Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
1. Tormented Souls - Switch
2. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II - PC
3. Fantasy Empires - PC
4. Vagrant Story - PS1
5. Might and Magic 7: For Blood and Honor - PC
6. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - Switch
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project - NES
8. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - PS5
9. Tomb Raider Remastered - PC
10. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth - PS5
11. Unicorn Overlord - Switch
12. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries: Solaris Showdown - PC
13. Princess Peach: Showtime - Switch
Showtime is the second game that Princess Peach headlines, after Super Princess Peach. Once again, it is a game on the easier side, designed to pull in new players who might not otherwise play video games. And in some ways, it's reminiscent of WarioWare.
The setup is that Peach is going to a famous theater, but after she arrives a dark magician known as Madame Grape invades with her henchman and wants to turn all the plays into tragedies. It's up to Peach to jump into each play, take on the powers of the leading character of each play, and take back the theater.
The game uses a very simple control setup. You have a jump button and an action button. The action button does a different thing depending on the character you're embodying. If you're a swordsman it does sword slashes, while if you're a mermaid it lets you direct the fishes who follow your song. Each stage is fairly short, with a variety of hidden shinies (required to unlock bosses, but you'll get all you need normally). Since each stage involves a different set of powers it's more like eight small games, rather than one large game (so more like WarioWare's micro games, but longer than three seconds). There are a total of eight roles, with three stages per role and a total of four bosses.
The game doesn't overstay it's welcome. There's some 100%ing you can do, but it's not worth it, and there's a lot of "did you notice this?" type hidden shinies that get locked behind points of no return in the short stages. And some of them you get one chance in an autoscroller before having to restart the stage. All in all, it's mildly entertaining for its runtime, but if you've been playing a lot of platformers you won't really find any real challenge here.
Games Beaten 2024
Re: Games Beaten 2024
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Games Beaten 2024
Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
1. Tormented Souls - Switch
2. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II - PC
3. Fantasy Empires - PC
4. Vagrant Story - PS1
5. Might and Magic 7: For Blood and Honor - PC
6. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - Switch
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project - NES
8. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - PS5
9. Tomb Raider Remastered - PC
10. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth - PS5
11. Unicorn Overlord - Switch
12. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries: Solaris Showdown - PC
13. Princess Peach: Showtime - Switch
14. Fida Puti Samurai - PC
Fida Puti Samurai is an indie FPS that has very light rogue elements and a lot of waifus. As in, all of your enemies are waifus. But there's a reason for it, though you won't get that explanation until you're about 3/4 of the way through the game.
You are Liza, and your boyfriend has just introduced you to a virtual world he created so you can have a nice chill place to relax. But while exploring you discover a portal that leads to some weird streets, with a big green wall that slowly creeps up to you and a bunch of hostile waifus. You decide that you're going to get to the bottom of what is going on, as your boyfriend is not very forthcoming.
The basic setup of the game loop is that there are three zones you need to beat in a run. Each zone involves alternating sections of a randomly generated street section (various small shops that have pickups) and then a fixed dungeon area. In a given run, the order you do the dungeons in a zone is random, but each dungeon always has the same layout, the sane ememies, and the same areas where you can get pickups. At the end of a zone is a boss fight. If you finish all three zones you move the story forward. You end up having to do a total of (nearly) five full runs to fully push the story forward and end the game. I say nearly, because on the fourth run you end up terminating early, but it'll be shortly before the boss section.
Dying in a run resets your progress on the run, but there are mechanisms to gain power that will persist. Whenever you pick up a gun in a run it becomes available for purchase on your computer. You can then bring one of those guns to the start of your next run. After a successful run you can spend cash to unlock an additional starting slot. So while the first run ends up taking the longest to successfully beat, each subsequent one is much faster thanks to your better starting conditions (even though each subsequent run has harder enemies).
Another important thing is the secrets. There are multiple secrets in each fixed area, and they are very much worth finding. Aside from the standard bonus health and armor and ammo, sometimes you can get a high level weapon pickup (great for buying after the run). And there are a series of figurines you can find in the stages (shoot to unlock) that are then purchasable outside a run. These provide a bunch of important passive bonuses, like extra max health, more armor on armor pickups, and more ammo drops of a given type. Resource management is a big component of a successful run, so you'll definitely need to hunt down these figures to improve said resource management.
The gunplay is fast and furious, and you will quickly learn the best ways to approach the handful of enemy types. There is a great variety in weapons, and while there are obvious better and worse weapons, you'll find that you'll be regularly switching between a few different weapons depending on the circumstances (not to mention ammo concerns).
Overall, it's a fun little indie FPS, though you'll want to be aware of the various amount of skimpy low-poly girls that make up your foes. The beginning can be a bit of a slog due to how resource constrained you are, but if you can push through that first full run things get much better. And it definitely will trigger that "one more try" feeling.
1. Tormented Souls - Switch
2. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II - PC
3. Fantasy Empires - PC
4. Vagrant Story - PS1
5. Might and Magic 7: For Blood and Honor - PC
6. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - Switch
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project - NES
8. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - PS5
9. Tomb Raider Remastered - PC
10. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth - PS5
11. Unicorn Overlord - Switch
12. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries: Solaris Showdown - PC
13. Princess Peach: Showtime - Switch
14. Fida Puti Samurai - PC
Fida Puti Samurai is an indie FPS that has very light rogue elements and a lot of waifus. As in, all of your enemies are waifus. But there's a reason for it, though you won't get that explanation until you're about 3/4 of the way through the game.
You are Liza, and your boyfriend has just introduced you to a virtual world he created so you can have a nice chill place to relax. But while exploring you discover a portal that leads to some weird streets, with a big green wall that slowly creeps up to you and a bunch of hostile waifus. You decide that you're going to get to the bottom of what is going on, as your boyfriend is not very forthcoming.
The basic setup of the game loop is that there are three zones you need to beat in a run. Each zone involves alternating sections of a randomly generated street section (various small shops that have pickups) and then a fixed dungeon area. In a given run, the order you do the dungeons in a zone is random, but each dungeon always has the same layout, the sane ememies, and the same areas where you can get pickups. At the end of a zone is a boss fight. If you finish all three zones you move the story forward. You end up having to do a total of (nearly) five full runs to fully push the story forward and end the game. I say nearly, because on the fourth run you end up terminating early, but it'll be shortly before the boss section.
Dying in a run resets your progress on the run, but there are mechanisms to gain power that will persist. Whenever you pick up a gun in a run it becomes available for purchase on your computer. You can then bring one of those guns to the start of your next run. After a successful run you can spend cash to unlock an additional starting slot. So while the first run ends up taking the longest to successfully beat, each subsequent one is much faster thanks to your better starting conditions (even though each subsequent run has harder enemies).
Another important thing is the secrets. There are multiple secrets in each fixed area, and they are very much worth finding. Aside from the standard bonus health and armor and ammo, sometimes you can get a high level weapon pickup (great for buying after the run). And there are a series of figurines you can find in the stages (shoot to unlock) that are then purchasable outside a run. These provide a bunch of important passive bonuses, like extra max health, more armor on armor pickups, and more ammo drops of a given type. Resource management is a big component of a successful run, so you'll definitely need to hunt down these figures to improve said resource management.
The gunplay is fast and furious, and you will quickly learn the best ways to approach the handful of enemy types. There is a great variety in weapons, and while there are obvious better and worse weapons, you'll find that you'll be regularly switching between a few different weapons depending on the circumstances (not to mention ammo concerns).
Overall, it's a fun little indie FPS, though you'll want to be aware of the various amount of skimpy low-poly girls that make up your foes. The beginning can be a bit of a slog due to how resource constrained you are, but if you can push through that first full run things get much better. And it definitely will trigger that "one more try" feeling.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Games Beaten 2024
Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
1. Tormented Souls - Switch
2. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II - PC
3. Fantasy Empires - PC
4. Vagrant Story - PS1
5. Might and Magic 7: For Blood and Honor - PC
6. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - Switch
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project - NES
8. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - PS5
9. Tomb Raider Remastered - PC
10. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth - PS5
11. Unicorn Overlord - Switch
12. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries: Solaris Showdown - PC
13. Princess Peach: Showtime - Switch
14. Fida Puti Samurai - PC
15. Fallout New Vegas: Dead Money - PC
After making my way through the Fallout show, I decided I should take the time and make my way through the New Vegas DLC that's been sitting on my account for over a decade. Unlike the Fallout 3 DLC, New Vegas's DLC are connected to each other, with an underlying plot running through the four.
Dead Money begins when you follow a radio transmission to a bunker. You are knocked out and wake up outside the Sierra Madre Casino, stripped of your gear and with an explosive collar around your neck. You're informed by a man named Father Elijah that he needs you and a few other collared individuals to help him break into the Casino's vault. But this isn't a simple heist; the Casino has a history that you will uncover and you have to decide what is really important to you.
The lack of gear creates a very different feeling from other New Vegas content. You can snag a handful of weapons and some ammo, but supplies are limited. Additionally, the enemies you fight can only be killed through dismemberment; hope you are good at blowing heads off. A stealthy approach behooves you, though Fallout's stealth system isn't great, so a mixture of ambushes, fights, and running are all required. There is some light puzzle solving as you make your way through, as there are invincible holograms that need to be dodged and radios and speakers which will set off your collar due to interference if you can't shut them off. It's a change of pace from regular Fallout content, but the engine was never designed for it and it ends up being more frustrating than fun.
Dead Money begins to set up the plotline that carries through the rest of the DLC. So far there wasn't anything major that seems critical to the plot, but maybe I'll recognize things in hindsight. That said, you'll have it if you have the rest, so you might as well play through.
1. Tormented Souls - Switch
2. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II - PC
3. Fantasy Empires - PC
4. Vagrant Story - PS1
5. Might and Magic 7: For Blood and Honor - PC
6. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - Switch
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project - NES
8. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - PS5
9. Tomb Raider Remastered - PC
10. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth - PS5
11. Unicorn Overlord - Switch
12. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries: Solaris Showdown - PC
13. Princess Peach: Showtime - Switch
14. Fida Puti Samurai - PC
15. Fallout New Vegas: Dead Money - PC
After making my way through the Fallout show, I decided I should take the time and make my way through the New Vegas DLC that's been sitting on my account for over a decade. Unlike the Fallout 3 DLC, New Vegas's DLC are connected to each other, with an underlying plot running through the four.
Dead Money begins when you follow a radio transmission to a bunker. You are knocked out and wake up outside the Sierra Madre Casino, stripped of your gear and with an explosive collar around your neck. You're informed by a man named Father Elijah that he needs you and a few other collared individuals to help him break into the Casino's vault. But this isn't a simple heist; the Casino has a history that you will uncover and you have to decide what is really important to you.
The lack of gear creates a very different feeling from other New Vegas content. You can snag a handful of weapons and some ammo, but supplies are limited. Additionally, the enemies you fight can only be killed through dismemberment; hope you are good at blowing heads off. A stealthy approach behooves you, though Fallout's stealth system isn't great, so a mixture of ambushes, fights, and running are all required. There is some light puzzle solving as you make your way through, as there are invincible holograms that need to be dodged and radios and speakers which will set off your collar due to interference if you can't shut them off. It's a change of pace from regular Fallout content, but the engine was never designed for it and it ends up being more frustrating than fun.
Dead Money begins to set up the plotline that carries through the rest of the DLC. So far there wasn't anything major that seems critical to the plot, but maybe I'll recognize things in hindsight. That said, you'll have it if you have the rest, so you might as well play through.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Games Beaten 2024
Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
1. Tormented Souls - Switch
2. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II - PC
3. Fantasy Empires - PC
4. Vagrant Story - PS1
5. Might and Magic 7: For Blood and Honor - PC
6. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - Switch
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project - NES
8. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - PS5
9. Tomb Raider Remastered - PC
10. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth - PS5
11. Unicorn Overlord - Switch
12. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries: Solaris Showdown - PC
13. Princess Peach: Showtime - Switch
14. Fida Puti Samurai - PC
15. Fallout New Vegas: Dead Money - PC
16. Fallout New Vegas: Honest Hearts - PC
Honest Hearts is the second piece of DLC for New Vegas, and it sends you to Utah to encounter a man mentioned many times in the base game, but never seen. You finally encounter Joshua Graham, aka The Burned Man, the one who was Caesar's previous legate before losing the battle of the Hoover Dam and being executed for his failure (but surviving).
The basic setup is the tribes of Utah are warring, and you need to find a solution. There's two good tribes and one bad tribe, and the basic choice is between helping the good ones escape or taking out the bad one. You do several preliminary quests first, setting things up for the escape before you're given the choice for violence instead.
Thing is, the story is much thinner than in Dead Money. There's not really much explaining why the warring is going on other than the standard "some people suck in the future". And you don't explore any of Joshua Graham's backstory. There's not really anything exploring his previous time with Caesar, just the fact that he's still fairly bloodthirsty. And things don't really tie in much with the background thread that we saw in Dead Money, just a brief mention. Overall, a missed opportunity.
1. Tormented Souls - Switch
2. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II - PC
3. Fantasy Empires - PC
4. Vagrant Story - PS1
5. Might and Magic 7: For Blood and Honor - PC
6. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - Switch
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project - NES
8. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - PS5
9. Tomb Raider Remastered - PC
10. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth - PS5
11. Unicorn Overlord - Switch
12. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries: Solaris Showdown - PC
13. Princess Peach: Showtime - Switch
14. Fida Puti Samurai - PC
15. Fallout New Vegas: Dead Money - PC
16. Fallout New Vegas: Honest Hearts - PC
Honest Hearts is the second piece of DLC for New Vegas, and it sends you to Utah to encounter a man mentioned many times in the base game, but never seen. You finally encounter Joshua Graham, aka The Burned Man, the one who was Caesar's previous legate before losing the battle of the Hoover Dam and being executed for his failure (but surviving).
The basic setup is the tribes of Utah are warring, and you need to find a solution. There's two good tribes and one bad tribe, and the basic choice is between helping the good ones escape or taking out the bad one. You do several preliminary quests first, setting things up for the escape before you're given the choice for violence instead.
Thing is, the story is much thinner than in Dead Money. There's not really much explaining why the warring is going on other than the standard "some people suck in the future". And you don't explore any of Joshua Graham's backstory. There's not really anything exploring his previous time with Caesar, just the fact that he's still fairly bloodthirsty. And things don't really tie in much with the background thread that we saw in Dead Money, just a brief mention. Overall, a missed opportunity.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Games Beaten 2024
Games Beaten in 2024 - 10
* denotes a replay
January (1 Game Beaten)
February (1 Game Beaten)
March (3 Game Beaten)
April (5 Games Beaten)
4. Army Men: Toys in Space - PC - March 20*
After Army Men II, I kind of thought 3DO perfected the Army Men formula. Where could they possibly go up from there? Like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, they answered that question with (read this in Tim Curry's voice, please) "Space!" Adding aliens is when most series jump the shark. Army Men's advantage, however, is that it started off in mid-air over the shark, so this pretty much just ends up feeling like "Eh, okay. Aliens. Why not?"
The story takes place after the events of Army Men II. As the Green and Tan armies continue to clash, a flying saucer descends from orbit and crash lands in Tan territory. General Plastro of the Tan Army manages to strike up an alliance with the Aliens to crush the Green Army. In exchange, the Tan agree to aid the Aliens in their war against the Galactic Army. Naturally, the Galactic Army and its leader, Tina Tomorrow, ally with the Green Army. While this pretty much just ends up being more of the same gameplay but with sci-fi units thrown into the mix, when you're getting more of something that's fantastic like Army Men II's gameplay, that's nothing but a good thing.
Graphically, it's a little bit better than Army Men II. The colors are a bit more saturated, and the visuals look a bit sharper, but it's generally what you would expect from an Army Men II sequel. I don't think the music is quite as good, but the sound effects are either the same or slightly improved depending on the specific sound effect. The new sound effects, though, like the lasers and the alien death noises, are awesome. The laser weapons have a deep, meaty sound to them.
There are some awesome new weapons here. You can upgrade the vulcan gun to a laser rifle, you can get napalm mortars and air strikes, and you can call in a spacecraft to beam down Galactic Army troops the same way you can call in a plane to drop Green paratroopers in. The AI is honestly my biggest complaint about the game. The enemy AI will usually put up a good, stiff challenge, but the AI for your troops? Dumb as a sack of rocks. Doorways and small rocks are the bane of the Green Army.
Army Men: Toys in Space is a weird follow-up to Army Men II, but it's definitely a good one. It's got a custom battle mode very similar to Army Men II's, and that's where you'll probably spend the majority of your time. I played through the campaign in like once or twice as a kid and then dumped a few hundred hours into the custom battles. I'm not sure I'd call this a "must play" if you just want the random custom battles - stick with Army Men II - but if you want a new experience of the same style, then Toys in Space is exactly what you want. The campaign falls far short of Army Men II's campaign in my opinion, but it's still a fun playthrough.
5. Army Men: World War - PC - March 22
Army Men: World War - not to be confused with the PS1 game that has the exact same title and the exact same box art but is a completely different game - is the fourth PC game in the series coming after Toys in Space. On PlayStation, there are four different “Army Men: World War" games making it a sub-series of sorts, and they’re considered to be a separate timeline from Army Men 1, 2, and Toys in Space. I’m not sure if World War on PC is also a different timeline or if it takes place at the same time as the first game, but honestly, it doesn’t really matter; deep storylines have never been Army Men’s cup of tea.
Unlike the other games in the series, there is no “protagonist;” you play as random Green soldiers. When the soldier you’re controlling dies, you move to control another soldier under your command. As you progress through the levels of the game, you gain more soldiers under your command that follow you from level to level. You can even have soldiers enter tanks that follow you to the next level. The lack of a protagonist means that there’s not as cohesive a story, but there is a story there, and while it’s not great, it’s okay and serves nicely as a narrative backdrop for the action. The game looks nice, too, although it is worth noting that the item icons aren’t quite the same as they were in Army Men II and Toys in Space. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the visuals online, but I was pretty happy with the way the game looked. It did feel like it was rushed a bit more than II and Toys in Space but not to the point where it’s a true detriment to the game; there’s just a noticeable drop in polish.
The story may suffer for lack of a single protagonist, but the level design is fantastic. The game opens with a D-Day style beach invasion against Tan defenses. The first level starts off fairly easy, naturally, to get you acclimated to the game, but it’s an awesome opening engagement. As the game progresses, you’ll have a variety of missions like destroying Tan artillery, blowing up a Tan tank depot, shutting down Tan AA guns to allow for air strikes, etc. The game’s first 14 levels culminate in the final mission in the Tan capital where you fight your way through the city and destroy their capitol building. That last mission is TOUGH. It’s not quite as tough as Toys in Space was in its last couple of missions, but you’d better have a large and strong force to make it through the Tan defenders and manage to destroy their capitol.
The sound design is...fine. It’s not as good as Toys in Space, and it’s nowhere near as good as Army Men II, but at least it’s still leagues better than the first Army Men game. The weapon sound effects are solid, and music, while forgettable, is fine and fits the setting and tone of the game. There’s a random battle mode like with the previous games, and while I didn’t find it to be quite as good as Army Men II or Army Men: Toys in Space, it was still a lot of fun and can add some lasting power for those who give this game a download. Unfortunately, there’s an issue with modern computer mouses. I don’t know if it’s the lack of trackball or modern mouses are just too sensitive and it freaks out, but the cursor will get stuck now and then or jump around. It’s manageable, but it does get really obnoxious and make controlling the game take a little bit of practice.
Army Men: World War may be a step down from Toys in Space and a decent drop from Army Men II, but it’s still a competent entry in the series and a fun game that’s absolutely worth playing. The music may be forgettable and the visuals so-so, but the missions and action are a ton of fun. If you just plan to play random battles instead of the campaign, I can’t really recommend World War when Toys in Space and II do the battle mode better. If you play the game for the campaigns, though, and like the series, that’s a different story. In that case, I absolutely recommend this game. Like the other old Army Men PC games, it’s dirt cheap on Steam and GOG, so give it a download and push back the fascist Tan advance into the liberty-loving Green Nation.
6. Army Men: Mobile Ops - Java-based mobile - April 10
Back in the days before smartphones were a thing, mobile gaming was done with Java based games. Army Men's foray into the Java mobile game space was Mobile Ops, a solidly okay at best game. For a 2010 Java mobile game, it's not horrendous, but it's awkward, clunky, and just...not a great experience. I make a sincere effort to play every game I review on original hardware, but that's sadly just not possible for this one, so I had to use a Windows emulator.
![Image]()
The game's narrative premise is...simple. You're a Green Army recruit who's thrust into his first mission right out of boot camp. That's about it. You do things like save Green POWs, escape a Tan base, etc. Basic Army Men objectives that could fit into literally any game in the series. As it's an old school mobile phone game, the controls are a bit awkward. I mapped the controls to an Xbox One controller to be as comfortable and intuitive as possible, and I still found it pretty awkward. The gameplay itself isn't bad, though. You assemble a squad of three soldiers from the Rifle, Bazooka, Grenade, and Minesweeper classes. Because all damage all day is the way I play literally every game, I went with Rifle, Bazooka, and Grenade for every mission. You can change between them at will, but when one soldier dies, he becomes unavailable and you have to make due with the others. There's also a limited amount of ammo, but due to the weird dimensions of the emulator and the inability to just stretch the screen to fit, I was never able to see my ammo count or even my health. I ended up just shooting until suddenly I couldn't shoot anymore, and I would run around getting shot until I abruptly died. Not ideal, but for a mediocre game on old mobile phones being run through an emulator a decade and a half later, it's passable.
Considering the type of hardware it was made for, the game actually looks pretty good. I thought it looked good blown up on my PC monitor, and with how tiny the screen on an old Nokia phone is, it probably would have looked pretty great on original hardware. Unfortunately, that's about where my praise stops. Gameplay, as I said, is decent but not great. Controls are just awkward and cumbersome, although that's somewhat to be expected on an old cell phone game. The sound is...just terrible. In that regard, it fits right in with the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games from a decade earlier. Sadly, there's just not a whole lot of positive here aside from "It exists and is, in fact, a game." With how difficult it is to get this running on real hardware and how cumbersome and obnoxious Java emulators are for PC and modern smartphones, I honestly do not recommend anyone go out and find a way to play this game. I don't even recommend this to devoted Army Men fans unless you're the most hardcore of the hardcore fans. If it were easily accessible, then I'd definitely recommend checking it out, but with the annoying barriers to entry in the modern day, it's just not worth the hassle.
7. Army Men III - PC - April 11
Technically, Army Men III doesn't actually exist as a commercial game. It's an abandoned fan-made game done in Unreal Engine 4 that takes place after the events of Army Men II but seems to exclude the events of Army Men: Toys in Space. Unfortunately, having been abandoned, the game will probably never be finished and stay in a rough beta state forever. That's a shame, too, because this beta is the foundations of a REALLY good game. Certainly better than the garbage that Global Star Software or Take Two Interactive released.
Picking up after Major Mylar's defeat at the end of Army Men II, this is the fan-made conclusion to what was originally intended to be a trilogy following Sarge's exploits and culminating with a showdown with the mad Grey doctor who created the zombie experiments. Unfortunately, 3DO never finished that story opting to pivot to Army Men: Toys in Space and Army Men: Air Tactics before shifting their focus to the Nintendo 64 and especially the PlayStation. Unlike the overhead tactics-esque gameplay of Army Men and Army Men II, Army Men III takes a third person shooter perspective somewhat akin to Sarge's Heroes but with a faster paced feel. Think Gears of War rather than Uncharted. While the game does follow Sarge's battles, you don't actually play as Sarge. Instead, you play as a Green corporal named Wallace Niles who assists Sarge on his missions, sometimes on the same battlefield and sometimes in a support role by handling a task that frees Sarge up to handle the war's main objectives.
The game was in an alpha or beta state when it was abandoned, so unfortunately, only a quarter of the intended campaign is playable - four, I think, of the intended 16 levels - and what's there, while completely playable and a lot of fun, is pretty buggy. The physics feel weird with bizarre ragdoll effects that would be at home in a Bethesda RPG, and sometimes it takes the game fifteen or twenty seconds to realize you've died before giving you the option to quit or reload. It took me about an hour and a half to get through what of the game was made, so it's not a terribly long demo, but as is the case with the best games in my opinion, what it lacks in quantity of gameplay, it makes up for in quality. This is one of the most addicting non-commercial fan-games I've ever played. I've seen some on ModDB claim this is the "best Army Men game ever," and I'm not prepared to go quite that far - Army Men II and Sarge's Heroes 2 still exist - it is a DAMN good game.
Sound design is a bit wonky, but it's a fan-made game that never got finished and features full voice acting; wonk is part of the deal. Visually, the game looks pretty good for the most part, but there are some visual and performance issues that crop up here and there. Some of the textures look great while others look a bit muddy and blurred. I imagine a lot of that would have been worked out before a final release if the game had gotten one, but as it is, the game is a bit of a mixed bag visually. As for performance, a lot of the game runs extremely smoothly, but there are times where it gets super choppy and chugs for a second or two. I'm running a RTX 4090 and a 13th gen i9, so I know it isn't a hardware issue. Despite that, though, there's a ton of fun to be had here, and the missions give you some solid variety of objectives and a huge array of vehicles and weapons to use to shoot, blow up, or melt your Tan foes. In addition to the campaign, there's also a skirmish mode that lets you battle in some pretty cool and varied environments that you don't get to see in the short available campaign missions.
Army Men III is an interesting experience. As a fan-made game, it's an exceptional foundation, but as the project was abandoned years ago, it will never live up to its full - and undoubtedly awesome - potential. It's got, in my opinion, the most fast paced combat of any Army Men game, and it's a shame that we didn't get to see that fleshed out. If Take-Two would actually DO something with the IP, they could look to Army Men III for inspiration and make an awesome budget game to reboot the series, but as that's unlikely, this unfinished and rough around the edges demo is sadly going to have to suffice for a "modern" Army Men experience. Still, though it's unfinished, it's also free, so there's no reason not to give it a download and try it out.
8. Army Men: World War - Land, Sea, Air - PlayStation - April 15
Army Men, as a series, is almost always a bit rough around the edges. That was certainly true of the first game in the series, and it was true of the first game on the PlayStation, and it's still true for the second game in the Army Men: World War subseries - Land, Sea, Air. If you played Army Men: World War, then you basically know what to expect as this game is largely more of the same. The main difference is the difficulty; this game is genuinely probably the most brutally difficult game in the entire series.
Visually, Land Sea Air is indistinguishable from World War, and that's not entirely a bad thing. It doesn't look great, even by Playstation standards, but I think there's a certain charm in the budget vibe Army Men games have. For the most part, this is more an expansion or continuation of Army Men: World War than anything else. You fight through five operations with three missions each, and as the title suggests, the biggest difference between World War and Land Sea Air is a larger focus on vehicle missions here. One mission, you're manning the guns on a bomber fighting off enemy fighters on the way to drop bombs on a Tan target; in another mission, you man the guns on a tank that rolls through a bombed out city on rails and have to eliminate anti-tank crews before they destroy your vehicle. Those missions are similar to the train mission in the first Army Men: World War game on Playstation, but instead of a fun little diversion from the norm, these missions are really where things start to go downhill. The beginning of the game feels tough but fair - nothing you haven't seen in other Army Men games. Once you reach that God forsaken bomber mission, though, it goes full Dark Souls. The bomber mission nearly had me involuntarily committed. It sounds easy enough - shoot down enemy fighters as they approach, aiming wherever your pilot tells you to (11 o'clock, 4 o'clock, etc) - but the game makes it unreasonably difficult. It requires absolute perfection to a degree only obtainable by repeating the level DOZENS of times and just memorizing where planes appear when. Even if you shoot down every plane before they get to you - something I was able to do after a couple of tries - you'll still die before the end of this unnecessarily long mission simply by the accumulation of small bits of damage; the only way to avoid that is to be shooting at the planes before they even spawn, hence the need for memorization.
It's not just the vehicle levels that are brutal, either; the whole game is unusually tough. The general rule of thumb in war games is that the faster the rate of fire, the lower the accuracy. 3DO apparently forgot about that here; Tan soldiers can pretty much snipe you from the maximum draw distance with a machine gun. If you've ever played Battlefield 2042 against bots, think about the AI sniping you with a PKP in that game; it's the same concept except you're plastic and playing in 240p. That's a shame, too, because the controls are pretty good, at least compared to Army Men 3D. The level variety, too, with the array of different vehicle-based missions really mixes up the experience in a way that Army Men 3D didn't and Army Men: World War didn't do often enough. The game would be a ton of fun to play if it weren't so frustratingly difficult. Maybe in late 90s and early 2000s when I was a kid, I would have been more tolerant of this degree of difficulty since not nearly as many games were releasing and we were still in the days where most games were padded with high difficulty to lengthen the game artifically, but in 2024 at age 32 with a full time job, I just do not have the patience for that. I mean, I clearly pushed through for the sake of my review, but I only managed it because my superpowers are pig headed stubbornness and autism.
Army Men: World War - Land, Sea, Air is, at its core, a pretty decent game. It's not an amazing game - this is Army Men we're talking about - but it's really not bad at its core, and I feel compelled to have my score reflect that. Unfortunately, that core is buried beneath an AI endowed with god-like aim and omniscience and a degree of difficulty that I'm pretty sure violates some part of the Geneva Conventions. If someone could make a ROM hack that just tweaks the difficulty - maybe double the amount of health you have or halve enemy bullet damage - this would be a dope game. As it is, though, it's tragically more frustrating than it is fun, and that's a real bummer since the gameplay isn't what holds it down like the first Army Men and some of the Gold Star Software era games. If you're a big Army Men fan or a Playstation enthusiast, this is a neat system exclusive to try out, but for anyone else, steer clear if you value your sanity and time.
9. Army Men: World War - Final Fronts - PlayStation - April 18
Army Men: World War - Final Front (or Lock 'n' Load as it's called in Europe) is the third game in the Army Men: World War subseries on Playstation. Like Land, Sea, Air before it, Final Front doesn't do a lot to change the formula here. It looks, sounds, and plays almost exactly like the two previous games. Visuals are still mediocre, controls are still a bit clunky, but it's an overall decent Army Men experience. Unfortunately, though, it does fall short of its predecessors in my opinion.
One of the things that Final Front gets very right is the vehicle combat; there are more vehicles to fight in than in Land, Sea, Air with the addition of the motorcycle and the submarine. The submarine is definitely the cooler addition with battles underwater taking place in three dimensions, but the motorcycle was more fun to use purely because of how fast you can move and run over Tan soldiers. These vehicle missions have also lost the rails they tended to have in World War and Land, Sea, Air, giving the player more freedom to use the vehicles to traverse the level. Unfortunately, controlling your actual soldier - which is how the majority of the game is played - is still a slow and cumbersome experience. It's still a fun game in spite of that, as the previous games were, but I had hoped by their fourth PlayStation game and the third game in this subseries, we'd have progressed a bit with the player movement.
As with the other Army Men games on the system, the visuals here are not impressive and do not push the PS1 to its limit. I wouldn't say they're bad, but I do think "sub-par" is a fair descriptor. Like Red Steel was on the Wii; it looked okay, but the Wii hardware was capable of significantly better visuals as we'd see later in its lifespan. However, this game came out a year into its console's successor's lifespan; there's little real excuse for the game to look this meh. Graphics aside, the sound design is a solidly mixed bag. On the one hand, the music is a definite step down from the two previous games. On the other hand, the sound effects are actually fairly impressive with the engine noise sounding appropriate and the crack of rifle fire having a good meaty feel to it. It's a shame, then, that the soldier controls, as I mentioned earlier, are still such garbage. I've heard the game supports Dual Shock controllers though I haven't confirmed that myself and that they make controlling your soldier a lot easier, but with the original PS1 controller, it takes what feels like forever to turn around which makes it hard to respond quickly to enemy fire.
Like most of the Army Men series, World War - Final Front is a middling piece of the PlayStation's library. The visuals sub-par, the controls are outright bad, but the sound and actual gameplay are pretty solid. As I've said with most of the Army Men series, if you're a big fan of the franchise or a passionate collector of PlayStation exclusive games, this one is worth picking up if you can find it fairly inexpensively. It's not going to wow you, and it's definitely not a hidden gem by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a fairly enjoyable war game.
10. Army Men: World War - Team Assault - PlayStation - April 20
The PS1 Army Men: World War subseries always needs to have some sort of gimmick. With the first game, it was "You're not Sarge anymore! Now you're a random Green soldier!" With Land Sea Air, it was "You're a random Green soldier BUT WITH MORE VEHICLE MISSIONS!" With Final Front, it was "You're a random Green soldier with vehicle combat INCLUDING SUBMARINES!" Here with Team Assault, it's "You're a specific commando who isn't Sarge, and there's vehicle and submarine combat, but now there's TWO OF YOU!"
Team Assault follows a team of Green soldiers on a mission that starts with their escape from a Tan POW camp and culminates in the infiltration and destruction of a Tan ballistic missile base. For each mission, you must pick two soldiers from your pool of six. Each of these soldiers have two skills and unique stats. Squirrel, for example, is my favorite and has the Sniper and Communications skills, so he can use radio equipment (required for some missions) and sniper rifles. He's also not very stealthy but has by far the fastest movement speed. I liked pairing him with is Tyke who is super slow, not stealthy at all, but has a ton of hit points and the Heavy Weapons and Linguistics skills meaning that he can use bazookas and mortars as well as Tan disguises. The mixing and matching of soldiers gives your strategy some real depth and variation. It does feel a bit clunky and obnoxious to have to switch between your two soldiers and move them independently, but you get used to it, and once you do, it's not so bad.
Visuals and sound are overall on par with the previous World War games on PlayStation, but the gameplay and controls feel tighter here than in the previous entries. The auto-aim feature felt a lot more polished and a lot smoother, and that definitely helps mitigate some of the more frustrating aspects of combat in the previous games. It's not perfect - you'll still routinely shoot to the left of an enemy, then to the right, then back to the left, and THEN actually shoot him - but it's a huge step up. I thought World War was a pretty good length as it is, and I thought Land Sea Air was too long given how brutally difficult it is, but with Team Assault, I actually found myself wishing there were more there. The game consists of 16 missions, and even with dying and restarting, it took me under three hours to clear.
Army Men: World War - Team Assault is, in my opinion, the best of the four World War subseries games on Playstation. Honestly, the only thing keeping me from scoring it higher is the lack of friendly AI for the soldier you're not controlling; they'll fire at the enemy if they come close enough, but otherwise, they just stand there. It would have been nice for them to follow you and shoot at enemies you come across instead of standing still wherever you left them. On the one hand, that does let you strategize a bit by leaving a sniper on a high elevation position to provide overwatch, but that's mitigated by the fact that you then have to switch back and walk them all the way to wherever you got with the other soldier as well as the fact that what AI the ally soldier does have isn't good enough to provide any truly effective cover fire. Still, though, I had a blast with this game, and I definitely recommend it any Army Men fan or PlayStation enthusiast check it out. It's not an amazing game or a hidden gem or anything, but it's fun plastic-on-plastic violence.
* denotes a replay
January (1 Game Beaten)
After Army Men II, I kind of thought 3DO perfected the Army Men formula. Where could they possibly go up from there? Like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, they answered that question with (read this in Tim Curry's voice, please) "Space!" Adding aliens is when most series jump the shark. Army Men's advantage, however, is that it started off in mid-air over the shark, so this pretty much just ends up feeling like "Eh, okay. Aliens. Why not?"
The story takes place after the events of Army Men II. As the Green and Tan armies continue to clash, a flying saucer descends from orbit and crash lands in Tan territory. General Plastro of the Tan Army manages to strike up an alliance with the Aliens to crush the Green Army. In exchange, the Tan agree to aid the Aliens in their war against the Galactic Army. Naturally, the Galactic Army and its leader, Tina Tomorrow, ally with the Green Army. While this pretty much just ends up being more of the same gameplay but with sci-fi units thrown into the mix, when you're getting more of something that's fantastic like Army Men II's gameplay, that's nothing but a good thing.
Graphically, it's a little bit better than Army Men II. The colors are a bit more saturated, and the visuals look a bit sharper, but it's generally what you would expect from an Army Men II sequel. I don't think the music is quite as good, but the sound effects are either the same or slightly improved depending on the specific sound effect. The new sound effects, though, like the lasers and the alien death noises, are awesome. The laser weapons have a deep, meaty sound to them.
There are some awesome new weapons here. You can upgrade the vulcan gun to a laser rifle, you can get napalm mortars and air strikes, and you can call in a spacecraft to beam down Galactic Army troops the same way you can call in a plane to drop Green paratroopers in. The AI is honestly my biggest complaint about the game. The enemy AI will usually put up a good, stiff challenge, but the AI for your troops? Dumb as a sack of rocks. Doorways and small rocks are the bane of the Green Army.
Army Men: Toys in Space is a weird follow-up to Army Men II, but it's definitely a good one. It's got a custom battle mode very similar to Army Men II's, and that's where you'll probably spend the majority of your time. I played through the campaign in like once or twice as a kid and then dumped a few hundred hours into the custom battles. I'm not sure I'd call this a "must play" if you just want the random custom battles - stick with Army Men II - but if you want a new experience of the same style, then Toys in Space is exactly what you want. The campaign falls far short of Army Men II's campaign in my opinion, but it's still a fun playthrough.
5. Army Men: World War - PC - March 22
Army Men: World War - not to be confused with the PS1 game that has the exact same title and the exact same box art but is a completely different game - is the fourth PC game in the series coming after Toys in Space. On PlayStation, there are four different “Army Men: World War" games making it a sub-series of sorts, and they’re considered to be a separate timeline from Army Men 1, 2, and Toys in Space. I’m not sure if World War on PC is also a different timeline or if it takes place at the same time as the first game, but honestly, it doesn’t really matter; deep storylines have never been Army Men’s cup of tea.
Unlike the other games in the series, there is no “protagonist;” you play as random Green soldiers. When the soldier you’re controlling dies, you move to control another soldier under your command. As you progress through the levels of the game, you gain more soldiers under your command that follow you from level to level. You can even have soldiers enter tanks that follow you to the next level. The lack of a protagonist means that there’s not as cohesive a story, but there is a story there, and while it’s not great, it’s okay and serves nicely as a narrative backdrop for the action. The game looks nice, too, although it is worth noting that the item icons aren’t quite the same as they were in Army Men II and Toys in Space. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the visuals online, but I was pretty happy with the way the game looked. It did feel like it was rushed a bit more than II and Toys in Space but not to the point where it’s a true detriment to the game; there’s just a noticeable drop in polish.
The story may suffer for lack of a single protagonist, but the level design is fantastic. The game opens with a D-Day style beach invasion against Tan defenses. The first level starts off fairly easy, naturally, to get you acclimated to the game, but it’s an awesome opening engagement. As the game progresses, you’ll have a variety of missions like destroying Tan artillery, blowing up a Tan tank depot, shutting down Tan AA guns to allow for air strikes, etc. The game’s first 14 levels culminate in the final mission in the Tan capital where you fight your way through the city and destroy their capitol building. That last mission is TOUGH. It’s not quite as tough as Toys in Space was in its last couple of missions, but you’d better have a large and strong force to make it through the Tan defenders and manage to destroy their capitol.
The sound design is...fine. It’s not as good as Toys in Space, and it’s nowhere near as good as Army Men II, but at least it’s still leagues better than the first Army Men game. The weapon sound effects are solid, and music, while forgettable, is fine and fits the setting and tone of the game. There’s a random battle mode like with the previous games, and while I didn’t find it to be quite as good as Army Men II or Army Men: Toys in Space, it was still a lot of fun and can add some lasting power for those who give this game a download. Unfortunately, there’s an issue with modern computer mouses. I don’t know if it’s the lack of trackball or modern mouses are just too sensitive and it freaks out, but the cursor will get stuck now and then or jump around. It’s manageable, but it does get really obnoxious and make controlling the game take a little bit of practice.
Army Men: World War may be a step down from Toys in Space and a decent drop from Army Men II, but it’s still a competent entry in the series and a fun game that’s absolutely worth playing. The music may be forgettable and the visuals so-so, but the missions and action are a ton of fun. If you just plan to play random battles instead of the campaign, I can’t really recommend World War when Toys in Space and II do the battle mode better. If you play the game for the campaigns, though, and like the series, that’s a different story. In that case, I absolutely recommend this game. Like the other old Army Men PC games, it’s dirt cheap on Steam and GOG, so give it a download and push back the fascist Tan advance into the liberty-loving Green Nation.
6. Army Men: Mobile Ops - Java-based mobile - April 10
Back in the days before smartphones were a thing, mobile gaming was done with Java based games. Army Men's foray into the Java mobile game space was Mobile Ops, a solidly okay at best game. For a 2010 Java mobile game, it's not horrendous, but it's awkward, clunky, and just...not a great experience. I make a sincere effort to play every game I review on original hardware, but that's sadly just not possible for this one, so I had to use a Windows emulator.
The game's narrative premise is...simple. You're a Green Army recruit who's thrust into his first mission right out of boot camp. That's about it. You do things like save Green POWs, escape a Tan base, etc. Basic Army Men objectives that could fit into literally any game in the series. As it's an old school mobile phone game, the controls are a bit awkward. I mapped the controls to an Xbox One controller to be as comfortable and intuitive as possible, and I still found it pretty awkward. The gameplay itself isn't bad, though. You assemble a squad of three soldiers from the Rifle, Bazooka, Grenade, and Minesweeper classes. Because all damage all day is the way I play literally every game, I went with Rifle, Bazooka, and Grenade for every mission. You can change between them at will, but when one soldier dies, he becomes unavailable and you have to make due with the others. There's also a limited amount of ammo, but due to the weird dimensions of the emulator and the inability to just stretch the screen to fit, I was never able to see my ammo count or even my health. I ended up just shooting until suddenly I couldn't shoot anymore, and I would run around getting shot until I abruptly died. Not ideal, but for a mediocre game on old mobile phones being run through an emulator a decade and a half later, it's passable.
Considering the type of hardware it was made for, the game actually looks pretty good. I thought it looked good blown up on my PC monitor, and with how tiny the screen on an old Nokia phone is, it probably would have looked pretty great on original hardware. Unfortunately, that's about where my praise stops. Gameplay, as I said, is decent but not great. Controls are just awkward and cumbersome, although that's somewhat to be expected on an old cell phone game. The sound is...just terrible. In that regard, it fits right in with the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games from a decade earlier. Sadly, there's just not a whole lot of positive here aside from "It exists and is, in fact, a game." With how difficult it is to get this running on real hardware and how cumbersome and obnoxious Java emulators are for PC and modern smartphones, I honestly do not recommend anyone go out and find a way to play this game. I don't even recommend this to devoted Army Men fans unless you're the most hardcore of the hardcore fans. If it were easily accessible, then I'd definitely recommend checking it out, but with the annoying barriers to entry in the modern day, it's just not worth the hassle.
7. Army Men III - PC - April 11
Technically, Army Men III doesn't actually exist as a commercial game. It's an abandoned fan-made game done in Unreal Engine 4 that takes place after the events of Army Men II but seems to exclude the events of Army Men: Toys in Space. Unfortunately, having been abandoned, the game will probably never be finished and stay in a rough beta state forever. That's a shame, too, because this beta is the foundations of a REALLY good game. Certainly better than the garbage that Global Star Software or Take Two Interactive released.
Picking up after Major Mylar's defeat at the end of Army Men II, this is the fan-made conclusion to what was originally intended to be a trilogy following Sarge's exploits and culminating with a showdown with the mad Grey doctor who created the zombie experiments. Unfortunately, 3DO never finished that story opting to pivot to Army Men: Toys in Space and Army Men: Air Tactics before shifting their focus to the Nintendo 64 and especially the PlayStation. Unlike the overhead tactics-esque gameplay of Army Men and Army Men II, Army Men III takes a third person shooter perspective somewhat akin to Sarge's Heroes but with a faster paced feel. Think Gears of War rather than Uncharted. While the game does follow Sarge's battles, you don't actually play as Sarge. Instead, you play as a Green corporal named Wallace Niles who assists Sarge on his missions, sometimes on the same battlefield and sometimes in a support role by handling a task that frees Sarge up to handle the war's main objectives.
The game was in an alpha or beta state when it was abandoned, so unfortunately, only a quarter of the intended campaign is playable - four, I think, of the intended 16 levels - and what's there, while completely playable and a lot of fun, is pretty buggy. The physics feel weird with bizarre ragdoll effects that would be at home in a Bethesda RPG, and sometimes it takes the game fifteen or twenty seconds to realize you've died before giving you the option to quit or reload. It took me about an hour and a half to get through what of the game was made, so it's not a terribly long demo, but as is the case with the best games in my opinion, what it lacks in quantity of gameplay, it makes up for in quality. This is one of the most addicting non-commercial fan-games I've ever played. I've seen some on ModDB claim this is the "best Army Men game ever," and I'm not prepared to go quite that far - Army Men II and Sarge's Heroes 2 still exist - it is a DAMN good game.
Sound design is a bit wonky, but it's a fan-made game that never got finished and features full voice acting; wonk is part of the deal. Visually, the game looks pretty good for the most part, but there are some visual and performance issues that crop up here and there. Some of the textures look great while others look a bit muddy and blurred. I imagine a lot of that would have been worked out before a final release if the game had gotten one, but as it is, the game is a bit of a mixed bag visually. As for performance, a lot of the game runs extremely smoothly, but there are times where it gets super choppy and chugs for a second or two. I'm running a RTX 4090 and a 13th gen i9, so I know it isn't a hardware issue. Despite that, though, there's a ton of fun to be had here, and the missions give you some solid variety of objectives and a huge array of vehicles and weapons to use to shoot, blow up, or melt your Tan foes. In addition to the campaign, there's also a skirmish mode that lets you battle in some pretty cool and varied environments that you don't get to see in the short available campaign missions.
Army Men III is an interesting experience. As a fan-made game, it's an exceptional foundation, but as the project was abandoned years ago, it will never live up to its full - and undoubtedly awesome - potential. It's got, in my opinion, the most fast paced combat of any Army Men game, and it's a shame that we didn't get to see that fleshed out. If Take-Two would actually DO something with the IP, they could look to Army Men III for inspiration and make an awesome budget game to reboot the series, but as that's unlikely, this unfinished and rough around the edges demo is sadly going to have to suffice for a "modern" Army Men experience. Still, though it's unfinished, it's also free, so there's no reason not to give it a download and try it out.
8. Army Men: World War - Land, Sea, Air - PlayStation - April 15
Army Men, as a series, is almost always a bit rough around the edges. That was certainly true of the first game in the series, and it was true of the first game on the PlayStation, and it's still true for the second game in the Army Men: World War subseries - Land, Sea, Air. If you played Army Men: World War, then you basically know what to expect as this game is largely more of the same. The main difference is the difficulty; this game is genuinely probably the most brutally difficult game in the entire series.
Visually, Land Sea Air is indistinguishable from World War, and that's not entirely a bad thing. It doesn't look great, even by Playstation standards, but I think there's a certain charm in the budget vibe Army Men games have. For the most part, this is more an expansion or continuation of Army Men: World War than anything else. You fight through five operations with three missions each, and as the title suggests, the biggest difference between World War and Land Sea Air is a larger focus on vehicle missions here. One mission, you're manning the guns on a bomber fighting off enemy fighters on the way to drop bombs on a Tan target; in another mission, you man the guns on a tank that rolls through a bombed out city on rails and have to eliminate anti-tank crews before they destroy your vehicle. Those missions are similar to the train mission in the first Army Men: World War game on Playstation, but instead of a fun little diversion from the norm, these missions are really where things start to go downhill. The beginning of the game feels tough but fair - nothing you haven't seen in other Army Men games. Once you reach that God forsaken bomber mission, though, it goes full Dark Souls. The bomber mission nearly had me involuntarily committed. It sounds easy enough - shoot down enemy fighters as they approach, aiming wherever your pilot tells you to (11 o'clock, 4 o'clock, etc) - but the game makes it unreasonably difficult. It requires absolute perfection to a degree only obtainable by repeating the level DOZENS of times and just memorizing where planes appear when. Even if you shoot down every plane before they get to you - something I was able to do after a couple of tries - you'll still die before the end of this unnecessarily long mission simply by the accumulation of small bits of damage; the only way to avoid that is to be shooting at the planes before they even spawn, hence the need for memorization.
It's not just the vehicle levels that are brutal, either; the whole game is unusually tough. The general rule of thumb in war games is that the faster the rate of fire, the lower the accuracy. 3DO apparently forgot about that here; Tan soldiers can pretty much snipe you from the maximum draw distance with a machine gun. If you've ever played Battlefield 2042 against bots, think about the AI sniping you with a PKP in that game; it's the same concept except you're plastic and playing in 240p. That's a shame, too, because the controls are pretty good, at least compared to Army Men 3D. The level variety, too, with the array of different vehicle-based missions really mixes up the experience in a way that Army Men 3D didn't and Army Men: World War didn't do often enough. The game would be a ton of fun to play if it weren't so frustratingly difficult. Maybe in late 90s and early 2000s when I was a kid, I would have been more tolerant of this degree of difficulty since not nearly as many games were releasing and we were still in the days where most games were padded with high difficulty to lengthen the game artifically, but in 2024 at age 32 with a full time job, I just do not have the patience for that. I mean, I clearly pushed through for the sake of my review, but I only managed it because my superpowers are pig headed stubbornness and autism.
Army Men: World War - Land, Sea, Air is, at its core, a pretty decent game. It's not an amazing game - this is Army Men we're talking about - but it's really not bad at its core, and I feel compelled to have my score reflect that. Unfortunately, that core is buried beneath an AI endowed with god-like aim and omniscience and a degree of difficulty that I'm pretty sure violates some part of the Geneva Conventions. If someone could make a ROM hack that just tweaks the difficulty - maybe double the amount of health you have or halve enemy bullet damage - this would be a dope game. As it is, though, it's tragically more frustrating than it is fun, and that's a real bummer since the gameplay isn't what holds it down like the first Army Men and some of the Gold Star Software era games. If you're a big Army Men fan or a Playstation enthusiast, this is a neat system exclusive to try out, but for anyone else, steer clear if you value your sanity and time.
9. Army Men: World War - Final Fronts - PlayStation - April 18
Army Men: World War - Final Front (or Lock 'n' Load as it's called in Europe) is the third game in the Army Men: World War subseries on Playstation. Like Land, Sea, Air before it, Final Front doesn't do a lot to change the formula here. It looks, sounds, and plays almost exactly like the two previous games. Visuals are still mediocre, controls are still a bit clunky, but it's an overall decent Army Men experience. Unfortunately, though, it does fall short of its predecessors in my opinion.
One of the things that Final Front gets very right is the vehicle combat; there are more vehicles to fight in than in Land, Sea, Air with the addition of the motorcycle and the submarine. The submarine is definitely the cooler addition with battles underwater taking place in three dimensions, but the motorcycle was more fun to use purely because of how fast you can move and run over Tan soldiers. These vehicle missions have also lost the rails they tended to have in World War and Land, Sea, Air, giving the player more freedom to use the vehicles to traverse the level. Unfortunately, controlling your actual soldier - which is how the majority of the game is played - is still a slow and cumbersome experience. It's still a fun game in spite of that, as the previous games were, but I had hoped by their fourth PlayStation game and the third game in this subseries, we'd have progressed a bit with the player movement.
As with the other Army Men games on the system, the visuals here are not impressive and do not push the PS1 to its limit. I wouldn't say they're bad, but I do think "sub-par" is a fair descriptor. Like Red Steel was on the Wii; it looked okay, but the Wii hardware was capable of significantly better visuals as we'd see later in its lifespan. However, this game came out a year into its console's successor's lifespan; there's little real excuse for the game to look this meh. Graphics aside, the sound design is a solidly mixed bag. On the one hand, the music is a definite step down from the two previous games. On the other hand, the sound effects are actually fairly impressive with the engine noise sounding appropriate and the crack of rifle fire having a good meaty feel to it. It's a shame, then, that the soldier controls, as I mentioned earlier, are still such garbage. I've heard the game supports Dual Shock controllers though I haven't confirmed that myself and that they make controlling your soldier a lot easier, but with the original PS1 controller, it takes what feels like forever to turn around which makes it hard to respond quickly to enemy fire.
Like most of the Army Men series, World War - Final Front is a middling piece of the PlayStation's library. The visuals sub-par, the controls are outright bad, but the sound and actual gameplay are pretty solid. As I've said with most of the Army Men series, if you're a big fan of the franchise or a passionate collector of PlayStation exclusive games, this one is worth picking up if you can find it fairly inexpensively. It's not going to wow you, and it's definitely not a hidden gem by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a fairly enjoyable war game.
10. Army Men: World War - Team Assault - PlayStation - April 20
The PS1 Army Men: World War subseries always needs to have some sort of gimmick. With the first game, it was "You're not Sarge anymore! Now you're a random Green soldier!" With Land Sea Air, it was "You're a random Green soldier BUT WITH MORE VEHICLE MISSIONS!" With Final Front, it was "You're a random Green soldier with vehicle combat INCLUDING SUBMARINES!" Here with Team Assault, it's "You're a specific commando who isn't Sarge, and there's vehicle and submarine combat, but now there's TWO OF YOU!"
Team Assault follows a team of Green soldiers on a mission that starts with their escape from a Tan POW camp and culminates in the infiltration and destruction of a Tan ballistic missile base. For each mission, you must pick two soldiers from your pool of six. Each of these soldiers have two skills and unique stats. Squirrel, for example, is my favorite and has the Sniper and Communications skills, so he can use radio equipment (required for some missions) and sniper rifles. He's also not very stealthy but has by far the fastest movement speed. I liked pairing him with is Tyke who is super slow, not stealthy at all, but has a ton of hit points and the Heavy Weapons and Linguistics skills meaning that he can use bazookas and mortars as well as Tan disguises. The mixing and matching of soldiers gives your strategy some real depth and variation. It does feel a bit clunky and obnoxious to have to switch between your two soldiers and move them independently, but you get used to it, and once you do, it's not so bad.
Visuals and sound are overall on par with the previous World War games on PlayStation, but the gameplay and controls feel tighter here than in the previous entries. The auto-aim feature felt a lot more polished and a lot smoother, and that definitely helps mitigate some of the more frustrating aspects of combat in the previous games. It's not perfect - you'll still routinely shoot to the left of an enemy, then to the right, then back to the left, and THEN actually shoot him - but it's a huge step up. I thought World War was a pretty good length as it is, and I thought Land Sea Air was too long given how brutally difficult it is, but with Team Assault, I actually found myself wishing there were more there. The game consists of 16 missions, and even with dying and restarting, it took me under three hours to clear.
Army Men: World War - Team Assault is, in my opinion, the best of the four World War subseries games on Playstation. Honestly, the only thing keeping me from scoring it higher is the lack of friendly AI for the soldier you're not controlling; they'll fire at the enemy if they come close enough, but otherwise, they just stand there. It would have been nice for them to follow you and shoot at enemies you come across instead of standing still wherever you left them. On the one hand, that does let you strategize a bit by leaving a sniper on a high elevation position to provide overwatch, but that's mitigated by the fact that you then have to switch back and walk them all the way to wherever you got with the other soldier as well as the fact that what AI the ally soldier does have isn't good enough to provide any truly effective cover fire. Still, though, I had a blast with this game, and I definitely recommend it any Army Men fan or PlayStation enthusiast check it out. It's not an amazing game or a hidden gem or anything, but it's fun plastic-on-plastic violence.
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.
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RobertAugustdeMeijer
- 24-bit
- Posts: 131
- Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2022 10:15 am
Re: Games Beaten 2024
First 10:
11: Pathologic 2
Outrageously sophisticated and simply unforgettable. Don't be intimidated by the difficulty because you'll want to see the 'bad' ending anyway. Aim for better endings your second playthrough. The Hbomberguy video essay is spot on!
9/10
12: Cocoon
Well balanced puzzles in a fairly interesting psychedelic world. The 'worlds in worlds' element never blew my mind, but was pretty cute.
6/10
13: Adventures of Lolo
Sokoban taken to the nth degree. Occasionally some dexterity is required, so get your emulator save states ready! Clear, punctual, and hard to put down. But it's still Sokoban.
6/10
14: Fable II
If you can bear the painful frame rate, and painfully simple combat, there's a lot of fun to be had in this lively world. Sculpting it to your whims is done better than Fable 1, but don't expect too much. Just more adventures with way more personality.
7/10
15:Dragon Quest III
In hindsight, this is an extremely generic RPG. But it throws the occasional oddball out there, the kind of thing you don't see anymore, as the NES's limits clash with the designers' intent. Often bland, at times fascinating.
6/10
16: Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blades
You can royally screw up your party if you don't level them up correctly. Expect to restart many battles, or be kind to yourself and use save states. Also way too much talking. But the fights show some creativity and are executed well.
5/10
17: Days Gone
I guess the motorcycle physics are fun to check out, as are a couple of fights against 50+ zombies. But other than that, horribly written, and just shallow gameplay, despite all the mechanics. Also, way too long.
3/10
18: A Highland Song
Majestic hike through Scotland, with many different paths to discover. You probably won't get the good ending on your first run, partially due to the frustrating controls. Don't worry, you'll probably want to play it three+ times, and by then you'll easily make it. Lovely main character, and touching revelation at the end. <3
8/10
19: Crackdown
Gets straight to the point, quite refreshing, but stupidly easy. As you mow down enemies you'll improve your stats and weaken the enemies' bases. Jumping controls are nerve-wrecking, would love to see how it's improved by air dashes in the sequels.
6/10
20: Gears of War
Terrible. If you're delighted by the idea of a gun with a chainsaw on it, perhaps this will be your cup of tea. Dull story, slow combat, amazing lack of color, low frame-rates, wonky controls... really puts into perspective why I didn't get an Xbox 360 until 2010.
2/10
Outrageously sophisticated and simply unforgettable. Don't be intimidated by the difficulty because you'll want to see the 'bad' ending anyway. Aim for better endings your second playthrough. The Hbomberguy video essay is spot on!
9/10
12: Cocoon
Well balanced puzzles in a fairly interesting psychedelic world. The 'worlds in worlds' element never blew my mind, but was pretty cute.
6/10
13: Adventures of Lolo
Sokoban taken to the nth degree. Occasionally some dexterity is required, so get your emulator save states ready! Clear, punctual, and hard to put down. But it's still Sokoban.
6/10
14: Fable II
If you can bear the painful frame rate, and painfully simple combat, there's a lot of fun to be had in this lively world. Sculpting it to your whims is done better than Fable 1, but don't expect too much. Just more adventures with way more personality.
7/10
15:Dragon Quest III
In hindsight, this is an extremely generic RPG. But it throws the occasional oddball out there, the kind of thing you don't see anymore, as the NES's limits clash with the designers' intent. Often bland, at times fascinating.
6/10
16: Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blades
You can royally screw up your party if you don't level them up correctly. Expect to restart many battles, or be kind to yourself and use save states. Also way too much talking. But the fights show some creativity and are executed well.
5/10
17: Days Gone
I guess the motorcycle physics are fun to check out, as are a couple of fights against 50+ zombies. But other than that, horribly written, and just shallow gameplay, despite all the mechanics. Also, way too long.
3/10
18: A Highland Song
Majestic hike through Scotland, with many different paths to discover. You probably won't get the good ending on your first run, partially due to the frustrating controls. Don't worry, you'll probably want to play it three+ times, and by then you'll easily make it. Lovely main character, and touching revelation at the end. <3
8/10
19: Crackdown
Gets straight to the point, quite refreshing, but stupidly easy. As you mow down enemies you'll improve your stats and weaken the enemies' bases. Jumping controls are nerve-wrecking, would love to see how it's improved by air dashes in the sequels.
6/10
20: Gears of War
Terrible. If you're delighted by the idea of a gun with a chainsaw on it, perhaps this will be your cup of tea. Dull story, slow combat, amazing lack of color, low frame-rates, wonky controls... really puts into perspective why I didn't get an Xbox 360 until 2010.
2/10
Re: Games Beaten 2024
One issue I had with Crackdown was at some point I had to literally jump up a building to get to the top since the skyscraper only had a handful of indoor areas the player could access.
Or maybe I missed something very important.
And I also found Gears of War to be a major slog. I mean, the whole thing has a drab color scheme paired with bog standard weapons. And the worst part is that such games were big at the time.
Or maybe I missed something very important.
And I also found Gears of War to be a major slog. I mean, the whole thing has a drab color scheme paired with bog standard weapons. And the worst part is that such games were big at the time.
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Markies
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 1416
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2015 4:29 pm
- Location: St. Louis, Missouri
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2024
Markies' Games Beat List Of 2024!
***Denotes Replay For Completion***
1. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
2. Jackal (NES)
***3. Evolution: The World Of Sacred Device (SDC)***
4. Skies Of Arcadia Legends (GCN)
5. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (PS2)
6. Sunset Riders (GEN)
***7. Tactics Ogre (PS1)***
***8. Forza Motorsport (XBOX)***
9. Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA)
***10. Darkstalkers (PS1)***
***11. Splatoon (WiiU)***
12. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (NSW)
***13. Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball (NES)***
Once again, this is just a reposting of games lost in the migration.
***Denotes Replay For Completion***
1. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
2. Jackal (NES)
***3. Evolution: The World Of Sacred Device (SDC)***
4. Skies Of Arcadia Legends (GCN)
5. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (PS2)
6. Sunset Riders (GEN)
***7. Tactics Ogre (PS1)***
***8. Forza Motorsport (XBOX)***
9. Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA)
***10. Darkstalkers (PS1)***
***11. Splatoon (WiiU)***
12. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (NSW)
***13. Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball (NES)***
Once again, this is just a reposting of games lost in the migration.
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TheSSNintendo
- 128-bit
- Posts: 578
- Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:27 pm
Re: Games Beaten 2024
Gears 5
Mega Man 11 (Switch)
Mega Man 11 (Switch)
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ElkinFencer10
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 8621
- Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:34 pm
- Location: Henderson, North Carolina
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2024
Games Beaten in 2024 - 11
* denotes a replay
January (1 Game Beaten)
February (1 Game Beaten)
March (3 Game Beaten)
April (6 Games Beaten)
11. Army Men: Air Tactics - PC - March 21*
Army Men: Air Tactics was my first introduction to airborne Army Men growing up. As a kid, my mom got me this four-pack CD-ROM set from Sam's with Army Men, Army Men II, Army Men: Toys in Space, and Army Men: Air Tactics. I always spent most of my time playing Army Men II and Army Men: Toys in Space, but I do remember Air Tactics fondly. Unfortunately, it was a lot easier to play 20 years ago. I genuinely spent three or four hours finding it online (thank you, www.myabandonware.com), fiddling with the compatibility settings, giving up entirely on getting it to work on Windows 11, teaching myself how to set up a virtual machine, finding an ISO and CD key for Windows 95, installing that, and THEN installing Air Tactics on the virtual machine. A game designed for Windows 95 just does not like Windows 11. Was it worth all that effort? Ehh....maybe?
The Army Men "Air" games have an exceptionally convoluted history as far as naming goes, so to avoid the confusion I had in one of the Army Men Discord servers, I'll try to explain it all here. The first Air game released which also introduce Captain William Blade as a Green protagonist was Army Men: Air Combat on PlayStation in late 1999. Then in March, 2000, Army Men: Air Tactics releases on Windows. In July, 2000, Air Attack is released on Nintendo 64 but under the title of Army Men: Air Combat; a Game Boy Color game with the same title would be released in November of 2000. Also in November of 2000, Army Men: Air Attack 2 would release on PlayStation. Then in March, 2001, Air Attack 2 released on PlayStation 2 but would inexplicably have the title changed to Army Men: Air Attack - Blade's Revenge in Europe, but only for the PlayStation 2 version; the PlayStation 1 version is still called Army Men: Air Attack 2 in Europe. Later that year in June, 2001, Army Men: Air Attack would release on Windows (it did not carry the Air Combat title; for some reason, that was just for Nintendo). Lastly, in March of 2003, Air Attack 2 released on Gamecube with the title Army Men: Air Combat - The Elite Missions. So, as you can see, it's a confusing release history. The tl;dr is that Air Attack/Air Combat came first, and they're the same game; then came Air Tactics; then came Air Attack 2/Blade's Revenge/The Elite Missions which are all the same game. Why they couldn't just pick one title and stick with it across regions and console manufacturers, I don't know, but it is what it is.
Air Tactics isn't a 3D game like Air Attack; instead, it uses a modified version of the Army Men II engine to produce a 2D overhead view game. While you normally think of helicopter combat as taking place in a three-dimensional space - and it does, in a way - the 2D perspective works well here. I guess it's more accurate to call it a sort of pseudo-2.5D because you do move along the Z axis, but only in certain places that have ramp-like environmental features, and only up to a certain height; basically, you maintain a static hover above the ground, so the only way to "ascend" is to go somewhere with a gradually increasing elevation. Like in Air Combat, you follow Captain William Blade of Alpha Wolf Squadron. Most of his missions are a support role for Sergeant Hawk, but you do get to take on some pretty fierce Tan opposition as you're ferrying Hawk and his men around or softening up a beachhead for an assault. The story revolves around the Green Army's attempt to establish and maintain air supremacy and stop the Tan from developing some kind of chemical weapon of mass destruction.
Visually, the game is pretty much identical to Army Men II. Some elements here and there look a touch improved, but overall, it's basically Army Men II with a helicopter. The visuals are honestly the highlight of the game; this era of advanced 2D in lieu of primitive 3D graphics is sorely underappreciated in my opinion. The sound design is...well, I honestly have no idea. Despite the fact that the sound worked normally on the desktop of my Windows 95 virtual machine, nothing I did made the sound work in game. From what I can remember from playing it over 20 years ago, it sounded great, but that could be the rose tinted headphones talking. What I can definitely speak to is the control, and it's not great. The helicopter feels SUPER floaty and imprecise with its controls. Granted, I'm using a modern mouse instead of an old school trackball this game would have been designed to use, so the oversensitivity of my mouse could be affected me here as it did in Army Men II and Army Men: Toys in Space, although considering that most reviews I've read also lament the controls - "driving a car on a field of Crisco," I believe, is how IGN's reviewer worded - I'm inclined to believe that the controls really are just bad. What I know for a fact isn't a problem caused by my modern mouse, though, is the hit detection. It was seemingly random whether my shots would hit a Tan soldier or harmlessly hit the area beside his feet. There would be bullets you can clearly see hitting him - bullet pixel on body pixel contact - but no damage, and then sometimes a bullet would clearly miss him, but you'd still see flakes of Tan plastic break off as he takes damage. No rhyme or reason whatsoever.
Despite the horrific controls, the garbage hit detection, and the inexplicably absent sound during my playthrough, I have to admit that I did enjoy revisiting Air Tactics. It's definitely not what I'd call a high point for the series, but it's also not Major Malfunction, so it's at least not the worst game in the series. If you want to give this one a play these days, good luck; you'll either need a computer running Windows XP or earlier - maybe Vista at the absolute newest - or a virtual machine running ideally Windows 95 or Windows 98. I know that for most tech savvy people, virtual machines or dual boot PCs are no big deal, but it was a pain in the ass to teach myself how to set one up for literally the sole purpose of playing this one game. Do I regret that massive time investment? Not even a little; no Army Men game left behind. Would I recommend anyone else who doesn't already know how to set up a virtual machine go through the hassle just to play this game? Absolutely not.
* denotes a replay
January (1 Game Beaten)
Army Men: Air Tactics was my first introduction to airborne Army Men growing up. As a kid, my mom got me this four-pack CD-ROM set from Sam's with Army Men, Army Men II, Army Men: Toys in Space, and Army Men: Air Tactics. I always spent most of my time playing Army Men II and Army Men: Toys in Space, but I do remember Air Tactics fondly. Unfortunately, it was a lot easier to play 20 years ago. I genuinely spent three or four hours finding it online (thank you, www.myabandonware.com), fiddling with the compatibility settings, giving up entirely on getting it to work on Windows 11, teaching myself how to set up a virtual machine, finding an ISO and CD key for Windows 95, installing that, and THEN installing Air Tactics on the virtual machine. A game designed for Windows 95 just does not like Windows 11. Was it worth all that effort? Ehh....maybe?
The Army Men "Air" games have an exceptionally convoluted history as far as naming goes, so to avoid the confusion I had in one of the Army Men Discord servers, I'll try to explain it all here. The first Air game released which also introduce Captain William Blade as a Green protagonist was Army Men: Air Combat on PlayStation in late 1999. Then in March, 2000, Army Men: Air Tactics releases on Windows. In July, 2000, Air Attack is released on Nintendo 64 but under the title of Army Men: Air Combat; a Game Boy Color game with the same title would be released in November of 2000. Also in November of 2000, Army Men: Air Attack 2 would release on PlayStation. Then in March, 2001, Air Attack 2 released on PlayStation 2 but would inexplicably have the title changed to Army Men: Air Attack - Blade's Revenge in Europe, but only for the PlayStation 2 version; the PlayStation 1 version is still called Army Men: Air Attack 2 in Europe. Later that year in June, 2001, Army Men: Air Attack would release on Windows (it did not carry the Air Combat title; for some reason, that was just for Nintendo). Lastly, in March of 2003, Air Attack 2 released on Gamecube with the title Army Men: Air Combat - The Elite Missions. So, as you can see, it's a confusing release history. The tl;dr is that Air Attack/Air Combat came first, and they're the same game; then came Air Tactics; then came Air Attack 2/Blade's Revenge/The Elite Missions which are all the same game. Why they couldn't just pick one title and stick with it across regions and console manufacturers, I don't know, but it is what it is.
Air Tactics isn't a 3D game like Air Attack; instead, it uses a modified version of the Army Men II engine to produce a 2D overhead view game. While you normally think of helicopter combat as taking place in a three-dimensional space - and it does, in a way - the 2D perspective works well here. I guess it's more accurate to call it a sort of pseudo-2.5D because you do move along the Z axis, but only in certain places that have ramp-like environmental features, and only up to a certain height; basically, you maintain a static hover above the ground, so the only way to "ascend" is to go somewhere with a gradually increasing elevation. Like in Air Combat, you follow Captain William Blade of Alpha Wolf Squadron. Most of his missions are a support role for Sergeant Hawk, but you do get to take on some pretty fierce Tan opposition as you're ferrying Hawk and his men around or softening up a beachhead for an assault. The story revolves around the Green Army's attempt to establish and maintain air supremacy and stop the Tan from developing some kind of chemical weapon of mass destruction.
Visually, the game is pretty much identical to Army Men II. Some elements here and there look a touch improved, but overall, it's basically Army Men II with a helicopter. The visuals are honestly the highlight of the game; this era of advanced 2D in lieu of primitive 3D graphics is sorely underappreciated in my opinion. The sound design is...well, I honestly have no idea. Despite the fact that the sound worked normally on the desktop of my Windows 95 virtual machine, nothing I did made the sound work in game. From what I can remember from playing it over 20 years ago, it sounded great, but that could be the rose tinted headphones talking. What I can definitely speak to is the control, and it's not great. The helicopter feels SUPER floaty and imprecise with its controls. Granted, I'm using a modern mouse instead of an old school trackball this game would have been designed to use, so the oversensitivity of my mouse could be affected me here as it did in Army Men II and Army Men: Toys in Space, although considering that most reviews I've read also lament the controls - "driving a car on a field of Crisco," I believe, is how IGN's reviewer worded - I'm inclined to believe that the controls really are just bad. What I know for a fact isn't a problem caused by my modern mouse, though, is the hit detection. It was seemingly random whether my shots would hit a Tan soldier or harmlessly hit the area beside his feet. There would be bullets you can clearly see hitting him - bullet pixel on body pixel contact - but no damage, and then sometimes a bullet would clearly miss him, but you'd still see flakes of Tan plastic break off as he takes damage. No rhyme or reason whatsoever.
Despite the horrific controls, the garbage hit detection, and the inexplicably absent sound during my playthrough, I have to admit that I did enjoy revisiting Air Tactics. It's definitely not what I'd call a high point for the series, but it's also not Major Malfunction, so it's at least not the worst game in the series. If you want to give this one a play these days, good luck; you'll either need a computer running Windows XP or earlier - maybe Vista at the absolute newest - or a virtual machine running ideally Windows 95 or Windows 98. I know that for most tech savvy people, virtual machines or dual boot PCs are no big deal, but it was a pain in the ass to teach myself how to set one up for literally the sole purpose of playing this one game. Do I regret that massive time investment? Not even a little; no Army Men game left behind. Would I recommend anyone else who doesn't already know how to set up a virtual machine go through the hassle just to play this game? Absolutely not.
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.