DisneyToy Story remains on of the most enduring and beloved franchises of all time. The first three films represent a perfect trilogy, while the recently released Toy Story 4 does a wonderful job of justifying its existence.
Even the spinoff games are far better than they have any right to be. Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue is a classic that adults of a certain age have all kinds of fond memories of, and Disney Infinity was a rollicking good time that heavily featured Woody, Buzz, and the gang.
They were also in Kingdom Hearts 3, but I don’t talk about that because it just felt wrong.
DisneyAs it turns out, Avalanche Software, who worked on Disney Infinity, were actually also working on a Toy Story game set in space. According to Kotaku, the project was called Star Command, and would have seen the familiar cast of Andy’s bedroom exploring space in a third-person action adventure on Nintendo Wii.
Star Command was apparently planned as an expansion for the Toy Story 3 game before it became apparent that there were enough ideas to go into a full release. Unfortunately, the team’s focus was shifted to Disney Infinity and that, coupled with tight scheduling demands, meant the game was ultimately canned in 2010, one year into development.
A former Avalanche employee explained to Kotaku:
Multiple games were being worked on at once, but near the end of a development cycle, it was almost all hands on deck to get the game done in time. We also did a few things on the side [of Toy Story 3]. We made a display for Disney Cruises. We were also working on some VR stuff, like a Toy Story mini-game that was sort of like the ride at the parks. And a Star Wars one where you flew around in a ship.
DisneyIt’s a real shame, because Star Command actually sounds pretty awesome. It would have featured a sandbox-style playable galaxy with a number of environments spread over different planet-like levels, which you’d travel between in a spaceship. One such world was pirate-themed, and would have seen players adjusting the sea level to progress as they made use of a special sword that could morph into other characters.
Kotaku was told:
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. Though not many of them had development time beyond a few concepts we drew up.
The idea was that you’d be able to follow the story or muck about on your time, simply exploring the galaxy and finding weapons, enemies, and other fun secrets. Obviously, Disney saw more potential (and money) in the Toys to Life action of Disney Infinity.
DisneyDisney Infinity was cancelled back in 2016.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.