Army Men: Sarge's Heroes (Nintendo 64)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.0 stars Mediocre
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 4.2 (2.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Joe Fielder
• Reviewed on: 10/13/1999
• Updated on: 04/28/2000
• Released on: 09/30/1999
• Originally published on GameSpot: Army Men: Sarge's Heroes (Nintendo 64) Review

The first game in 3DO's Army Men series for the console systems, Army Men 3D for the PlayStation, lacked a great deal of spit and polish but had enough going deep down to make you hope for a sequel, albeit one that was much improved. The sequel, Army Men: Sarge's Heroes, has now arrived for the Nintendo 64, but not much, if anything, has been improved upon, and it contains a whole new batch of problems.

You once again take the role of Sarge, a soldier on the Green side of a world full of plastic army men. The Green are in a war against the Tan forces, who have recently begun importing terrible weapons from our own world, such as magnifying glasses, which they use to melt your men down to plastic puddles. Your mission is to gather your troops, a la John Belushi in The Blues Brothers, to create a unit capable of stopping them. Your arsenal is made up of weapons from Army Men 3D, such as a machine gun, flamethrower, and grenades, with new additions like a sniper rifle and mines.

The game camera in Army Men 3D's single-player mode was near perfect because it stuck right behind your back, but in Sarge's Heroes, it seems to have loosened its grip a bit. The camera does float behind you, but when your character turns, it takes the view a few seconds to catch up. You might turn around the corner of a barracks and confront an enemy unit, who will fire upon you immediately, but he won't come into view for a few seconds. Or you could be in close quarters running around an opponent, trying to face him to get a shot off, and it might take three turns to get it just right.

Continue reading