Army Men: Air Attack

• Release Date: October 02, 1999
• Genre: Shooter
• Style: Third-Person 3D Shooter
• Similar Games: Jungle Strike (Sega Genesis), Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf (Game Boy), Jungle Strike (Game Boy), Jungle Strike (Super Nintendo Entertainment System), Jungle Strike (Sega Game Gear), Army Men 3D (PlayStation), Army Men: Air Tactics (IBM PC Compatible), Toy Commander (Dreamcast)

Game Description

If you mess with the best, you'll melt like the rest in Army Men: Air Attack! So saddle up your toys, soldier, and head for the skies! The GPN reports a plot by the evil Tan Army to seize the Green Army's borders. Colonel Grimm expects your new Alpha Wolf Battalion to stop General Plastro's wicked invasion. Led by Captain William Blade, your mission is to pilot four helicopters (with pyrotechnic artillery) through the backyard, picnic, and beach terrain to stop the Tan in their tracks. Capture giant teddy bears, blow up sandcastles, and save Sarge from a melting by kids with a magnifying glass.

In the third-person perspective Army Men: Air Attack for the PlayStation, you need the help of a co-pilot, so choose carefully from the following: Hardcore, who loves homing rockets; Rawhide, another rocket lover; and Woodstock, your machine gunner. While in the air, you can utilize a Huey, Chinook, Super Stallion, or Apache helicopter. An in-game map will help guide you as you grab power-ups, mission-specific characters, or world objects with the winch cable. Drop an apple, rock, or crate on the enemy to crush them. While you're at it, use machine guns, rockets, napalm, and flares to aid your fellow soldiers in their attack against the Tan's ground and air troops.

Many of the familiar types of characters from the previous Army Men titles are here as well, such as riflemen and flame-throwers for Tan Army infantry, wind-up robots, UFOs, and other ground troops. Along with jeeps, tanks, half-tracks, helicopters, PT boats, and even battleships and butterflies, the Tan will relentlessly continue the onslaught until you take them out. Also, look for killer bees, fire ants, and a dreaded lawn sprinkler. And you'll want to watch for Blue Spies -- mercenaries stealing supplies.

Play 16 campaign missions of bloodless, plastic army men violence in the one-player game, or team up cooperatively or competitively in split-screen mode with another player. Players may save their game progress during the Mission Debriefing Screen to load up later, or bypass it all by entering a password given after each mission. Set music or sound effects volume to your liking. Set the controls for the Dual Shock Analog Controller for maximum vibration realism.

Roots & Influences

The concept of Army Men came from the old green, plastic toy figures that emulate war-like postures. The PC version combined this with a strategic gameplay format. Army Men: Air Attack takes this one step further by incorporating a third-person action viewpoint. Influences include Army Men 3D and Electronic Arts' Desert Strike and Jungle Strike.

Review: Overall

It's not black and white -- it's green and tan! Army Men: Air Attack, for the PlayStation, is one of the best 3DO titles released in 1999 featuring solid gameplay that's easy from the start and stays consistently fun throughout. While the Army Men series has been over-saturated, Air Attack differs by placing you in Huey, Chinook, Super Stallion, and Apache helicopters. The downside is it's a little too short and somewhat easy to beat.

The Huey moves fast and is the most agile of the helicopters available to the Alpha Wolf Battalion. A heavy load affects its speed, but it can usually dodge enemies and projectiles without any problems. The Chinook, on the other hand, may carry a lot of inventory and take lots of damage, but it's very slow. The best of both worlds is the Super Stallion due to its balance of speed, powerful weaponry, armor, and ability to carry heavy loads. Then you have the best of the best -- the Apache; it's better than the three previous helicopters combined, but you don't get it until the very last stages, so what's the point?

Solid gameplay starts with a solid storyline (if it's applicable) and this game has distinct stories for each mission, along with the general theme of all Army Men games -- eliminate the Tan Army and protect your Green Army.

Much of the game depends on timing, and the strafing of your helicopter allows you to do so swiftly. The only problem is bumping into the sides of mountains, hills, or fences. The best weapons are the homing missiles because they do a lot of damage and are heat seeking, allowing you to lock and move on. Sometimes you're going to need normal missiles, napalms, and other weapons to pinpoint your target when the situation calls for it.

A sometimes-useless weapon is the flare, which calls in ground reinforcement paratroopers for help, but they blow themselves up in a matter of seconds! The most useless weapon is the machine gun. It doesn't matter anyway because the game lacks a difficulty option and by default, it's pretty easy to complete most levels. A fun addition is items on the ground to pick up and drop on your opponents like crushed cans, flowers, coffee cups, you name it. Even a donut can be moved over to the Tan's base so that it attracts killer ants!

Army Men Air Attack does have some amazing special lighting and explosive effects that give it realism. The scenery, from a river to the forest, looks so lush you can taste the water and smell the foliage! Although load times may be a little long, a spinning map of the land accompanies them with transparent arrows arching across to their destinations -- one green, one tan, or just one or the other. One really cool effect is the turbo-boost that speeds up your helicopter and produces a motion blur effect like a warp field from Dr. Who!

The two-player split-screen action is a neat feature and doesn't slow down the game one bit. However, the vertical solution makes your status bar too thin to know how damaged you are. Two-player mode definitely helps replay value because after you've finished single-player mode, you probably won't want to play it again.

This game has superb ambient effects whenever you're gunning down a rifleman or exploding a PT boat -- the sound of real war in stereo. The music is original and definitely fits the mood. Voices are also well done, with plenty coming from your co-pilot. The only problem is there seems to be either a very low helicopter rotating wing sound or none at all!

If you're ready to take on the Tan Army in a flight game with great graphics, gameplay, sound, and storyline, then Army Men Air Attack will leave you hungry for more plastic mayhem -- even if you've never played with toy soldiers before. However, if you're looking for a purely mission-based strategic simulation, this doesn't come close! Army Men: Air Attack is just pure fun and games, nothing more.

Review: Enjoyment

This is a fun game with loads of action and anticipation. It's just a little too easy and could cause problems for those prone to motion sickness.

Review: Graphics

Some of the best graphics seen on the PlayStation, utilizing lots of animation, numbers of models, and dazzling special effects. Though a bit on the choppy side, it doesn't take away from the game.

Review: Sound

There are nice environmental sounds of explosions, death, and destruction. The voices are clean and there are plenty of them, though they do tend to repeat the same things at times.

Review: Replay Value

In certain areas, it becomes slightly frustrating, but fourteen of the sixteen levels are a piece of cake. Since it's storyline based, there's no need to play this game again when you're done, unless you want to play with another human player.

Review: Documentation

The extremely colorful manual has twenty-three pages of detailed instructions along with photos to aid in your missions.

Production Credits