PixlBit

Real combat, plastic men.

Now this game brings me back. A childhood friend of mine bought this game when it was available in stores, and he loved it. I wasn't really into it myself, but I still played the multiplayer with him and his brother, because they refused to play anything else if I didn't.

As the title mentions, this is a third-person shooting game featuring little toy army men. Since all of the characters are plastic, you can expect the game to be free of blood and gore; anyone feeling a little bloodthirsty would be let down by that! The story involves a war between the "good" forces of the Green Army and the "evil" forces of the Tan Army. It is never explained why the two colours of toys are battling, but wondering such a thing may be overthinking the simplistic story. The toys live in their own universe and discover a portal to a strange world ("the real world"), and the Tan Army have taken powerful weapons from it which they are using against the Green Army.

The levels of the game are about split evenly between the Army Men universe and the real world. The stages of the real world are far more interesting and creative, as the tiny men battle in the kitchen fridge, on living room couches, and even in a bathtub. There is quite a bit of detail to these areas, which gives a real feeling of battling in a huge house. The levels of the Army Men universe are kind of dull by comparison, as they are very much like generic real-world environments such as a boot camp, small village, and a forest. It would have been preferred if the game took place entirely within the oversized real world.

The controls have a couple of problems which make them hinder the game. Instead of mapping strafe to something like C-left and C-right, there is a strafe button that, when held, makes left and right on the analogue stick become strafing. The problem with this is that it doesn't allowing turning whilst strafing, which can make certain combat situations more difficult than they need to be. There is no way to look up or down on the fly. If there is an enemy above or below, there are two options: stand still and hold the "R" button to aim, or hope that the auto-aim kicks in.

Army Men Sarge's Heroes is a creative concept, but it has some control issues that really bog it down. It's also rather short, with a campaign that can be completed in a few hours. Still, with few third-person shooters to choose from on the Nintendo 64, this one is worth a look.