Summary
A talented fan spent over a year recreating theToy Story 2PlayStation 1 tie-in game with Unreal Engine 5, and the results are on par with Pixar’s modern visuals. Developed by futureLEGOstudio Traveler’s Tales and released to promote the movie in 1999,Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescueputs players in the role of Buzz as he sets out to rescue Woody from the greedy toy collector Al. Along the way, the plastic space ranger explores various open-world levels, unlocks new power-ups, and battles villains like the Prospector and the Evil Emperor Zurg.
While theToy Story 2game received average reviews at launch, it still holds plenty of nostalgia for gamers who played it after seeing the classic Pixar sequel in theaters back in the day. In 2022,Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescuewasadded to the PlayStation Plus Premium library, and would later be made available to purchase as a standalone title for the PS4 and PS5. The original game is still very much a product of its time, but one dedicated developer has set out to update its visuals to match more modern technical capabilities.
That developer is Zachary McPhink, who started recreatingToy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescueusing Unreal Engine 5 back in February 2024. The project began as a simple portfolio project to show off McPhink’sskills with Unreal Engine 5, and he didn’t specifically chooseToy Story 2out of nostalgia for the game or its connected franchise. Instead, he ended up selecting it from a shortlist of other classic games to see if he could fix some of the issues he had with the original. From there, other collaborators like Illia Mallyk (animator), Kyle Metz (lead artist), and Dor Yaakov (artist) helped with the project.
Unreal Engine 5 Toy Story 2 Game Remake Goes Beyond Infinity
So far, McPhink has managed to recreate the first level of theToy Story 2game, whichtakes place in Andy’s house. As expected, the Unreal Engine 5-rendered graphics are a considerable upgrade from the blocky character models of the PlayStation 1 original, with Buzz himself looking very similar to his appearance inKingdom Hearts 3. McPhink has even added Buzz’s glow-in-the-dark function from the movies, which didn’t make it into the game due to the expected technical restraints of the time.
Other updates include a new cosmetic system that gives Buzz different looks and tweaks to the Andy’s House level to make the overall flow between different areas smoother. TheToy Story 2remake project isn’t intended to be released asa fully playableToy Storygame, with McPhink and his fellow developers instead telling curious gamers to try out the original on PS4 and PS5. They also aren’t sure if they are going to continue remaking the game or move on to another project.
