"3DO did an okay job with this game"

This is the first of two Army Men games for the N64, and 3DO did a good job opening up the first one. You play as a green plastic soldier named Sarge, who's one of the highest soldiers in a squad of other green plastic soldiers. You're fighting against the tan army, led by the ruthless General Plastro. Why the two sides are fighting, I don't know. But that's not important, the game is good nonetheless.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10
The gameplay is a great part of the game. You go around a real spot in the human world (i.e. a backyard, a tabletop, etc.) to defeat all the tan forces hiding out. You start off with a regular M16, but can get new weapons later on like a machine gun, a sniper rifle, and one of my personal favorites, a flamethrower. You can use all these weapons to defeat any tan soldiers stupid enough to lie in your way. However, the game does get very repetitive after a while. It turns out to be nothing more than just a regular shooting game, except that instead of some street thug, you're controlling a plastic toy.

GRAPHICS: 10/10
The graphics look beautiful for this game's time period. The soldiers really look plastic and not just some regular person covered in green or tan. The backgrounds also look very nice. It really looks like you're in a bootcamp, or an enemy base, or where ever the game takes you. A great part of the graphics include the way the enemies (and you) die. While the game doesn't use ragdoll effects, the game DOES use about six or seven different death animations for an enemy. (a rather funny one includes an enemy literally melting after spraying him with your flamethrower) So all the soldiers, all the backgrounds and all the death animations look great.

SOUND: 6/10
The sound isn't exactly the high point in the game. Sure, the guns sound pretty good when they fire, but they aren't anything to get too excited about. There really isn't too much background music used throughout the game, and when it IS used, it really doesn't sound too catchy. There are some pretty good grunting sounds or screaming sounds that you hear from time to time in the game, but they often repeat themselves, and they get a little boring after a while.

LENGTH: 7/10
For some reason, this game took me a long time to beat. There are quite a few levels, and they all have spots that could get fluster someone. Or, you're more likely to be killed by enemies whose guns do a ton of damage when they outnumber you six-to-one. These things will probably make the game a little longer, so the game comes out to a length a little longer than average. It's a great game to player if you've got a days, weeks or even months to kill.

MULTIPLAYER: 8/10
The multiplayer is really nothing except the main game while another person takes on the identity of a plastic enemy soldier instead of a CPU. The locations look pretty nice though, and each of them have a few traps or features that set them apart from all the others. The multiplayer can actually be pretty fun sometimes, but it doesn't come anywhere near to the greatest Nintendo shooter of all time, Goldeneye.

REPLAYABILITY: 5/10
There really isn't much replayabilty value to this game. However, the game is pretty fun, so you might want to go back and play the game again. While there is really no surprise elements or great levels that you'll want to do over, you will probably like to kick some more tan butt or to simply enjoy the game some more.

Total Score: 45/60
Averaged Score: 7.5 (rounds up to 8)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/05