Army Men: Sarge's Heroes

Growing up, plastic army men were some of my favorite toys to play with when I was a kid. So, when I saw this on the shelf at Blockbuster back in the day, I just had to try it out. While I enjoyed it for the most part, there were some flaws that watered down, but didn't ruin, the experience.

The story was imaginative and emphasized that you're indeed playing plastic soldiers in an alternate dimension where two armies of living plastic soldiers are at war with each other: the good Green Army led by Colonel Grimm pitted against the evil Tan army led by General Plastro. Plastro has discovered portals leading to the real world, from which he retrieves and weaponizes household objects and other toys to turn the tide against the Greens. Now, it's up to the Green Army's best soldier, Sergeant "Sarge" Hawk (Jim Cummings) to rescue his captured squad mates from Bravo Company and thwart Plastros plans.

Like it's predecessors, Sarge's Heroes used third-person shooter gameplay. You'd wield Vietnam era weapons, like the M16 rifle, M60 machine gun, Remington 870 shotgun, M21 sniper rifle, and others against Tan army infantrymen, tanks, and helicopters, while in the real world, you'll battle ants, spiders, and V-Bots.

The controls were decent for the most part, but included notorious tank controls and turning was frustrating. Plus, the camera was slow paced and clunky, sometimes swiveling around you during firefights, and placing your enemies out of your field of vision, allowing them to pepper you with gunfire.

Combat and enemy AI was a mixed bag. In some areas, the enemies were dim-witted cannon fodder that charged you, making them easy prey, thanks to your M16s helpful auto aim. But other times, they were out of your line of sight, thanks to the unreliable camera, and they were able to hit you as you blindly stumble around trying to find them or get to cover. It got especially bad with hidden enemies that would ambush and massacre you, like snipers or even tanks. To top it all off, there were almost no checkpoints, which could make the game teeth-clenchingly difficult.

The graphics and level design were good for the most part. The real-world levels had the most fun designs with detailed, colorful, and dynamic layouts full of household objects like furniture, appliances, bottles and boxes serving as barriers, obstacles, and platforms to maneuver around. The army men universe looked plainer and had more repetitive level designs with barren, sparsely detailed landscapes. The characters had more distinct and cartoonish models, giving them more charm and personality than previous games.

The sounds and music were great. The soundtrack had a strong and militaristic feel to it with percussion and brass that got you pumped for battle. The sounds of battle were clear and tense sounding, like gunfire, explosions, and vehicle engines. Prolific voice actor Jim Cummings did a good job voicing Sarge as well with brief voice clips like "Party time", "Good to go", and "Ho-ho-ho yeah!".

While better options existed at the time, this was still a solid and enjoyable game for fans of the series, and I consider it the best entry.

The best thing in this game is the real life army arsenal you get, the basic weapon is a M16, you can pick a infantry mowing Machine gun, Grenades, long range Mortars, close combat Shotgun, sweet commando standard silenced Sniper Rifle(My favourite), tank busting Bazooka, Grenade Launcher, bundles of TNT, Mines and Mine Detectors and of course the deadly flamethrower. The only flaw is the controls of the game, turning around takes a few second and when running and trying to turn around it takes an hour, so when baddies come from behind you, it hurts a lot.

The plot is simple: 2 armies Tan led by General Plastro and Green led by Colonel Grimm, battle eachother in a alternate dimension but the twist is the armies are plastic soldiers. The Tan had somehow found a strange portal that leads to real life earth, though they are the size of regular toy soldiers, they take other toys from earth and use them as weapons against the Green army. The Greens have a special unit called Bravo squadron led by Sarge who is the main hero that agrees to stop the Tan and their aggression, he will also have to rescue his men from his company as well that have been captured.

ARMY MEN: SARGE'S HEROES is a great game that's imaginative yet simple at the same times. Plot: General Plastro of the Tan Army Men have discovered a way to teleport from the real world on Earth to their imaginary, never ending war world. The Tan Army has taken five of the best soldiers from the rival Green Army hostage. Those soldiers are: Riff, the saxophone playin' bazooka man; Hoover, the geeky-looking but ever vigilent minesweeper; Shrap, the surfer-dude, mortar man; Thick, the hard-as-steel headed M-60 machine gunner; and Scorch, the intense, pyromaniac flamethrower. The man sent in to retrieve them is their leader, Sgt. Hawk, or Sarge. Along the way you'll encounter drown-worthy bath water, killer spiders, way-too-tall couches, and slippery soap covered tile floors, with plenty of Tan soldiers, choppers, tanks, and the supposedly-neutral, double-crossing Blue Army.

KIDS: don't leave your different-colored toy soldiers together.