Buzz Lightyear: Attack on Zurg strategy guide cover
Buzz Lightyear in the video game, after landing on Zurg's planet
Emperor Zurg in the video game
Buzz Lightyear: Attack on Zurg is a video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System shown at the very beginning of Toy Story 2.
The game begins with a ball of blue light soaring across outer space, but it's actually just Buzz flying very quickly towards Zurg's planet in Gamma Quadrant, Sector 4. Upon landing on Zurg's planet almost immediately, he finds himself surrounded by thousands of Zurg's robots, who are readying their weapons. Instinctively, Buzz fires his laser at a crystal, reflecting his laser in many directions, piercing through all the robots at once and destroying them in a massive explosion in green balls of fire, and blowing Buzz into the air. Next, Buzz encounters a small camera-like robot that peered out of a trap door, which he also destroyed. Suddenly, the ground he is standing on reveals itself to be a very large hole that led to a dark pit inside Zurg's fortress. Buzz jumps inside, and activating his glow-in-the-dark function, runs through the dark tunnel, completely oblivious that Emperor Zurg was tracking Buzz's location inside his control room.
Zurg then activates the levers, and Buzz is caught by surprise when the tunnel suddenly lights up. A wall with deadly spikes appears behind him and quickly charges toward him. In a style similar to Indiana Jones, Buzz runs away from the pursuing spiked wall and jumps through the closing doors in front of him. Finding himself inside a catacomb, Buzz sees an AA battery that indicates it being a source of Zurg's power. Approaching cautiously, he jumps on the bridge of floating discs, but the bridge gives way, sending him falling into the bottomless pit below. Activating his anti-gravity servos on his attached utility belt, Buzz flies up towards a platform next to the now-gone bridge. He reaches for the battery, which turns out to be merely a hologram, which disappears as Emperor Zurg himself suddenly rises up on some kind of elevator behind him.
Zurg stars firing his ion blaster at Buzz, but the latter blocks it with one of the discs in the now-gone bridge. Buzz reflects the shots back at Zurg, but misses. Buzz jumps at the other side of Zurg, where he almost is able to fire his laser. Unfortunately, Zurg shoots first, and blows up the upper half of Buzz's body, killing him and ending the game. Zurg then laughs maniacally on his triumph over Buzz as the words GAME OVER appear on the TV screen with stereotypical 8-bit music, revealing that it was only a video game in which Rex had been playing.
Rex finds the strategy guide for Buzz Lightyear: Attack on Zurg in Al's Toy Barn
Rex, a fan of the video game, is unable to admit the fact that he had lost to Zurg again, and complains that he will never be able to defeat Zurg. Buzz ensures him that he will, but then Rex complains that due to the size of his arms, he can't jump and press the "fire" button at the same time. Nevertheless, thinking he is all prepared with his experiences on the video game, he goes on a mission led by Buzz to rescue Woody after he is stolen from a yard sale by Al McWhiggin (who turns out to be the owner of Al's Toy Barn).
Later, when the toys enter Al's Toy Barn to search for Woody inside, Rex excitedly finds a manual to the video game that reveals secrets on how to defeat Zurg. However, he loses grip on manual when Tour Guide Barbie turns the car the toys are riding into a spin, prompting Rex to jump out of the car to chase after the manual, but it disappears below the shelf, out of Rex's reach. Despite losing the manual, he is still able to tell Buzz (the toys take a Utility Belt Buzz instead) some secrets he has learned from the manual.
Much later, after witnessing the duel between Zurg and the Utility Belt Buzz on the elevator in which he accidentally intervenes when his tail knocks Zurg down the elevator shaft, he seems to have finally overcome his frustration toward not being able to defeat Zurg in the video game previously.
After the toys return home, Hamm is seen playing the video game. He asks Rex for a hand, but Rex, too overjoyed about his triumph over Zurg previously, refuses to help, and Hamm loses the game before he can continue with his playthrough.
Trivia
- When Buzz enters the planet, he flies through a canyon, which is reused from A Bug's Life.
- Note: the floating rocks in the canyon were accidentally inserted, but John Lasseter liked how it looked, so it was used in the final version of the film.
- Various sound effects from the original Star Wars trilogy are audible during the video game sequence such as the TIE Fighter laser blast, the torture droid's hum, the lightsaber wave, and Darth Vader's breathing.
- The robot that pops out of a wall like a camera may resemble a Perimeter Droid who pops out of the door to a palace of Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
- Buzz running away from the spiked wall that tries to crush him while chasing him through a tunnel may mirror a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark when the character Indiana Jones runs away from a rolling boulder that tries to crush him while chasing him out of a temple in South America.
- In the video game Buzz is still an action figure.
- This scene features several references to Star Wars.
- The robotic scanning device that popped out of the rock face resembled the Gatekeeper droid for Jabba the Hutt's palace in Return of the Jedi.
- Buzz's traveling through the tunnel and it closing behind him upon entering, spiked wall trap aside, was taken from The Empire Strikes Back.
- Zurg's line of "So, we meet again, Buzz Lightyear, for the last time!" is a near-paraphrase of what Darth Vader said to Obi-Wan Kenobi shortly before dueling him in A New Hope.
- When Buzz jumps on the floating discs, the sound effect that plays is the first 3 notes from the theme "Also sprach zarathustra" (the theme of 2001: A Space Odyssey).
- The game is played on a Super Nintendo Entertainment System, although the graphics are vastly superior than what an actual Super Nintendo is capable of (most likely done to fool the audience into believing it was real). Also of note is the stereotypical 8-bit music that plays for "Game Over".
- On the back of the strategy guide, it mentions that the price is $4.95, although in Canada, it's $50.00.
- The Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC versions of The Video Game based on Toy Story 3 contains a playable level designed as the "real-life" version of the game.
Pertaining quotes
- "Buzz Lightyear mission log: all signs point to this planet as the location of Zurg's fortress. But there seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere."
- —Video Game Buzz Lightyear, after landing on the planet and scanning the terrain
- "Ha, ha, ha, ha. Come to me, my prey."
- —Video Game Zurg tracks Buzz's location through his fortress
- Video Game Zurg: "So, we meet again, Buzz Lightyear, for the last time!"
Video Game Buzz: "Not today, Zurg!" - —Zurg confronts Buzz
- Rex: "Oh, no! NO!! No, no, no, no, no!"
Buzz: "Oh, you almost had it."
Rex: "I'm never gonna defeat Zurg!"
Buzz: "Sure you will, Rex. In fact, you're a better Buzz than I am."
Rex: "But look at my little arms! I can't press the fire button and jump at the same time!" - —Rex and Buzz, after Rex loses the video game
- "You'd think with all my video game experience, I'd be feeling more prepared."
- —Rex, leaving on Buzz's mission
- "You know, they make it so you can't defeat Zurg unless you buy this book. It's extortion, that's what it is. Hey, I always thought the golden scepter was the only..."
- —Rex, as he reads the manual on the video game, until Hamm approaches them in a toy car
- Rex: "It says how you defeat Zurg! Look!"
Mr. Potato Head: "Hey, get this outta here, geek-o-saur." - —Rex tries to show the toys, especially Mr. Potato Head, some tips to defeat Zurg he has found in the manual
- "My source of power! No, come back! NO!!"
- —Rex loses the manual
- Rex: "Buzz! Buzz, I know how to defeat Zurg!"
Buzz #2: "You do?"
Rex: "Come on, I'll tell you on the way." - —Rex asks Buzz #2 to tag along with the toys
- Rex: You see, all along, we thought the way into Zurg's fortress was through the main gate, but in fact, the secret entrance is to the left, hidden in the shadows."
Buzz #2 (taking notes): "To the left in the shadows, got it." - —Rex tells Buzz #2 some secrets he has learned from the video game manual
- Zurg: "So, we meet again, Buzz Lightyear, for the last time!"
Buzz #2: "It's Zurg!"
Rex: "It's Zurg! Watch out! He's got an ion blaster!" - —Zurg appears on an elevator at Al's apartment to the surprise of Buzz #2 and Rex
- Rex (to Buzz #2): "Ah, Buzz, you could've defeated Zurg all along. You just need to believe in yourself!" (gasps as Zurg aims his "ion blaster" at Buzz #2's head)
Zurg (to Buzz #2): "Prepare to die!"
Rex: "Ah, I can't look! (turns away, but his tail knocks Zurg off the elevator) I did it! I finally defeated Zurg!"
Buzz #2: "Father..." - —Rex "defeats" Zurg
- Hamm: "Uh, hey, Rex, I could use a hand over here."
Rex: "I don't need to play. I lived it!"
Hamm: "No, no, no, no! Oh, nuts!" - —Hamm asks Rex for help, but loses the video game