Toy Story has had a handful of video game adaptations over the years, ranging from direct tie-ins to the movies themselves or games that go down a slightly more unique direction. Now, fans of the series can find out more about a cancelled game known as Star Command, which took Toy Story into the realm of space exploration.
As reported by Kotaku, Star Command was being created by developer Avalanche Software, which at the time was an in-house studio for Disney. While developing the tie-in game for Toy Story 3, Avalanche started working on a project that saw the toys of Toy Story travelling the galaxy and exploring planets filled with different toys. It was reportedly going to be a third person action game, and built upon Avalanche’s work on the Toy Box mode of Toy Story 3, which had more of an open, sandbox environment.
Star Command certainly seemed ambitious, as explained by someone who worked on the game. “We talked about a bunch of different [levels] such as a fairy tale world and worlds that were populated by crazy 80’s action toys, think He-man and Thundercats,” explained one developer. Other ideas included a pirate-themed world, and all of these would have been linked via a spaceship hub world.
Unfortunately, Star Command would never see the light of day. Avalanche reportedly had a very strict schedule to keep, being a studio responsible for getting games out in line with Disney movie releases. Another reason was Avalanche moving onto Disney Infinity, the toys-to-life game that became the developer’s priority, and incorporated some elements of Star Command into its ever-growing fold.
The scope of Disney Infinity moved across multiple Disney franchises, rather than just Toy Story. However, the roots of what Star Command was trying to achieve seem to show within the toys-to-life game, even if little of the assets created made it into the game at the end of the day aside from the Toys In Space expansion. Although it’s a shame that Star Command never appeared in the form that Avalanche wanted, at the very least some of its ideas were realized.
Eventually, Disney Infinity would be cancelled, and Avalanche Software would be bought out by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in 2017. Although any Disney characters are off the cards now, it will be interesting to see whether the developer is able to revisit that sandbox idea under new management. Otherwise, those after a similar style can always head to Kingdom Hearts 3, which includes both space travel between different Disney planets and a Toy Story-themed world to explore.
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Source: Kotaku
