Hacking Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters Ride At Disneyland

Yesterday we got into Disneyland an hour early, since we’re staying in one of
the resort hotels. That meant no lines and plenty of time for multiple plays on
Buzz Lightyear
Astro Blasters. My littlest wanted to go on it once. It ended up being Daddy
begging to go again and again, five times in all until the boys demanded we do
something else. In that time, I learned how to rack up the points and get into
the top ten for the day. Hacking a Disneyland ride — why not?

I played Astro Blasters for the first time last year, again with the boys. If
you’ve never been, you ride in a little car and shoot at targets with your
blasters. It’s all good fun, set to the theme of Buzz Lightyear, and you can
even spin your car around to better aim at targets.

I just merrily shot at whatever was out there, circle target, triangle
target, square or whatever. The ride instructions tell you to shoot for the lit
targets for more points, so on the few occasions something lit up, I’d go for
them.

At the end, you get your overall score and what level you’re rated at, based
on how many points you’ve racked up. Normally, this is just good fun. But
earlier this week, Dax
Herrera had declared
"I am awesome at Buzz Lightyear Space Command Adventure,"
making me feel really competitive. I wanted to beat him. Beat him bad.

Getting off the fourth time, it finally occurred to me that those different
shaped targets might be worth different points. I asked the ride attendant which was worth the most. The triangles, he said.

Next time, it was all about hitting the triangles. But there aren’t many
triangles! What was worth more — diamonds, circles or squares? Glancing at the
counter, I quickly found that circles are a waste of time at 100 points, while
squares brought in 1,000 and diamonds even more.

Sadly, I couldn’t convince the kids to let me do a sixth run, so that I could
better prioritize my targets. Still, I came in just short of 500,000 points,
enough to be in the top five for the day. OK, it was barely a day, only an hour
or so old at that point. But I’m going to get them to let me go one more time
later this week, and then we’ll see if I can do even better.

Want to improve your own scores?
Buzz Lightyear
Tips from DisneyMouseLinks is a nice rundown showing the full point chart:

• Round: 100 points
• Square: 1,000 points
• Diamond: 5,000 points
• Triangle: 10,000 points

The page also lists some hidden targets to go after I’m going to try for
these next time.

Another tip from me. If you’ve hit your target (assuming you aimed for a high
point one), keep shooting at it. At first, I’d hit a target, which makes it
sparkle, and assumed that I needed to find another target until the sparkling
stopped. Not so. If you hit, keep plugging away at it. Each hit will make your
gun light up at the back, and the score will keep rising. Stick with a winning
shot as long as you can.

In other Disney news, Dax noted that Pirates Of The Caribbean had sold out to
be more like the movie in lame ways. I was relieved to find the ride is pretty
much as it always has been. But he’s right — Jack Sparrow has been inserted awkwardly. The rule seems to be that in any part of the
ride, some character
needs to shout out "blah blah blah JACK SPARROW blah blah blah," and the movie
connection is somehow satisfied.

It’s always nice to get back to Disneyland. Growing up in Orange
Country, Disneyland wasn’t a place you went to on vacation. It was a place you
hung out at, like the mall or the beach. The place keeps changing — the entire
California Adventure area sits where we used to park — but it still feels like
coming home.