Dreamcast-Talk.com

Gameplay

Ok, so I wanted to play something different, & since the Army Men series has a reputation for being the worst war games on earth, I decided to give it a try. (What can I say; I'm always a sucker for the underdog type of stuff)

So what did I find out? I was pleasantly amused by the hybrid between a war sim & a 3rd person shooter that this game seems to be. The first 2 missions or so are far too easy & stupid, but stick with it & it'll grow on you. The controls do the job, they could be a bit more tweaked, but once you get used to them, its not so bad. You get to run around doing missions (saving folks, blowing stuff up & more of the usual army stuff). The levels start out easy, but tend to get bigger later on. Lots (well enough ) of weapons to pick up, from your basic machinegun, to grenade launchers, bazooka, blowtorch, sniper rifle, etc...
You don't really have to aim, as soon as you face an enemy, you'll see a crosshair appearing on him & you just have to pull the trigger. You can walk/run, prone & crouch. I really liked the sneaking up on an enemy & then taking him out with your sniper rifle. The AI isn't all that smart, most guys are killed off very easily, but then you turn round a corner & there's a guy with an M60, or a bazooka who fires it at you at point blank range .
There are parts in this game when I really wanted to shoot myself in the foot (no pun intended), & other parts where I laughed a lot.

Graphics

Well, its an army men game, so there's the green army, who are green , the tan army who are yellow & a few others too, but only every now & then, its mainly green vs yellow (tan). The graphics are a bit better than its n64 counterpart, but they don't do the dreamcast justice. On the other hand, although a little bit blocky here & there, it suits the game, creates the right athmosphere & gets the job done. Seems to run at a constant decent framerate too, even in the bigger levels with more enemies.

Sound/Music

Very good in this department imo. Guns & explosions sound realistic. Music varies from point to point in the game; For example while in a forest, the music will be silent, to practically non existant; then suddenly you enter a minefield & the music that starts is suspense-like & really makes you wanna play it carefully.
Some (bad) army humor in the (fully spoken) cutscenes between the levels too.

Story

Its an army game, what do you expect? You blow everything up & get to save the girl.

Replay

And here's the bad part. I REALLY enjoyed this game, BUT I don't think I'll play it again any time soon. Its basically mission after mission shooting & blowing stuff up. Don't get me wrong, it isn't a bad game, perhaps its coz I finished it in a week or so that I don't want to play it again say in a month or 2. Story mode offers no replay imo. There is a deathmach mode however, where you get the blow up your friends & although I haven't had the chance to try it out, I'm kinda thinking this is where its replay value really lies.

Overall
6,5/10

I really want to give it a 7, but with no replay value...
Anyway, if you like 3rd person & blowing stuff up, I suggest you give it a try. But try to stick with it for a few levels, its stupid at first, but it really grows on you.


Sorry, not vids this time; we'll be moving soon & most of my camera stuff is already packed

This game looks like it's a capitalization of the Pixar movie, "Toy Story", being the "Sarge" is featured during a scene where they scout out Andy's birthday presents (great scene in that movie).

This game was created by the now defunct 3DO Company which brought me many of the Might and Magic games that I hold dear!

I never really got into Army Men series when it first came out but while I was working at the local KB toy store I lifted a copy just for kicks.

I was pleasantly amused by it. I think I tried to play it recently and got all the way up to the snow level before I called it quits.

Solid 7/10

Nice review, now I want to give this a try.

mazonemayu wrote:There is a deathmach mode however, where you get the blow up your friends & although I haven't had the chance to try it out, I'm kinda thinking this is where its replay value really lies.

Yes. This is one of the more amusing multi-player-on-couch fps's, and while the split screen makes you want to goudge out your eyes (not as bad as unreal tournaments without vga....), this is the light-hearted sort of game that makes for a very great time.

Favorite quote while playing this with two friends;

"You ass, did you just melt me?"

- 7.
fun game:)

overall this is not a bad game but i still gave it a 5. the reason for the 5 is that is wasn't much of an improvement over the playstation version. if this review was for the playstaion version i might have given it as high as an 8.

Nice review! I had one of the Army Men games on the original Playstation. It was surprisingly decent.

Certainly no where near as bad as reviews of the time indicated. Reasonably playable and decent knockabout fun. Much better than the Ps1 incarnations.

The camera in the N64( my fav. console ever ) version made that one basically unplayable. Is the Dreamcast versions camera better? In the other it always took the camera WAY too long to move after you tried to scout out around you and when it did move it acted like it had had a few beers to drink.