The premise of the game loosely follows the original film with players taking control of Buzz Lightyear on a mission to rescue Woody by traversing through stages.

[6] It was also criticized for its control setup with regards to running and jumping;[6][7] IGN's Craig Harris wrote that "granted, you can't do much with only two action buttons, but it's obvious Tiertex wanted three".

[4] Doug Trueman of GameSpot praised Buzz's animation but stated that many of the other toys in the game did not look as good.

Trueman considered the sound and music to be average, and stated that background graphics often blended in too well with the foreground.

[8] Official Nintendo Magazine also found the game lacking in action and its visuals "drab".