Five Disney games you might want to buy before the PS3/Vita stores shut down…
While Microsoft has positioned themselves as a company that will let you play any game you’ve ever bought digitally will be playable pretty much forever on any of their platforms that you own (there are some caveats, but how far back and how many titles you can purchase from the humble beginnings of the Xbox brand and play on their most current platforms is impressive), Sony and Nintendo have not been near as accommodating. You can’t buy digital games on your Nintendo Wii anymore period, and the storefronts for the Wii U and 3DS are starting to show signs that they might not be going for a whole lot longer either, and those purchases don’t carry forward in any way to the Nintendo Switch.
The time has now come for older PlayStation online storefronts as well, with the recent announcements that in a few months, you just won’t be able to buy digital games on the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation Portable, or the PlayStation Vita at all anymore. Granted, for a large majority of gamers this won’t matter. Most have moved on from the PS3 and while not flops the PSP and Vita were never serious challengers to Nintendo’s handheld line and Sony stopped supporting them in terms of any new releases ages ago.
But not an insignificant amount of people have held onto these consoles because of the very fact that hey they spent money on these digital products and don’t want to lose access to them, and maybe there are some games they always thought about getting and now have to not scramble per se but quickly dig through the libraries of these systems and see what indeed is worth buying now and preserving for their collection until it’s too late.
Now granted if you have one of these consoles or are thinking about picking up one of these consoles in order to get some games that will soon no longer be available, in my opinion, the prime reason to do so will not be games exclusively for those consoles, it would be the rather large number of classic games for the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 that were released digitally on the PSN store and can be bought for $5–$10 a pop and are massively more expensive to acquire in their original physical releases. With that in mind, if you have the means now or soon, there are a surprising number of Disney-related titles available on these storefronts, and here are five you might want to consider buying if you have the money to spare:
#5. Herc’s Adventures:
Now, you'd think the logical choice for a Disney fan looking for digital games on the cheap on these online storefronts would be the original PlayStation version of Disney’s Hercules. It’s available, and hey it’s only $6 and it’s a classic Disney movie and the game does do a pretty good job of looking and sounding like the movie. However, that game based on the classic Disney animated feature is available on PC, often for even significantly less (and also is not a great game).
Instead, I submit this criminally ignored even more humorous take on the legendary Greek hero developed and published by now Disney subsidiary LucasArts that’s pretty amusing, fun to play, and is insanely expensive to purchase in a physical format. After the PSN store closes, physically will also be the only way to purchase this game, so if you have the opportunity, grab it for a mere few bucks while you still can.
#4. Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron:
Much like the previous entry, if you were going to get a Star Wars game that’s only available on the PSN storefront and not going to be available ever again in a few months, especially a particular port of a particular, it’s definitely a game based in the Battlefront franchise. But most people would immediately go for the PSP/Vita version of Star Wars Battlefront II. And it wouldn’t be a bad decision at all, that is a surprisingly good port of a really great game and it gives you the ability to play it on the go.
However, Star Wars Battlefront II (not the new one, I know that’s a bit confusing) is available on multiple platforms and maybe you don’t need to play it on a smaller screen. Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron is a PSP/Vita exclusive and will no longer be available digitally period after the store shuts down. It also is a pretty darn good game in its own right so again if you are going to get one game in the Star Wars franchise off of these storefronts before they shut down, make it this one.
#3. Toy Story Racer
What we really need is some kind of Sonic Racing All-Stars Transformed-type racing game starring most if not all of the various Disney characters. I think it would be pretty awesome. Instead, what we’ve currently got is a handful of Disney-themed racers over years and hey, there are some pretty decent ones and Toy Story Racer is one of them. It really feels like it respects the franchise, handles well, is fun to play, and isn’t just a cheap cash-in on a popular franchise. It’s not going to beat the likes of Mario Kart or the aforementioned Sega racing series but fun Kart racing games are few and far between so that alone is a reason to pick this game up on the cheap while you still can.
#2. Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue
Yup, another Toy Story game. Boy, Toy Story actually has a pretty solid track record for video games, huh? This game does follow the events of the highly acclaimed animated Pixar sequel but with a little bit of a spin as it’s all pretty much from Buzz Lightyear’s perspective and places him front and center as responsible for rescuing Woody from going away to a museum in Japan forever.
With that focus on just one character, arguably one of the better ones to use for a video game, Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue is a pretty solid 3D action platformer game. it’s not anything revolutionary and if you aren’t a big Toy Story fan maybe it can be skipped but it’s still, in my opinion, a good pickup and won’t be available anywhere near this cheap on another platform after these storefronts close.
#1. Kim Possible: What’s The Switch?
If you’ve never read my post on the best PlayStation 2 Disney games, this pick being number one may come as a bit of a surprise, but if you’ve read that or played this game it really shouldn’t be. Kim Possible was an excellent show with a surprising amount of really good games because that’s just not what you expect for games based on a kid’s cartoon, especially since most of them are on portable platforms, which often get just the worst shovelware based on cartoons.
Kim Possible: What’s The Switch? is arguably Kim’s best video game outing, and her only game on a home console. I actually have the physical PS2 version and not the digital PS2 classics version for PS3 but I got that well before any news of the storefronts being shutdown was even a rumor. It’s fun and colorful and really feels like an episode arc of the show and for the most part, they just don’t make even halfway competent 2D side-scrolling action games like this that aren’t just for very hardcore old school fans anymore, this one is a lot more fun and breezy and not out to punish you. If there is one PS2 Disney classic you were going to buy off the PS3 storefront before it closes for good, it should be Kim Possible: What’s The Switch?
That’s all for now, again while all these games are pretty good, the real best thing to do would be to get your hands on a Vita, splurge on one of those stupidly expensive memory cards and buy yourself a portable library of RPG goodness like Chrono Trigger & Persona 4 Golden before those go away forever. See ya real soon!
