voice pull-string to grapple onto certain hooks. Jessie can use her nimble nature to hop on certain terrain that the other two guys can’t. Finally, Buzz has a stronger throw than Jessie and Woody, so he can fling them harder as well as move objects that they can’t. A lot of these stages have multiple playable toys at once, allowing the player to switch between them at the press of a button – a process that is smooth and seamless. Bullseye can be found in some stages, too, and when you hop on him, he allows traversal around the level faster, and thus exploration smoother.

You’ll want to look around because there are plenty of collectibles to find hidden within. These include cool images, concept artwork, illustrations, and more based on different stages and characters within the game. Everything can be viewed in Al’s Toy Barn, where these items can also be purchased in a random capsule machine in the store with tokens you collect in levels.

Other traditional platforming elements are at play here. There’s puzzle-solving, timing your movement between obstacles, and defeating enemies you come across. There are also stage-specific abilities like Buzz’s lasers in the video game, based on the game Rex plays in Toy Story 2, including some exact parts of the stages from that movie, too. It is really cool.

The campaign is pretty short and sweet, but there’s nothing wrong with that. The ride is fun and I genuinely enjoyed the gameplay. My only real gripes with the experience come with the camera control in specific levels that shift from a 3D perspective to a 2D perspective, as these sometimes felt clunky and I died a lot in these instances. There’s a particular segment in the Bonnie’s House stage where Woody has to jump from one hanging platform to the next and the camera shifts during this transition, changing the directional input needed to jump the right way. I died a lot in these moments, and though they are sporadic, they are in a lot of the levels. The sandbox exploratory levels were actually my personal favorites in the game, like Sunnyside. 

A mode introduced to the player after the opening recreation of Andy’s play session at the start of Toy Story 3, which was really neat to play out, by the way, is based on Woody’s Round Up called Toy Box, where we have a Wild West-themed world we craft from the ground up. Mayor Hamm instructs us in the various activities available to us, including building… well, buildings. We can also race Bullseye, mine for gold, and populate the world with new townsfolk that move in after we buy them from Al’s Toy Barn. There are some platforming challenges here, too, but the crux of the fun is messing around with the tools that you earn in gameplay like a camera to snap pics, and a toolkit to customize the visuals of the different buildings you install. Some other toys from the series also make their bow here, including Bo Peep (voiced by her film actress Annie Potts!) and Prospector Stinky Pete (decidedly not voiced by Kelsey Grammer!) and a bunch of others. Completing different missions the townsfolk grant you earns you more money to build out the town even more. I sank a good three or four hours into this campaign, and I was still encountering new voice lines and toys to buy, like Emperor Zurg, who is playable in this mode. It is a very fun and surprisingly addictive distraction that really fleshes out the whole title, considering the main campaign is relatively short. 

New additions to this Complete Edition include the previously PS3-exclusive content in all versions and a resolution bump, while also boasting a smooth 60 FPS experience both docked and handheld (at least on Nintendo Switch 2). I never came across any technical difficulties, glitches or frame drops. Local co-op is also available for both included modes, and that is a welcome new string to this game’s bow.

The game isn’t perfect. The music isn’t especially memorable, sometimes the background areas that can be used as platforms are not obvious and can leave you stumped on where to go for a bit (luckily there is a hint system, and unlimited lives), and I think Buzz is a little short-changed in terms of abilities – as a toy at least. He’s more fun in the video game within a video game based upon him. Long story short, Toy Story 3: Complete Edition is a really fun game, but as a remaster, the team has done a lot to make the game great, but didn’t go to infinity or beyond to make it an amazing one. 

This is easily the most fun Toy Story game of the bunch, and it is fully in keeping with the franchise as a whole. The platforming is great fun, the main campaign is a short but fun roller coaster ride and the Toy Box side mode is a tremendously addictive time sink. However, as neat as it is that this game includes previously PS3-locked content and a lot of technical improvements, there aren’t any brand new stages or massive additions of that ilk. As a standalone purchase, the game is perhaps not worth the price of admission despite being quite fun, so I can’t give it a complete recommendation. At its core, we’re still looking at a licensed PS3-era platformer that doesn’t really break too much new ground. I believe that this game is best purchased alongside the new Toy Story: Retro Roundup collection for the fullest experience.

Toy Story 3: Complete Edition copy provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.

More: Atari, Digital Eclipse, highlight, top, Toy Story 3 Complete Edition