VIDEO GAME REVIEW

Military madness

Although playing the latest in 3DO’s Army Men franchise is easier, funnier and more exciting than actual boot camp, there are still a few complications. Possibly the two games in question are somewhat flimsy simply because they’re PC titles – obviously, a joystick control is more effective than the click of a mouse button. But regardless, both Toys in Space and Air Tactics have a bit more training to do with Uncle Sam.

First, Air Tactics. The better of the pair, the idea behind Army Men seems to have been misplaced with this helicopter ballet. The joy of the original PlayStation and Nintendo 64 games was that the player controlled a single unit, roaming the battlefields for enemies to snipe at, toss grenades at or run over with a tank. Here, the player only has command over the flight stick in an attempt to rescue captured troops and evade enemy fire. The sad thing is that complete freedom is ripped away from the gamer. Even though you’re the pilot, you can’t change the altitude of your helicopter unless the computer initiates it; you can’t land unless you find predetermined helipads and (arguably the worst feature of all) firing on ground opponents is nearly impossible.

But the second of these games offers a jump back to the past. Similar to the other Army Men games, Toys in Space allows the player to actually maneuver Sarge, the leader of the infantry. However, instead of a backside view of your character, Space twists the Army Men universe a bit, supplying a rather inventive upper-atmosphere vantage point. Unfortunately, this is also one of the major downfalls of the game. This heavenly overview happens to pose more difficulty, seeing as passing even one level takes about 30 minutes of patience and very stealthy moves.

With a vast empire of Army Men games still in development, there might be a more promising line of PC titles arriving soon. But until the kinks are ironed out, it might be best to stay glued to the console editions.

Jon M. Gibson writes about video games for Metro Times.