11 Best Disney PlayStation Games

Summary

• Popular Disney games that appeal to players of all ages have successfully launched on PlayStation consoles for years.
• Iconic Disney PlayStation games include Kingdom Hearts and Disney Infinity.
• Other notable Disney PlayStation games include remastered versions of The Lion King and Aladdin, Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure, and Disney Dreamlight Valley.

For the kids growing up in the nineties and early 2000s, Disney and Pixar movies were a staple of childhood. Paired with the mind-blowing gaming platform that was the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2, popular movies from the House of Mouse felt like a natural fit for Sony's growing fan base.

15 Best Mickey Mouse Games, Ranked

The Disney mascot has appeared in many games over the years, but which are the best?

The Disney and Sony partnership didn't stop at the turn of the twenty-first century. From first-person action adventures to immersive simulated worlds, Disney's PlayStation releases have kept delivering for players of all ages. Here's a rundown of some of the best and most iconic Disney PlayStation games.

Updated on January 16, 2024, by Mohamed El Ouardighi: Looking to kick off your 2024 the right way? Dive into some of the best Disney PlayStation games featured in this updated list. Spoiler alert: they offer a ton of fun for both kids and adults!

11 Kingdom Hearts

Few original game scores are as recognizable as the opening piano notes of "Dearly Beloved." Released in 2002, the first Kingdom Hearts game was a somewhat bizarre mashup of Final Fantasy anime and Disney films old and new. The story essentially went that the characters from Disney movies all lived on different worlds (represented by floating sky islands within a mysterious ether of asteroids and collectible tokens) that needed to be freed from dark forces intent on stealing the hearts of some very familiar looking princesses.

Through several sequels, prequels, and semi-sequels, Kingdom Hearts continues to thrive. The addition of new Disney characters and even Pixar worlds, as seen in the release of Kingdom Hearts 3, enriches the mix with each new game.

10 Disney Infinity

A relatively short-lived game (but a great one), Disney Infinity was a mixture of action-adventure play, Sims-like world building, and character/item collection. First released in 2013, Disney Infinity introduced players to a series of quests that were themed to one of the primary franchises (some examples included The Incredibles, Star Wars, and The Avengers). Outside the primary story missions, players could design completely custom maps filled with moving vehicles, buildings, and amiibos of Disney characters.

Brilliantly, Disney Infinity coalesced its new-at-the-time Disney trifecta of Disney/Pixar films, Marvel movies, and Star Wars trilogies into the gameplay. Alas, Disney Infinity and its production studio were discontinued in 2016. This cancelation was, indeed, a major bummer — particularly since the collectible Infinity Figures were (1) not cheap to buy and (2) essentially rendered useless once the studio shut down. For better or worse, Disney sure knows how to keep its fans spending money.

9 Star Wars: Battlefront

Okay yes, this entry might be a bit of a stretch to include in a post about Disney PlayStation games since Star Wars wasn't acquired by Mickey and Friends until 2012. But, if you're talking about the rebooted version of Star Wars: Battlefront released for PlayStation 4 in 2015, then this game definitely deserves its spot on the "best of" list.

8 Best Disney Pixar Shorts, Ranked

Discover these bite-sized heartwarming stories.

Designed as a single and multiplayer shooter, Battlefront let players fight for the Rebel Alliance, the Empire, the Separatists, or the Clone Army of the Republic on a variety of lushly rendered, highly diversified maps. With enough kills during a battle, you could upgrade your nameless soldier to a recognizable Star Wars character. Nothing quite beat the thrill of destroying Stormtroopers with Luke Skywalker's green lightsaber (or Darth Vader's red, if you're more inclined to the Dark Side).

8 The Lion King And Aladdin Remastered

Yes, technically both of these games were released on the Sega Genesis and SNES in the mid-1990s, but they were also bundled as a (surprisingly affordable) remastered package on PlayStation in 2019. Based on the hit animated movies, The Lion King and Aladdin duology were single-player, Super Mario-esque games that took Simba and Aladdin respectively through levels correlating with scenes from the films.

A memorable challenge in The Lion King game was the "Hakuna Matata" level, in which players had to jump Simba up a downward-moving waterfall. Warning: the familiar instrumental refrains of "it means no worries" playing in the background can feel particularly mocking if you're already frustrated at this point in the game.

7 Epic Mickey 2: The Power Of Two

Arguably one of the more creative Disney PlayStation games, Epic Mickey 2 centered on Mickey Mouse working his way through the Wasteland, a place that's essentially a dark, corrupted version of Disneyland. Although the first Epic Mickey was released exclusively on Nintendo Wii, its sequel came out on PlayStation 3 in 2012.

With the help of his magical paintbrush, Mickey is tasked with restoring familiar rides and locations to their former glory. Solving puzzles with either restorative paint or erasable thinner allowed players to (quite literally) bring to life some of the Disney franchise's most beloved animated scenes and characters.

6 Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear To The Rescue

After the rousing success of the first two Toy Story movies, children of the nineties were gifted the experience of this action-adventure game. Starring everybody's favorite space ranger as the only playable character, Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue takes players through many highly detailed environments that originally appeared in the Toy Story 2 movie.

10 Best Disney Pixar Movies

Here are the best Disney Pixar movies!

What set this entry apart from other more run-of-the-mill video game adaptations of Disney movies is the creative side quests in each level (where are Bo Peep's sheep!?!) and the toy-sized player perspective of a very large and surprisingly scary suburban landscape.

5 A Bug's Life

Much like Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue, A Bug's Life faithfully translates the essence of the movie into a first-person, level-based video game. With gameplay akin to its aforementioned counterpart, A Bug's Life allows you to relive the narrative as Flik, navigating through some of the movie's most memorable scenes.

From recruiting circus clowns to evading gigantic birds, Flik demonstrates that sometimes, breaking away from the ant line leads to more significant and better outcomes in the long run. A notable highlight includes a level where Flik departs Ant Island by riding on a dandelion. Who would have thought that stray breezes could pack such a punch?

4 Castle Of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse

When you think about Disney, the first thing that pops into your head is Mickey, right? He's that lovable character we all adore, whether he's in movies or video games. Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is one of those games where you step into Mickey's shoes, navigating through imaginative levels in the tricky Castle of Illusion to save Minnie Mouse from the witch Mizrabel.

This classic side-scrolling action game mixes in some creative puzzles, making it a fun challenge for gamers of all ages. The visuals are cute, and the soundtrack is charming, making it totally worth checking out if you haven't already. It's like stepping into a magical adventure with Mickey – what's not to love?

3 Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure

In the midst of the Tony Hawk: Pro Skater era, Disney released a more kid-friendly version of the skateboarding game. Like the Tony Hawk series, players could select and unlock a variety of Disney characters and custom wearables to tackle the various skating challenges located in different 'lands.'

Between Tarzan, Toy Story, and The Lion King (all big winners of Disney's move lineup in the 1990s and early 2000s), Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure offered a variety of creative levels that appealed to an audience a little less into the mature tone and difficulty of the Tony Hawk franchise.

2 Disney Dreamlight Valley

Disney Dreamlight Valley

The newest addition to PlayStation's Disney repertoire offers a laidback, task fulfillment game based around a series of characters living in Disney Dreamlight Valley.

As new players discover early on, Dreamlight Valley was once a haven for lots of familiar faces — think Ariel, Elsa, and Donald Duck, among others — who forgot their memories during an aptly named catastrophe called "The Forgetting." As the leader of this once thriving kingdom, your highly customizable avatar works to rebuild homes, grow crops, cook meals, and mine gems that slowly bring life back to the Valley. Uncle Scrooge's shop is especially fun since its inventory updates every 24 hours.