There is something inherently appealing about revisiting licensed games that were once everywhere and have since largely disappeared from the conversation. Disney/Pixar Toy Story: Retro Roundup! is built around exactly that idea, bringing together a sizeable selection of Toy Story games from the 1990s and early 2000s, including several different versions of the same titles. With Digital Eclipse handling the collection, however, this is intended to be more than a straightforward exercise in putting old ROMs on a modern platform. During Gamescom, we got a closer look at the PC version and discovered a collection that appears to be just as interested in preserving the history surrounding these games as it is in making them playable again.
What we know
Disney/Pixar Toy Story: Retro Roundup! is a retro game collection from Atari and Digital Eclipse, bringing together five games based on Pixar’s early films and characters: Toy Story from 1995, Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue! and Toy Story 2 from 1999, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command from 2000, Toy Story Racer from 2001, and A Bug’s Life from 1998. The latter is the odd one out thematically, although its inclusion makes more sense when considering its place in the history of Traveller’s Tales and its early experiments with 3D game development. In total, the collection contains 11 versions of these games across home consoles and handhelds, including versions originally released for PlayStation, SNES and Game Boy hardware.
The games themselves have been given a range of modern conveniences intended to make them less intimidating to revisit. Rewind allows players to undo mistakes without restarting a level, while save states provide considerably more flexibility than the original releases. Rex’s Cheat Codes can be used to unlock things such as unlimited lives, invincibility, characters and levels, while Practice Mode and updated How to Play sections are intended to make the older games easier to understand. There are also different presentation options for some of the games, allowing players to recreate the appearance of the original hardware or enjoy a cleaner modern presentation. The collection is scheduled to release on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 on October 15, 2026.
Digital Eclipse has also built a substantial historical component around the games. Players can explore archival material, concept art, development documents and other material connected to the making of the games, alongside new interviews with people involved in their creation. Among them are Pixar’s Jason Katz, Disney & Pixar Games’ Luigi Priore, TT Games founder Jon Burton and voice actor Jim Hanks. The latter is particularly notable for anyone familiar with Woody’s movie voice, as the resemblance between Jim Hanks and his brother Tom Hanks is remarkably strong. A music player containing the soundtracks from the included games rounds out the collection, making Retro Roundup! as much an archive of this period of licensed game development as it is a collection of playable software.
What we saw
Our preview of Disney/Pixar Toy Story: Retro Roundup! took place during a meeting with Digital Eclipse at Gamescom, where we were shown an advanced build of the PC version. Rather than simply running through the games themselves, the presentation also offered a look at the thinking behind the collection, including how the different versions are presented, which quality-of-life features have been added and how Digital Eclipse approached the archival material surrounding them. This provided a useful glimpse at both sides of Retro Roundup!: the experience of actually playing these old games and the preservation work that gives the package considerably more context.
What we thought
The biggest surprise with Retro Roundup! is arguably how well some of these games have held up as forgotten pieces of licensed-game history. Toy Story naturally provides a strong foundation because the characters and worlds remain instantly recognisable, but these aren’t simply interactive versions of scenes from the films. The games experimented with different genres and mechanics, ranging from platforming and action to racing, and several of them have considerably more personality than their status as old movie tie-ins might suggest. A Bug’s Life is an especially interesting inclusion in that regard. It may seem like an unusual addition to a collection bearing the Toy Story name, but its historical importance makes it a welcome one, particularly when viewed as part of the development story behind some of these early 3D games. There is a sense that several of these titles weren’t necessarily appreciated as much as they deserved during their original release windows.
That doesn’t mean the games have suddenly become effortless to play. Their age is apparent in the controls, level design and sometimes awkward presentation, particularly when compared with what modern players expect from platformers. Some of the older games can be less clear about where the player is supposed to go or how a particular challenge is intended to be approached, while the handheld versions naturally retain the limitations of their original hardware. This is where Digital Eclipse’s additions become particularly valuable. Rewind, save states, cheats and Practice Mode don’t fundamentally alter the games, but they give players the freedom to deal with their older design conventions on their own terms. The ability to learn from a guided playthrough and then take control also looks particularly useful for younger players who have no prior relationship with these games.
Presentation is another area where the collection seems to understand the appeal of retro gaming without forcing players to accept all of its inconveniences. The enhanced versions make the PlayStation-era games cleaner and sharper, while the option to reproduce the original look provides an alternative for anyone chasing a more authentic experience. The attention paid to recreating the appearance of old televisions and handheld hardware is a nice touch, because it makes the presentation feel deliberate rather than simply applying a generic retro filter. At the same time, the underlying visuals inevitably reveal their age, and some of the 3D games can look considerably rougher than they probably do in the memories of players who grew up with them. That contrast is actually part of the charm: Retro Roundup! lets players see these games as they were while also acknowledging how nostalgia can smooth over some of their rough edges.
The archival material may ultimately prove to be the collection’s greatest strength. Digital Eclipse has developed a reputation for treating retro collections as historical documents rather than simple compilations, and that approach feels particularly appropriate here. The interviews, development material, artwork and other archival content provide context for why these games existed and how they were made, turning what could have been a fairly straightforward collection into something more substantial. Hearing from people connected to both Pixar and the games themselves also helps bridge the gap between the films and their sometimes very different interactive adaptations. With the latest Toy Story film also arriving for home audiences around roughly the same period, the timing should give the collection some additional visibility, but Retro Roundup! looks capable of standing on its own merits. For anyone who remembers these games, it offers a chance to revisit some overlooked pieces of Toy Story history; for everyone else, it could be an unexpectedly interesting lesson in how licensed games were made during one of the industry’s most fascinating transitional periods.