Army Men: Sarge's Heroes

• Release Date: September 28, 1999
• Genre: Shooter
• Style: Third-Person 3D Shooter
• Similar Games: Army Men (IBM PC Compatible), Army Men 3D (PlayStation), Army Men II (IBM PC Compatible), Army Men (Game Boy Color), Army Men: World War (IBM PC Compatible)

Game Description

Army Men: Sarge's Heroes lets you play the role of Sergeant Hawk as he takes on the Tan Army in a series of 16 missions. Over 40 different objectives must be completed, ranging from simple seek-and-destroy to involved reconnaissance operations. Players can also enroll in "Boot Camp" to practice firing weapons and work on combat skills before embarking on a mission.

As in previous titles in the series, the action is played from a third-person perspective. A map in the corner of the screen will help players find their way to an objective. Members of the Tan Army will try to thwart your progress every step of the way, so keep an eye on your health meter to know when to stop fighting and search for a Medkit. Also available on each level are ammo boxes (to replenish your standard-issue M-16), bazookas, flamethrowers, and sniper rifles.

Since you can't replenish ammo for the extra weapons, you'll have to take your shots carefully. Battle environments include real-world outdoor settings and indoor "alternate world" locales that include a giant bathroom, garden, sandbox, kitchen, and living room. Besides firing at everything that moves, Sarge can crawl on his belly, kneel, roll on the ground and climb ladders. Every hit makes Sarge move a bit slower, so it's important to avoid gunfire at all costs.

Up to four players can compete in one of eight multiplayer stages on a split screen. Players choose soldier color (green, blue, tan or gray) and difficulty level (easy, normal or hard) before deciding on victory conditions. Each mode differs in the number of kills needed for victory. "Family" setting is the easiest, with unlimited ammo and more default weapons to start with. Players can also opt to play multiplayer modes with teams or go for the default "free-for-all" mode.

The game supports the Rumble Pak for vibration feedback, the Expansion Pak for high-resolution graphics, and the Controller Pak to save game progress. Players without a Controller Pak can use passwords to continue the single-player campaign. Make General Grimm proud and rescue his daughter!

Roots & Influences

Army Men: Sarge's Heroes is one of a series of games based on plastic toy soldiers from The 3DO Company. The Army Men series originated on the PC and debuted on the home consoles with 1998's Army Men 3D for the PlayStation. All of the games featured shooting action from a third-person viewpoint, and the Nintendo 64 version sticks closely to this formula. The Army Men series will begin to branch out into new areas in 1999, starting with Army Men: Air Attack for the PlayStation, an aerial combat game in the mold of Nuclear Strike.

Review: Overall

Army Men: Sarge's Heroes is painful to play; so close to a really enjoyable game that each time you encounter a snag, you'll feel the game's potential slip between your fingers, no matter how hard you grab the controller. This is a shame since everything starts out so promising with the 3D Boot Camp training mission where you get a chance to check out weapons' explosive powers on cardboard targets -- a cheap thrill, but probably the most fun you'll have with the game.

Army Men: Sarge's Heroes is solid enough in terms of presentation, and although the textures aren't of the highest quality, they at least fit the cartoon-like setting. Since some of the more important aspects are the weapons' explosions and special effects, players might appreciate some of the work that went into them. The flash fire from machine guns is a nice effect, while the grenades, bazookas, mortars and other incendiary devices leave behind thick smoke clouds after a dramatic flash of fiery orange. You're not going to drop your jaw after seeing these explosions, but you will crack a smile when you use your last mortar and watch a tank burst into flames! Adding an Expansion Pak helps make things noticeably sharper, but don't expect a huge leap.

Though they all essentially play similarly, there are nine different characters to interact with, from the familiar Sarge to newcomer Nikki. The game also offers thirteen military and real world "weapons" (such as magnifying glasses and spray cans) for use in fourteen missions split into real world and fantasy settings, with some missions offering up to five separate objectives. With such a diverse lineup of levels, a nice selection of weapons and passable graphics, the game sure sounds like a blast, right? At least until you start playing. The actual game, though it means well, is full of problems that make it frustrating to play, slowly ruining the entire experience. For example, as you move through the levels, troops from the Tan Army start popping up everywhere and many will hunt you down. Once you take a hit, you'll turn to see where it came from and run right past the attacker!

For some strange reason, the developers did not change the control scheme from Army Men 3D on the PlayStation so pressing left or right on the analog stick swivels the camera instead of moving your character, and it takes a painfully long time to rotate to attack the enemy. When running away from gunfire, you'll have to swing a giant arc to come back around to attack.

Things are helped somewhat if you approach the missions slowly, or memorize them after playing them over and over again. Some of the game's missions require you to sneak around, and there's no better way to try to avoid detection than crawling on the ground. As long as you're standing still, it's easy to switch from standing to kneeling to lying down. It's when you're running and try to go into the lying down position that the game exhibits an annoying quirk. Your character will jump at an angle into the air, land, roll around, and then finally assume the lying down, ready-to-fire position. The unpredictability of this maneuver makes it pretty risky to use during combat -- you could end up diving and rolling into a stream, onto a mine, or completely out in the open to make the controls all the more frustrating. While the control doesn't quite kill the game, it will wear you down, unless you're a die-hard Army Men fan.

Army Men: Sarge's Heroes is a good attempt at bringing the strategy-based series to the Nintendo 64, but with the frustrating quirks and the less-than-stellar presentation, it leaves much to be desired. Fans of Army Men 3D, and previous games in the series, will probably enjoy this more than anyone else, but I suggest a rental before a purchase.

Review: Enjoyment

If you can overcome the frustrating control, too annoying to play for more than an hour at a time, you could really enjoy this game.

Review: Graphics

The graphics are shallow and fairly shoddy, but work well enough for the cartoon-like Army Men universe.

Review: Sound

Minimum sound effects and voices, with military-style music.

Review: Replay Value

The missions are long, featuring unique objectives, and while the two and four-player modes should keep you and your friends busy, there's little else to come back to.

Review: Documentation

Just enough information on controls, characters, weapons, and play mechanics to get you started.

Production Credits