Army Men
Army Men | |
---|---|
Composers |
Jason Tai (Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2) Barry Blum: (Army Men 2, Sarge's Heroes, Toys in Space, Army Men 3D) Brian Min: (Army Men: Air Tactics) |
First release |
Army Men 1998 |
Latest release |
Army Men: Mobile Ops 2010 |
Spin-offs | Portal Runner |
Army Men is a series of video games developed by 3DO[1] and Global Star Software. It is based on various conflicts between four kinds of plastic army men, distinguished by their color: the Green, the Tan, the Blue, and the Grey. Two other factions, the Red and the Orange, as well as a much smaller army, the Black, also contribute to the story. Two additional factions, the Galactic Army and the Alien Army, were introduced in Army Men: Toys in Space.
Games
Title | Release date | Platforms | Genre | Information |
---|---|---|---|---|
Army Men | 1998 | Windows, Game Boy Color | Real-time tactics | The first game of the series. Released for PC in 1998, then later ported to Game Boy Color in 2000. The game allows the player to carry out challenging missions, such as breaking friendly captured forces out of POW camps and laying siege to enemy bases and towns. The game features weapons such as flamethrowers, cannons, machine guns, grenades, and bazookas and allows the player to drive vehicles such as tanks and jeeps. The game features 28 missions in three different terrains. The player can call for air strikes, paratroop drops, and air reconnaissance. The game includes multiplayer support for up to four players using an Internet, LAN, Modem, or Serial connection. |
Army Men II | 1999 | Windows, Game Boy Color | Real-time tactics | The direct-sequel to the first game, featuring enemies such as suicide bombers, zombies, and cult members. There is also a wide range of battlefields, such as a kitchen in a representation of our world, where the soldiers are depicted according to realistic dimensions relative to their environment, referred to as the "Big World", or a tank factory in the "Plastic World", the world from which the soldiers originate, with everything being scaled to their size. |
Army Men: Toys in Space | 1999 | Windows | Real-time tactics | The third installment that takes a science fiction direction, and introduces two new armies: the Space Troops and the Aliens, and reorganized control of squads and brought in new weapons and units such as Alien Laser Troopers, Tina's Freeze Ray and her Mini-gun Troopers as well as a small selection of new vehicles. |
Army Men: Air Attack | 1999 | PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Windows, Game Boy Color | Third-person shooter | The first installment in the Air Attack series in which the player player can fly a number of different helicopters.
Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color versions are re-titled Army Men: Air Combat. |
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes | 1999 | Windows, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast | Third-person shooter | The first installment in the Sarge's Heroes series. Sergeant Hawk must reassemble his squad of captured soldiers to defeat General Plastro and his new "Super Weapons" that were taken from the "Big World" dimension through portals that connect to the "Plastic World". |
Army Men: Air Tactics | 1999 | Windows | Real-time tactics | The second installment in the Air Attack series, featuring abilities such as lifting heavy objects and transporting them to other locations, landing on the ground to load/unload soldiers and airborne combat. |
Army Men 3D | 1999 | PlayStation | Third-person shooter | The 3-dimensional remake of the original Army Men game. The main character's goal is to collect the tinker toy keys which lead him to a Portal to the Big World. |
Army Men: World War | 2000 | Windows, PlayStation[2] | Real-time tactics (WIN) Third-person shooter (PS) |
The first installment of the World War series. This game focuses solely on combat in the "Plastic World", with most of the missions being based on World War II. The Windows version is top-down tactical-shooter similar to earlier games in the series. it starts with a D-Day style landing after which there are a number of missions that all have themes from World War II lore, such as "A Bridge Too Far". This is the only game in the series where vehicles can not be controlled by enemy forces also only PC game in the series without an appearance by Sarge. This game also has an in-depth system for organizing large numbers of soldiers under the player's command. The PlayStation version is a third-person shooter with tactical elements, uses similar gameplay and graphics to Army Men 3D.
In the PAL regions PlayStation version re-titled Army Men: Operation Meltdown. |
Army Men: World War - Land, Sea, Air | 2000 | PlayStation | Third-person shooter | The second installment in the World War series. The game is made up of five operations with three missions in each one.
In the PAL regions re-titled Army Men: Land, Sea, Air. |
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2 | 2000 | PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64 | Third-person shooter | The second installment in the Sarge's Heroes series. Sergeant Hawk and his Bravo Company return to stop General Plastro and his tan army once again. this time introduces several new characters, and the concept of "Plastrification". Plastrification, according to Dr. Madd, is a condition that occurs when a soldier from the "Plastic World" spends too much time in the "Big World" causing the hardening of the limbs and the forming of a plastic base. |
Army Men: Operation Green | 2001 | Game Boy Advance | Isometric shooter | The player a generic Green soldier in a 3-D isometric world. This title is set almost exclusively in the Plastic World, and several vehicles are available to drive. |
Army Men: World War - Final Front | 2001 | PlayStation | Third-person shooter | The third installment in the World War series. It features four fronts with three missions in each one. The Tan Army once again launches an unprovoked attack upon the Green Army, so the Green retaliate by attacking the Tan capital. When they discover that the Tan have created weapons of mass destruction, they declare a full-scale war against the Tan and deploy their forces worldwide to destroy the revived Tan Army and its new weapons. This game introduces submarine warfare to the World War titles.
In the PAL regions re-titled Army Men: Lock 'N' Load. |
Army Men: Green Rogue | 2001 | PlayStation, PlayStation 2 | Shoot 'em up | Set during the time of "Sarge's Heroes", the Green Army creates a super soldier composed of DNA spliced from all the members of Bravo Company. Plastro tries to capture the super soldier, but the crash-landing of the helicopter transporting it inadvertently awakens Omega Soldier, causing a one-man rampage against Tan forces.
In the PAL regions re-titled Army Men: Omega Soldier. |
Army Men: Advance | 2001 | Game Boy Advance | Top-down shooter | The player can choose between Sarge, or Vikki, and receives several objectives by radio, such as recruiting fellow squad members, escaping from prison, or breaking into enemy installations. |
Army Men: Air Attack 2 | 2001 | PlayStation, PlayStation 2 | Third-person shooter | The third installment in the Air Attack series. The game takes place after the previous game in the Air Attack series. Captain Blade returns to the cockpit to aid aerial support for Sergeant Hawk and his squad.
In the PAL regions PlayStation 2 version re-titled Army Men: Air Attack - Blade's Revenge. |
Portal Runner | 2001 | PlayStation 2, Game Boy Color | Platform | Spin-off of Sarge's Heroes series. focused on Vikki Grimm and Bridgette Bleu. Bleu traps Vikki Grimm in another dimension through the use of a portal. Vikki and a lion named Leo must find the right portal to take them back to the "Plastic World". |
Army Men: World War - Team Assault | 2001 | PlayStation | Third-person shooter | The fourth and last installment in the World War series.
In the PAL regions re-titled Army Men: Team Assault. |
Army Men: RTS | 2002 | Windows, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube | Real-time strategy | This Army Men installment is a 3D Real Time Strategy game, featuring base building, and a fully 3D camera. |
Army Men: Turf Wars | 2002 | Game Boy Advance | Isometric shooter | The Tan Army has struck once again and has taken over a Green Army base. Colonel Grimm has formed a two-man team: Sergeant Hawk and a blue spy to fight the Tan Army. |
Army Men: Air Combat - The Elite Missions | 2003 | Nintendo GameCube | Third-person shooter | The fourth and last installment in the Air Attack series. an expansion to the original game with upgraded features, graphics, and new levels. |
Army Men: Sarge's War | 2004 | Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube | Third-person shooter | The third and last Installment in the Sarge's Heroes series. Lord Malice has formed a secret militia of Tans, who have attacked the Green and Tan nations at the Green-Tan peace ceremony by detonating a massive bomb smuggled within a commemorative statue. Everyone, including Colonel Grimm, Vikki, and General Plastro, have been killed. However, Sergeant Hawk and Malice's militia have survived. Sarge then seeks revenge on Lord Malice. |
Army Men: Major Malfunction | 2006 | PlayStation 2, Xbox | Third-person shooter | A loose follow-up to the original series. The main character is a generic green soldier named Private Anderson who's main objective is to stop a villain called "Major Malfunction" from taking over his toy army base. |
Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune | 2008 | PlayStation 2, Wii, Nintendo DS | Platform | not officially part of the series. The player assumes the role of a young boy named Timmy, who imagines himself as a toy soldier and uses weapons such as a miniature dart to avoid toy obstacles. |
Army Men: Mobile Ops | 2010 | Mobile | Isometric shooter | The last installment in the series. brings back the original story: the war between the Green and the Tan army. |
End of 3DO
Army Men: RTS was the last Army Men game to be released by the 3DO Company before they filed for chapter eleven bankruptcy. The major franchises were auctioned off, and Army Men was purchased by Global Star Software (now known as 2K Play).
In 2004, Global Star published Sarge's War. The PS2 and Xbox versions were completed by some members of the original Sarge's War development team from 3DO. Global Star then released Army Men: Major Malfunction for the Xbox (as well as for the PlayStation 2 in limited regions), and planned a Nintendo DS version, which was not released. Army Men: Mobile Ops is currently the latest game in the series. Future installments are possible, but unlikely, due to the poor critical and commercial performance of Major Malfunction and Soldiers of Misfortune.[3][4]
Criticism
While originally well-received, the sequential titles seemed to decline in quality due to amount of installments getting developed and released just months from each-other in a rushed state. The Army Men series during its later years was mostly infamous by several parts of the video game media, including X-Play[5] and Seanbaby of EGM,[6] for the frequency and declining quality of each new title. The Official UK PlayStation Magazine awarded six games in the series a score of 3/10 or less.[7]
Developers By Year
- The 3DO Company 1998–2004,
- Digital Eclipse Software 1998–1999,
- Saffire Corporation 2000,
- Fluid Studios 2000,
- GameBrains 2000,
- 3d6 Games 2000,
- Pocket Studios 2001,
- Handheld Games 2001,
- DC Studios Games 2001,
- Pandemic Studios 2002,
- Mobius Entertainment 2002,
- Coyote Developments LTD. 2004,
- Tactical Development 2004,
- Team17 Software 2006,
- TwistBox Entertainment 2010,
Publishers By Year
- The 3DO Company 1999–2004,
- Midway Games 2000,
- Global Star Software 2004–2006,
- 2K Games 2006-Present
- Destination Software Inc. 2008,
- Zoo Games 2008,
- Connect2Media 2010.
References
- ↑ http://www.gamespot.com/army-men/reviews/2538043/army-men-review/platform/pc/[]
- ↑ "Army Men: World War Walkthrough - YouTube". youtube.com. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ↑ "Army Men: Major Malfunction for Xbox Reviews - Metacritic". metacritic.com. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ↑ "Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune for DS Reviews - Metacritic". metacritic.com. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ↑ Uzuki, Heero (2012-10-07). "Video Game Feature". G4tv.com. Retrieved 2012-10-23.
- ↑ "EGM's Uncensored Greatest Hits". Seanbaby.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-19. Retrieved 2012-10-23.
- ↑ A-Z ratings, Official UK PlayStation Magazine, Future Publishing issue 108, March 2004