Army Men (series)
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Army Men is a series of video games made by The 3DO Company.
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[edit] History
The series was based on a war between four main sets of plastic army men: the Green, the Tan, the Blue, and the Grey. Two other factions, red and orange, had brief appearances, but neither played a large part in the story. Two factions, the Galactic army and the Alien army, were introduced in Army Men: Toys in Space.
The series was started with Army Men (PC) in 1998, then the sequel Army Men 2 (PC) was released in 1999. Around that time the first console game, Army Men 3D, was released for the Sony PlayStation. In these early games, before Army Men had established itself, it is probably easy to say the biggest draw card for Army Men was that it was a sophisticated version of Virgin Interactive's Cannon Fodder. In Army Men, especially early in the series, realistic physics and combat situations were off-set by soldiers melting into puddles, or snapping like broken plastic as well as an apparent sense of humour on behalf of the development team.
The series continued with Army Men: Toys in Space (PC), before branching out with the World War series for both PC and console (mainly the PlayStation 1 & 2). At around the same time period Sarge's Heroes was released, a sequel was released a year later.
Other variations and spin-offs of the series were also released. They included the helicopter themed games Air Tactics, Air Attack (1 & 2), Air Combat, & Air Combat: The Elite Missions. They also included the World War series. There is also a Contra-inspired game called Green Rogue.
The only spin-off of the series was Portal Runner. A spin-off of Sarge's Heroes 2, it was released just a year-and-a-half after the original game.
[edit] Characters
The series featured many characters, of whom four were the protagonist of a game: Sarge, Captain William Blade, Vikki Grimm, and Omega Soldier. Many of the characters in the games were caricatures of well-known archetypes.
Also, there are many other soldiers in the series. The characters mostly die in a short period of time or stop following and just stand there. They also never communicate unless it's a mission-specific encounter
[edit] Factions in Army Men
Green - The 'good guys' in the series - representing a US style army. In the first few games the political balance was unstable and they were fighting against the Tan and Blue - Grey were sometimes allies and sometimes enemies, depending who paid the highest price. This changes in Army Men: World War when the Green ally with the Blue (French-esque) against the Tan Menace (German-esque in this game). In "Army Men: Sarge's Heroes", the Blue are Tan spies, and the Gray are allied with the Green. In "Army Men: Sarge's War" Blue are Green Berrat esque special forces for the Tan Army.
Tan - The main enemy in the series and represent various real-life dictatorships (Nazis, etc.). They start the current war with Green when they invade in three main areas of the Green nation (the Desert, Alpine, and Bayou regions). At the beginning of the game they have a partial alliance with the Blue Information network, though this alliance becomes fluid through the series. According to Sarge It isn't that they're evil, kid, just because they want to conquer everyone else and steal everything they have. I think they just don't know any better. It's a tragic flaw in their character, that's beyond their control. That's why they're better off being dead.
Grey - Again, to quote Sarge. The Grays are a bunch of hit-and run guerrillas (with a rather caucasian ethnicity); when I was little, my dad used to scare me at night by telling me stories about the Grays. You don't have to like the Grays, but you gotta respect them.. The first encounter with Grey forces is in the original PC game: Sarge is attempting to outflank the Tan and finds himself on the Grey-Tan border. Whilst both are at war with Green, they are also at war with each other and Sarge finds himself in a three-way shooting match. Shortly after Sarge discovers the Grey have formed an alliance with Tan in order to generate some rather bizarre weapons of mass-destruction (seen in later games). In Army Men 3D a Grey Colonel is captured in one of the last missions.
Blue - The Blue on the other hand are stinkin' cowards! They make better sneaks than they do soldiers. They're more likely to ambush you then shoot you in open combat. The Tans put up with the Blues because they can use them as couriers, saboteurs, and spies - Sarge. The Blue army (often with a French influence) seem to have very fluid alliances, though they are rarely seen on the front lines. The Blue army's real talents lie in espionage, sabotage and other such covert missions. The Blue army is often depicted as working toward anything they see beneficial, often this means paying for their services. In some games they are allies with the Green Army, but in others they are an enemy.
Red - Appear in Multiplayer in "Sarge's War", and one is rescued in Dr. Madd's castle, and in Sarge's Heroes in the cut-scene where Shrap is rescued from the spider machine. Originally they would probably represent a communist style army.
Orange - Mentioned only in Sarge's Heroes 2, when General Plastro is bragging about conquering all the nations in the plastic world. Not related to the Orange aliens.
The Aliens - The main enemy in Toys in Space. They appear only in Portal Runner, and Toys in Space. As Tina Tomorrow secures an alliance with Sarge, the aliens form an alliance with the Tan Empire and join in the quest for domination by providing a whole new armada of nasty things to make Sarge's life miserable.
The Galactic Army - Allies of the Green Army in Toys in Space. They only appear in this game. Lead by Tina Tomorrow, the Galactic Army is light blue in colour and are provided as a spoof of early Sci-Fi serials. The main army is female with support troopers (eg Mini-Gunners) being male. The Galactic Army provides a number of unique weapons to assist Sarge through Toys in Space - the stun guns especially adding a new dimension to the game's strategy. The Galactic army, while of the same color, are not related to the blue army men.
The Cult - Only appears in Army Men 2, in two levels (one of which seems to be an adaptation of Apocalypse Now). It is composed of Blue, Green, Tan, and Gray soldiers, as well as suicide bombers. Lead by an AWOL Colonel from the Green Army. Sarge was originally tasked to locate the Colonel, but learning of the Colonel's insanity he is ordered to destroy the Colonel and his cult of followers.
Malice's Tans - Only appear in Army Men: Sarge's War. They plant a bomb in the statue and deliver it to the Green/Tan peace ceremony which is destroyed with all Greens (except Sarge) and all of General Plastro's Tans are destroyed. They do not look like the tans from other games. Their weapons appear to be metal and they wear objects that aren't tan.
Bugs and Insects - While not always seen in the Army Men Series Bugs and Insects appear in Army Men: Air Attack (2), Army Men RTS and several other of the Games, they are usually Hostile to Army and pack some heavy firepower.
[edit] Series
| Name | Year | Platform | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Army Men | 1998 | Windows, Game Boy Color | The first game in the series. At the beginning of this game Sarge is tasked with a simple recon mission on the front line - locate some documents. At the end of this game, Sarge finds a strange portal that leads to the next dimension and the next game. Regarded as a classic by fans, this is one of the few games to actually display Sarge and his squad as merely pawns in a bigger battle. Two features that make this game almost unique in the series are its story telling (Black-White spoof of old-time war-time news reels) and the fact that it often depicts a front line or other fighting that doesn't involve the main characters. |
| Army Men II | 1999 | Windows, Game Boy Color | Starts where the last game ended. This is perhaps the most varied game in the series, with enemies ranging from suicide bombers to zombies to cult members to cockroaches. There is also a wide range of battlefields, such as Kitchen's in the "Real World", and tank factories in the "Plastic World". This game also introduced the concept of 'Portals', which were connections between the "Plastic World" (The Army Men world), and the "Real World" (our world). Gameplay is very similar to, yet different from the first: AM2 allows much better control of individual troopers from Sarge's squad and for setting up tactical positions. Fans of the series almost invariably nominate this game as the best for Multiplay experience, both for its control style and the additional options available. |
| Army Men: Toys in Space | 1999 | Windows | This game adds two new armies, the Space Troops, and the Aliens. This game continues is exclusive, in that all the missions take place in the "Real World", or in outer space. This game introduced a science fiction element not present in any other Army Men games. This game reorganised the control of squads and introduced new weapons and units such as Alien laser troopers, Tina's Freeze Ray and her Mini-gun troopers as well as a small selection of new vehicles (though fans voted these vehicles as poorly planned and mostly a waste of space). |
| Army Men: Air Attack | 1999 | Windows, PlayStation, Nintendo 64 | The main character is a Green Air Cavalry pilot named Captain William Blade. This game has over 12 missions with three extra choppers to unlock. The first helicopter is a Huey, then a Chinook, a Super Stallion, and finally an Apache. There are also three extra co-pilots to unlock. The first pilot is 'Woodstock', then 'Rawhide, next is 'Hardcore', and lastly Sgt. Hawk. |
| Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes | 1999 | Windows, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast | A console-to-PC port of the PlayStation game of the same name. Fans of the PC series were typically disappointed by the Console spin-off's such as Sarge's Heroes. This was mainly because they tried to make Sarge's Heroes appeal to a much younger audience (some say this killed what was essentially a more mature game), but also because they gave Sarge a name and made him a character - whereas he had previously been depicted simply as a regular Joe out there doing his job and they felt this also drastically reduced the realism of this series. |
| Army Men: Air Tactics | 1999 | Windows | This time the player character was Captain Blade of the Green Airborne Cavalry. This was a top-down flight sim that placed the player in a number of different helicopters. Captain Blade's main responsibilities is to act as aerial support for Sarge and his men. This game introduced abilities such as lifting heavy objects and transporting them to other locations, landing on the ground to load/unload soldiers and unique airborne combat not seen in other games. This game contained a number of mini games such as playing air-hockey versus a Tan helicopter, as well as a number of static games. This game was also known as "Air Attack" (or Air Combat on the Nintendo 64). |
| Army Men 3D | 1999 | Playstation | Adventures of Sarge through the Desert, Alpine, and Boyue. His goal is to collect the tinker toy keys which lead him to a portal to the real world. the ending of this game follows the storyline of Army Men because the ending is the same as the first Army Men game. |
| Army Men: World War | 2000 | Windows, PlayStation | This game focuses solely on combat in the "Plastic World", with most of the missions being based on World War Two. The PC game starts with a D-Day style landing after which there are a number of missions that all have themes from World-War 2 lore such as A Bridge To Far. The final showdown of this game is when a squad of men are led into the Tan Capitol (eg the push to Berlin) and destroy the Tan Capitol Building. This is the only game where vehicles can be controlled by enemy forces. The fans place this game as a close second to AM2 for multiplayer mode, with the ability to steal enemy tanks listed as a big plus for multiplayer. One interesting twist to this game was that it is the only PC game in the series to not have a Sarge character in any fashion at all - they obviously heard the fans wanted their old faceless hero back and decided to leave him out rather than to contradict Sarge's Heroes - this game also had probably the most in depth system for organising large numbers of men under command and depicted a war-like situation with even more background effects and sideline fighting than the original Army Men had. This game was also known as "Operation Meltdown" outside the US and Canada. |
| Army Men: World War-Land, Sea and Air | 2000 | PlayStation | The sequel to Army Men: World War |
| Army Men: Air Combat | 2000 | Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64 | Like Air Tactics it focused on a Green Helicopter pilot. This console game based game was a lot more arcade like in its gameplay than the PC Air Tactics was, there was no landing or acting as an Air Cavalry transport - focus instead was on the combat role of the helicopter pilot. |
| Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2 | 2000 | PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64 | The sequel to Sarge's Heroes. It introduced several new characters, and the concept of "Plastrification". |
| Army Men: Operation Green | 2001 | Game Boy Advance | This time, the player takes control of a generic Green soldier in a 3-D isometric world. This title is set almost exclusively in the Plastic World, & there are a few vehicles available to drive. However, vehicles have a limited amount of fuel. |
| Army Men: World War-Team Assault | 2001 | PlayStation | Comes Before Final Front. The plastic war is now at a standstill. The Green and Tan armies are locked in a stalemate. Seeking to gain the advantage in this conflict, the Tan have succeeded in developing long-range weapons that will ultimately spell doom for the Green forces. Intelligence agents had determined that these long-range missiles exist, but they had not discovered their location. Until Now. .. A Green intelligence agent had a lead on the possible whereabouts of these harbingers of doom. Unfortunately, the agent was discovered before he was able to reveal the location of the missiles base. In an attempt to rescue this agent and ultimately destroy the hidden base, a crack team of Green commandos has been assembled. Each member of this team is a specialist in a variety of fields ranging from heavy weaponry to linguistics. The fate of the free world depends on the successful completion of this mission. |
| Army Men: World War-Final Front | 2001 | PlayStation | The last of the World War titles. There are four fronts with three missions in each one.
The Tan once again wage war with the Green Army, so the Green retaliate by attacking the Tan capital. When they discover that the Tan have created weapons of mass destruction, they declare a full-scale war against the Tan and deploy their forces worldwide to destroy the revived Tan Army and its new weapons. Once again, many of the missions are modeled after World War Two battles and others appear to have a resemblance to Indiana Jones adventures, as some battles take place in the mysterious regions of a desert land resembling Egypt. This game also introduces submarine warfare to the World War titles. |
| Army Men: Green Rogue | 2001 | PlayStation, PlayStation 2 | Set during Sarge's Heroes, the Green Army creates a super soldier composed of DNA spliced from all the members of Bravo Company. Plastro tries to capture the supersoldier, but the crash-landing on the helicopter transporting it inadvertently awakens Omega Soldier, causing a one-man rampage against Tan forces. |
| Army Men: Advance | 2001 | Game Boy Advance | The player can choose between Sarge, or Vikki, who will receive several objectives by radio, such as recruiting fellow squad members, escaping from prison, and breaking into enemy installations. |
| Army Men: Lock ‘N’ Load | 2001 | PlayStation | Basically the same as Army Men: World War: Final Front only for countries outside the U.S. |
| Portal Runner | 2001 | PlayStation 2, GameBoy Color | This spin-off of Sarge's Heroes focused on Vikki Grimm and Bridgette Bleu. In this game, Bridgette Bleu, trapped Viki Grimm in another dimension through the use of a portal. In this game, Vikki and a lion named Leo, must find the right portal, to take them back to the "Plastic World". |
| Army Men: RTS-Real Time Strategy | 2003 | Windows, PlayStation 2, GameCube | This game was one of the last AM titles released before The 3DO Company filed for bankruptcy. Like Toys in Space it took place only in the "Real World", although the focus was on the characters from Sarge's Heroes. The main difference between this game is the fact that it is a 3D RTS. This game provided a brand new perspective on the Army Men game - base building, and a fully poseable 3D camera. Whilst this may have provided a neat step-between for introducing younger players to the RTS genre, it didn't really offer much to experienced RTS players. PC Army Men fans were then disappointed by the fact that some units didn't behave like their Army Men or AM2 counter parts (eg Mortar Men would only attack buildings - removing one of their best uses). However this game did also provide some unique elements such as collecting the melted plastic after a battle and recycling it to create a fresh supply of troops. It is regarded by many as the best game in the series. |
| Army Men: Turf Wars | 2002 | GameBoy Advance | The Tan Army has struck once again and have taken over a Green Army base. Colonel Grimm has formed a two-man team: Sargent Hawk and a blue spy. This title was a rather good installment towards the multiplayer offerings of Army Men, however, the campaign mode has need of serious work, in that players die too fast, there is never enough health, there are only four weapons and two veheicles, and the graphics are horribly distorted and choppy. |
| Army Men: Air Attack 2 | 2003 | GameCube | The sequel to Army Men: Air Attack. This game had new co-pilots, and some old ones with a new look. This game had many more cutscenes than the last. It included to new choppers, the King Cobra and Osprey, in addition to the Chinook and Apache. The new co-pilot is 'Bombshell' (eventually Blade falls in love with her.) In this game each co-pilot has a special secondary weapon and can only be used with that co-pilot as opposed to the first one where any secondary weapon was available. It should be noted that all the co pilots change in this game i.e. Woodstock is no longer a 1960's Vietnam- drafted type soldier he is a Jamacian guy, Hardcore now becomes more like Hard-core who is now a punk British man. Rawhide disappears all together. Also all choppers have a special weapon. |
| Army Men: Air Combat-The Elite Missions | 2003 | GameCube | N/A |
| Army Men: Sarge's War | 2004 | Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube | Lord Malice formed a secret milita of tans, who would rebuild after having destroyed the Tan and Green nations at the Green-Tan peace ceremony. Everone, including Bravo Company, Blade, the Alpha Wolf squadron, Grimm, Vikki, and General Plastro, with the exceptions of Seargent Hawk and Malice's milita, have been eliminated. Sarge engages in a one man war against Malice, occasionally meeting green suvivors. This game was initially developed by The 3DO Company but after the company filed for bankruptcy the game was purchased, completed and released by Crave Entertainment. The game is much than its predecessors, with Sarge occasionally swearing and when he is shot holes appear in his body. The weapons no longer have names like M-16, or M-60; they are now called "assault rifle", "heavy machine gun", and "sub machine gun". Also, the weapons are now metalic and silver rather than the green of previous games. |
| Army Men: Major Malfunction | 2006 | PlayStation 2, Xbox | Major Malfunction is the latest game in the series, released by Global Software. The main character is a soldier named Private Anderson and fight against an enemy named Major Malfunction (A nod to the movie Full Metal Jacket, where the drill sergeant asks one of the characters "What is your Major Malfunction"). The game received largely negative reviews, although graphically it is regarded as the "best looking" game in the series. |
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Plastrification, according to Dr. Madd in Sarge's Heroes 2, is a condition that occurs when a soldier from the "Plastic World" spends too much time in the "Real World". The soldier afflicted with this condition becomes paralyzed and grows a plastic base, ending up like the green army men commonly sold at toystores. Also in SH2, Bridgette Bleu has developed a serum that reverses the effects of plastrification, which she uses to revive General Plastro. She has also developed one that causes plastrification. The reversal serum is stored in cola cans.
- The Army Men in the Games usually use Toys that exist from around the World today, examples would be Lincoln Logs, Lego, Meccano and several other Toys.
- One may see references to several famous movies scattered through out the games. One of these is a level in Army Men 2. In that level there is a patrol boat on a jungle island, which is used to hunt down an insane Green special forces colonel, a nod to Apocalypse Now. This plot is also present in RTS, as the main plot is to hunt down an insane green special forces colonel named "Blintz".
- Vikki Grimm and Bridgette Bleu are the only characters not to have a coloured skin (Green, Blue etc.) instead they are modeled with flesh tones more like Barbie dolls and simply wear clothing that matches the colour of their allegiance.
- There are armies other than the Tan, Green, Blue, and Grey. In Sarge's Heroes 2 General Plastro makes a reference to the 'Orange Army', and later in the game, Sarge rescues a red soldier from Tan soldiers, in Dr. Madd's castle. In Sarge's War, in the multiplayer mode, the 'Red Soldier' is playable.
- Most of the titles of the levels are named after war movies. For example, in Sarge's War there's Das Drain, an obvious reference to Das Boot, or The Thin Green Line refers to The Thin Red Line. They are also named after video games like "Toast Recon" obviously referring to "Ghost Recon"
- Army Men:RTS - features a number of breaches of chain of command during its cutscenes: Most notably the opening cutscene where Sarge is walking along and is saluted by a private (the rank of Sergeant is a non-saluting rank). This is followed by Sarge entering the command tent where Colonel Grimm and a Lieutenant Calt are waiting - Grimm salutes first, Sarge returns the salute and Grimm is also the last one to drop his hand. This should actually occur in the reverse order, and as it stands it suggests that Sarge outranks his Commanding Officer. However, this may also suggest Sarge has received a medal the equivalent of the real world Medal of Honor.
- The Army Men series is never set in a specific date in any of the games. In a few of the games, modern weapons such as the M16A2 can be seen, but in other episodes the vehicles and weapons seen are from the World War II or the Vietnam War era, with weapons & vehicles such as the M-16 A1 rifle, M-48 Patton tank, M-79 grenade launcher and various other Weapons, it is also speculated that the Army Men were based on the Clones of Tim Mee Soldiers in the later PS2 games while MPC, Marx and Airfax in the earlier PS1 Games. However, modern choppers such as the AH-64 Apache can be obtained in Army Men: Air Combat. Famous battles such as the Normandy landing are imitated, and the style of fonts and film quality mimic the style of the 1940s.
- In the opening cutscene in Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2 there is a map of the Plastic World on the wall behind Sarge.
- It should also be noted that Sarge or any of Bravo Company Commandoes first names are never mentioned. Their ranks aren't mentioned either (excluding Sarge and Hoover) in the B Company Commandoes.
- The events described at the end of Sarge's War do occur at the beginning of Army Men 2.
- Army Men often used Toys and Fireworks that exist in Reality including Lincoln Logs, Lego, Firecrackers, meccano and similar items.
- The Army Men often fought inside the 'Real World' inside Houses, although they appear throughout the Game the House changes almost every time speculating that Games follow different Timelines and Locations.
- Army Men RTS had some particular critiscisms, for example all of the soldiers had metal weapons, grenades and minesweepers which almost entirely ruins one of the most common aspects of the games. It should also be noted that there is no Toy Maker (So Far) that makes Typical Plastic Army Men with Metal Weapons, in addition the UH1 'Huey' and 'Halftrack' could not transport Infantry into Combat which again ruined one of their most useful aspects, also the UH1 Huey was modeled rather badly as the tail of the Helicopter is missing the two side Wings, one of the worst problems was that Flamethrower Men were unavailable which brought down the feel of real Army Men as most other Army Men games featured Flamethrower wielding men.
[edit] End of 3DO
Army Men: RTS was the last Army Men game to be released.
In 2003, 3DO filed for chapter eleven, bankruptcy. The major franchises were auctioned off, and Army Men was purchased by Crave Entertainment.
In 2004, Crave Entertainment published Sarge's War. The PS2 and Xbox versions were completed by some members of the original 3DO Sarge's War development team. Then Crave released Army Men: Major Malfunction for Xbox (as well as a limited region PS2 release), and planned a DS version, which apparently was not released, because no screenshots or reviews can be found, nor does it show up on the Nintendo website. The Xbox/PS2 version is currently the latest game in the series. Future installments are possible, but unlikely, due to the poor critical and commercial performance of Sarge's War and Major Malfunction. However, the Army Men series, 30+ game releases strong as of Major Malfunction, as well as Army Men: Platoon Command for Gamecube (cancelled), has rarely been critically acclaimed, yet still seems to sell enough to generate revenues for publishers, even outliving its original developer.
[edit] Criticism
The Army Men series has been a target of criticisms from several parts of the videogame media, including X-Play [1] and Seanbaby of EGM [2], for the frequency and declining quality of each new title.
