Army Men Air Attack

They must just be releasing Army Men games too close together or something, because frankly I'm sick of Sarge, Captain and Colonel Grimm and all of the faux-WWII bollocks that go along with them. I know 3DO is trying to build a franchise...but the whole Army Men thing just isn't appealing enough. I don't want to relate to a badly voice-acted piece of plastic, thank you. Especially when his obnoxious buddies are taking the piss out of my accent like they do in this game. At its heart Air Attack is a shameless rip-off of the wildly popular and sorely missed EA 'Strike' series...only it's been dummied down and buried beneath the Army Men 'plot'. You fly one of several helicopters on missions that involve shooting stuff, escorting things, blowing things up and saving people. As with the other AM games the scenario takes you between the Army Men world and the 'real' world...and like all of the others it's the 'real' stuff that holds the appeal here. Some of the missions are very cleverly thought out, and I particularly liked the interaction between the soldiers and the insects of the real world later on in the game. My big problem with the gameplay though is that it starts off great and gets real tough, real quick. The only thing that saved it for me is that the two-player mode is a co-op game...a welcome feature these days.

Think of a game from the Strike series, except with plastic army men and vehicles instead of real military stuff. Missions have you taking out ant hills and escorting a teddy bear down a river, among other things. But does the toy-in-the-real-world theme work well? Not really. The missions aren't terribly entertaining and the gameplay is nothing new. The Army Men concept just isn't as fresh as it used to be. I think it's time to try something new.

This is a logical next step for the Army Men series, but the minute I see Army Men Kart, it's time to run for the hills. But seriously-this is, at least for me, the easiest of the Army Men games to pick up and play (and, in my opinion, the most fun of the series). Little touches like the bugs that scream "we're free" when you release them, and the ability to pick up items and drop them on your enemies just made this all the more fun to play.

I have to agree with John about the similarities between this and EA's Strike series. It's all about the same stuff only with plastic army men and other toy influences. It's kind of weird when a giant toy robot waltzes into a fierce fire-fight. It's like the game tries to mask hardcore violence under an "it's-only-toys" veil. If you don't mind the schizophrenic nature of Air attack, It's kind of fun. I especially (ike blowing up insects...in the game that is.