Review TayAtHisLimit 3/5 · Aug 21, 2025
Disney’s Treasure Planet – An Underrated Childhood Gem
First Impressions / Childhood Connection: Treasure Planet was always special to me. The movie is actually my favorite Disney film, and as a kid, Jim Hawkins was kind of my role model – he just looked so cool. Funny enough, hardly anyone I talked to later even knew the movie, which always surprised me. Luckily, I had the game on …
First Impressions / Childhood Connection: Treasure Planet was always special to me. The movie is actually my favorite Disney film, and as a kid, Jim Hawkins was kind of my role model – he just looked so cool. Funny enough, hardly anyone I talked to later even knew the movie, which always surprised me. Luckily, I had the game on PSX at the same time, and back then it was one of my favorites.
Music / Atmosphere: Compared to Monsters, Inc. Scream Team, the soundtrack here is way better. Instead of short loops, you get proper pirate shanties and cheerful tracks that feel full and well-produced. The atmosphere is adventurous, fitting the Disney vibe, and the levels expand the world beyond the movie in fun ways, even if it doesn’t always make sense lore-wise.
Gameplay / Level Design: The levels are longer than expected and focus on collecting items like maps and treasures from Captain Flint, which are needed to progress. At first, I thought 100% completion would be fun, but honestly, it’s not. Plasma cannon challenges where you have to shoot barrels within 20 seconds just for two doubloons get repetitive fast, and collecting everything doesn’t feel rewarding (maybe there’s a secret cutscene at the end, but it’s not worth it).
Almost every big level also includes minigames. They make sense lore-wise, even though they’re not from the movie, and they add some variety. Things like collecting fruit or shooting with the pistol break up the platforming. But some minigames get recycled a lot, so after a while they stop feeling fresh. Still, they’re a decent addition for pacing.
The game has a mix of platforming, glider levels, and a couple of bosses. Platforming can be really tough at times – some jumps feel almost pixel-perfect. The glider sections are fun in concept, but the old clunky controls plus being capped at 50 FPS make them tricky and sometimes frustrating. Bosses are okay, not super creative, but challenging enough for a kids’ game.
Difficulty: Surprisingly not that easy. The platforming and glider missions push you more than most Disney tie-in games, and even though bosses aren’t too hard, the overall difficulty makes it feel less like a “kids-only” game. As a kid, I probably played better just because I didn’t overthink it.
Graphics / Presentation: For a PS1 game, it holds up decently. The environments fit the space-pirate theme, the attacks feel varied enough, and the visuals, while simple, don’t come off as scary like other PS1 games sometimes do. You can tell the devs actually put effort into this one.
Conclusion / Personal Take: Treasure Planet on PS1 was and still is a nostalgic experience for me. The music and atmosphere are great, the levels are solid, and it really brings back childhood memories. But when you break it down, it’s a pretty short game with only a handful of real levels, repetitive collectibles, recycled minigames, and some clunky mechanics. Not a masterpiece, but definitely a hidden gem for Disney fans and worth revisiting if you loved the movie like I did.