One of my favorite pieces of childhood nostalgia sits between the cozy aesthetic and vibey music within this game. I used to go to my grandpa's house and play this with him and we could never get the trophies on some of the levels. We never got to the last set of levels nor did we beat any of the bosses, but we had fun nonetheless. 11 years have passed since I played it with him last and his health is steadily waning. I've beat this game a handful of times in my adult life and every time I see him, he asks about it as if he didn't ask the last time. I laugh it off inside and tell him about the last time I beat it and you can see a little spark of joy go through him.

On its own, Toy Commander is a simple, but fun game that relies on the player's urge to beat its missions as fast as possible. With a variety of different vehicles and challenges to play through, the gameplay rarely gets stale. The music is also amazing, as the jungle/EDM beats perfectly suit the energy of the game. I highly recommend listening to the OST, it's easily the best thing about the entire game. The gameplay is simple and the vehicles don't control as well as racing games from the era, but the missions rarely require a level of precision you'd need from those.

This is one of those games I wish would get a re-release, even though the audience for it is really niche. It's probably the nostalgia talking but this small, arcadey game is really fun when you're in the mood for a short session where you play through one room at a time. The time-based trophies make your knowledge of the levels rewarding and it's fun to see how fast you can sprint through a level.

One of these days I should see about finishing it with him before he's gone.