0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Army Men 3D

     

The Army 3D and the beginning of the Army Men invasion on the Playstation, the first of eleven Army Men titles in just a little under a three year period from March 1999 to November 2001. The first to hit the Playstation was a remake of the original Army which was released on Windows and Game Boy Colour, developed and published  by The 3DO Company the game was released in North America in March of 1999, with a PAL release the in January of 2000.

Army Men 3D has five ways to get around you can either do it the old fashioned way and either walk/run every where or you can take one of the four different vehicles available either a jeep, a half track, tank or cargo truck.

During the course of your exploits as an Army Man you will have access to a variety of different weapons, from the standard machine guns, to mortars and bazookas as well as flame throwers. This is not a solo mission however you have command of an entire unit of green soldiers in your quest to eradicate the tan army.

With the Army Men being made of plastic they are quite destructible with flame throwers melting any enemies that are foolish to wander too close, tanks squish any army men in the way and bazookas will blow vehicles to pieces.

The game has levels with various objective for example level 4, has the player assaulting a Tan fortress, the player can take out a radio tower which is an early warning system for the fortress this needs to be taken out before attacking the fortress, there is also a tank patrol to deal with as well. In addition to the single player part of the game, it also offers a two player split screen mode for a game of capture the flag.

Somehow plastic soldiers have come to life and a war is brewing between the green army men and the tan army men, the player takes on the role of Sarge a green army sergeant, who is a shoot first ask questions later kind of soldier.

The Army Men series is built around the continuing conflict between various colours of Army Men, in the case of Army Men 3D it is the war between the Green and Tan armies, there are also the Blue, Grey factions as well as the Red and Orange armies, a smaller Black army also contributes to the story, later in the series a Galactic Army and Alien Army were added to the series canon.

A big spread when it comes to review scores for Army Men 3D from one review giving the game the maximum 100/100 with review scores trailing down to a lowly 46/100 at the bottom of the scale. As usual though we will start with the best which came from German publication Video Games who concluded their review with. Anyone interested in challenging strategy games should take a look at Army Men 3D.

Israeli publication Freak praised the game as the best G.I Joe game they have ever player (this is a translation of the Hebrew and not a very good one either, sadly Freak is no longer around so I have not been able to confirm what they said for their review.

Moving on two a group of three critics who all scored the game at an 80/100 first of them is GameGenie who called the game a good overall game, with challenging gameplay but remaining fun at the same time, they also praised the visuals but were critical of the fairly average sound quality.

Absolute Playstation also praised the graphics, while their review found no issues with the sound in the game, they found the stealth mechanics to be tolerable certainly no Metal Gear Solid or Syphon Filter, one major annoyance they found were the vehicles, the reviewer finding themselves ditching the vehicle in favour of travelling on foot.

GamePro also scored the game at an 80/100 however their review conclusion is a pile of crap mentioning military sadists and those with a real blood thirst for killing enemies. IGN were the next highest review for Army Men 3D with the reviewer enjoying the game at first, but it was over too quickly for them, one saving grace for the review was the two player mode.

Dropping to the bottom of the review scores we find GameSpot who scored the game at just a 46/100 in their review they were critical of the limited game length as well, also the music and sound were another low point for them. They were also critical of the camera angle for the two player capture the flag mode with it being much too close to the horizon resulting in a poor field of view.

Enemy AI was another big stumbling block for the reviewer with it alternating between too smart or not smart enough. They concluded with that there is a good game buried behind the mess however the game clearly needed some more spit and polish and probably another seven months in the over before being released.

The Video Game Critic rated the game at a 50/100 they were critical of the pixilated graphics and fairly sloppy look to them, they were not fans of the two player mode either, even so they did praise some of the solo missions as being well designed.

Next two reviews both tied at 67/100 these were from Game Revolution and German publication Video Games, starting with the former who gave the game the benefit of the doubt and should not judge a book by its cover maybe there is something good lurking under those below par graphics and awkward controls but they concluded graphics and good controls are key to a good game as a result they would find it hard to strongly recommend the game. Video Games found the many design mistakes proved strongly testing of the players patience.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude who will give you $2 if you are looking to trade in your copy of Army Men 3D, if on the other hand you are looking to buy a copy of the game then you will be looking at an outlay of $6.

Retrogames.co.uk up next who at the time of writing this have two copies of Army Men 3D available, both are used copies in excellent condition with a 10/10 disc quality rating from Retrogames.co.uk, a copy of the game can be picked up for just £4 next on to eStarland.com.

eStarland.com have two copies of the game available, the first is a complete used copy of the game and is priced at $5.63, they also have  a disc only copy of the game on sale that is priced at $1.88, no trade in is offered for this game. eStarland.com also has the official strategy guide available, this Is a used copy of the guide and is available for $5.95, a trade in is on offer for the guide with eStarland willing to pay $1.25 for a copy of the guide.

Finally we move on to Amazon.com where we find a huge amount of stock with the cheapest complete copy available for around $5.40 this is for a very good condition disc however other elements may not be in the best shape, a fulfilled by Amazon copy looks in better shape that is priced up at $5.86 but you have to spend the $25 to get the free shipping.

To get a complete used copy in good or better condition you don’t have to spend much more with a good quality complete copy priced up at $7.50. there is a definite trend with the cheaper used copies being incomplete copies.

For a very good quality used copy that has guaranteed all components you will be looking at around $10 minimum currently on Amazon.com, with most of the cheaper options not fully clear on the condition of the game. For anyone looking for a like new copy one is available for around $12 however again is not clear on the quality of the case, manual and covers the next alternative is around the $20 mark for a like new copy.

If you are in the market for a new copy of the game there are currently six on the market with prices starting from just over $48 once the shipping costs have been added in with prices raising to over $80 for a new copy of Army Men 3D, please be aware these Amazon prices are for the North American version of the game and will not work on Japanese or PAL systems.

Written by

P J Gibbon