Army Men: Air Tactics

Army Men: Air Tactics, is the fifth game in the 3DO Army Men series. The game was released in 1999 exclusively for Windows by The 3DO Company. Air Tactics is a helicopter game using the Army Men 2 engine and is only available on the PC.

Overview

This time the player character was Captain William 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 Hawk 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.

Story

The heroic Green Army is back! And this time they're defending the skies from the evil Tan Army with a newly formed helicopter battalion. Meet Captain William Blade, the finest Air Cavalry flyer ever to take to the skies. He's tough, he's smart, and he's fearless. Blade's got the reputation for having nerves of steel and the expertise to take on a brigade of the enemy. His name says it all, for any enemy that gets in his way is going to be cut down. General Plastro, the evil leader of the Tan Army, is up to his usual warmongering. He has enlisted the help of the Insane Gray Doctor, a maniacal genius, who has created a secret force with destructive powers that are simply awesome. You'll find out soon enough the horrific plans Plastro has for taking over the world. His Tan minions, aided by the Insane Gray Doctor's creations, will carry out his evil scheme. Only Captain Blade, with the help of Sarge and a few elite Green soldiers, stand a chance of thwarting global takeover by the wicked Plastro. During the game the player takes control of Captain Blade of the Green Airborne Cavalry. The game is an overhead view flight simulator that places the player in a number of different helicopters. Captain Blade's main responsibility 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 featuring unique airborne combat not seen in the other games. Air Tactics is reminiscent of the old Desert and Jungle Strike games: fly around and shoot anything that moves, and hit a few key objects while you're at it. Air Tactics, of course, doesn't take place in deserts or jungles, but instead in real-world settings scaled down to the size of your little green men. 3DO captured the feel for this rather well. One mission has you flying through a bathroom, complete with a fortified empty tissue box as an anti-aircraft bunker, a tub filled with boats, and even a rubber ducky on the floor.

Requirements

• Minimum
• Pentium 133 MHz
• DirectDraw 2MB SVGA video card
• 32MB RAM
• 100MB hard drive space
• 4X CD-ROM
• DirectX 7.0 compatible sound card
• Keyboard
• Microsoft compatible 2-button mouse
• DirectX 7.0
• Recommended
• Pentium 166 MHz
• DirectDraw 4MB SVGA video card
• 64MB RAM
• 275MB hard drive space

Reception

Army Men: Air Tactics has a score of 77 on Metacritic.^[1] IGN rated the game a 4.5 out of 10. Presentation got a 6 With an ugly menu system that at least attempts to be usable, this really wasn't the worst ever. Graphics with a 3.5 You know graphics are bad when you feel the need to wash your eyeballs after playing a game. Sound was a 5 Not the worst sound I've heard, but I can remember atari games with better combat sounds. Gameplay as a 4 Bad controls + bad interface = bad game. GameSpot player reviews rated the game a 6.7 based from 68 ratings.

References

External links

• Army Men: Air Tactics at IGN