With games like OlliOlli World, released in February of 2022, taking inspiration from things like building blocks and skateboards, it's clear that toys have graduated from toyboxes and playrooms and into the video game industry. There's always something whimsical about seeing games with plastic, plush, or wooden art styles mixing a nostalgia factor of playing with toys as a child and enjoying more complex entertainment as an adult.
Whether the games allow players to assume the roles of favorite toys and stuffed animals, or simply rely on familiar imagery and game types to establish identity, toys have evolved far beyond the simple playthings most children have grown up with over the decades.
The Lego Games
If there's one series that knows how to play with toys, it's the LEGO games. Whether it's The Avengers, the series fuses the familiarity of many famous franchises with all the colorful fun of playing with a fresh box of LEGOs.
The games are all about being silly and creative with the same amount of imagination and creativity that made the various movies and adventures they explore so incredible. Fantasy and superhero epics are all fine and dandy, but there's just something impeccably enjoyable about seeing the same scenes from the movies recreated with Minifigs.
The Plucky Squire
Although the game hasn't technically been released yet, The Plucky Squire already has the makings of a stylistic platform adventure that seems to borrow many different gameplay mechanics and visuals from other iconic toys and video games. Obviously inspired by The Legend of Zelda at its core, the game clearly takes heavy inspiration from childhood toys as Jot the Squire escapes his storybook and into a child's bedroom.
From the trailer alone, visions of video games, Rubix Cubes, coloring books, and other toybox paraphernalia abound. Players might still have to wait until August to play, but it certainly looks like a fun time with more than a few eccentricities to spare.
Naughty Bear
Classic Game Room on Grand Theft Auto thrive on gratuitous violence, but this game swaps out the guts and gore for cloth and buttons as the player assumes the role of a very disgruntled teddy bear.
Naughty Bear himself is what would happen if someone put Ash Williams, Jason Voorhees, and Winnie the Pooh in a blender and set him off on a rampage. The game allows players to unleash their frustrations on a population of colorful bears by strangling and mangling them in the most creative ways possible, making for an experience that's equal parts absurd and disturbing.
Puppeteer
Puppeteer is an interesting alternative platformer game, to say the very least. It's a platformer that is brought to life via a marionette theatre where players have to control a puppet boy who can wield magic scissors to affect the environment around him.
When Kutaro literally loses his head at the paws of the dreaded Moon Bear King, he and his friends must save the souls of captured children and beak the king's host of henchmen lying in the wings of the puppet stage. It's a very over-the-top experience that plays most of its elements for laughs but it's truly as entertaining as a night at the theatre.
Disney Infinity
Toys-to-life video games were something of a fad in the 2010s, but Disney Infinity had a very distinct and enjoyable toy-themed experience with a cast of beloved Disney characters and environments. As a child, it was always fun to have various figures and plush of famous characters play with one another. Disney Infinity made that happen.
The likes of Mickey and Minnie could fight the Green Goblin with the Guardians of the Galaxy and then go race karts with Chewbacca and Darth Vader. That's the kind of imaginative gameplay the title offered. With so many movies, characters, and features to play with, it's so tragic that the studio ceased its production.
Yoshi’s Woolly World
The Yoshi's Island games have always had an unshakably playful nature since they first premiered on the SNES, but the way Yoshi's Woolly World uses soft and fluffy characters made of yarn, cloth, buttons, and other plush materials is absolutely adorable.
While it maintains many of the familiar mechanics and controls from the original SNES games, this cute and cuddly world of plush and felt feels like it was knitted together with love for Yoshi. Gamers beware, just because it has a soft exterior doesn't mean it lacks challenge. Even with Yoshi's -friendly nature, the game will put hardcore platformers to the test.
Kirby’s Epic Yarn
Yoshi wasn't the first to get the craft-inspired treatment, as Kirby's Epic Yarn sent Nintendo's favorite pudgy, pink, puffball on an adventure through a crafty kingdom. Imagine what would happen if Kirby were whisked away from the magical realm of Dreamland and had to escape the local Hobby Lobby, and that's this title in a nutshell.
While he might lack his signature copy ability, Kirby can shapeshift into various vehicles and objects to transverse this new world. Similar to the previously-mentioned title, Kirby works his magic on a plush-inspired world with tons of platforming goodness worthy of the character's standard repertoire.
Hypercharge Unboxed
If any gamer has ever played with an action figure at least once in their life, they'll know how to play Hypercharged Unboxed. Essentially an FPS mixed with Toy Story or Small Soldiers, the game puts the player in control of their own action figure in different modes of gameplay from tower defense to zombie mode.
Charming doesn't even begin to describe this delightfully whimsical action game, as it was clearly designed and programmed by a team of loving hands. Players will face off against Green army men, clanky toy robots, and dinosaurs with plastic guns and ammo. It's sure to spark a truckload of nostalgia for those players who had GI Joe and Star Wars characters duking it out in the backyard.
LittleBigPlanet
If there's one name synonymous with cute, cuddly, toy-inspired gameplay, it's the LittleBigPlanet games. Sackboy and all his adventures through the various imaginative planets composed of cardboard, craft supplies, toys, and other odds and ends. Tie that all together with narration by Stephen Fry and it's a game that absolutely oozes whimsy.
It's a side-scrolling platforming game where players interact with various bits and bobs in a charming world full of various environments and a cast of colorful and eccentric characters. From castles to space stations, the realms of LittleBigPlanet are only limited to the imagination.
