0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Army Men Sarge's Heroes

      

Army Men Sarge’s Heroes is a third person action shooter and a part of the Army Men series of game released in the late 90s and early 2000s on the Playstation, the game is also a sub series In the main Army Men timeline focussing on Sarge.

As with previous Army Men entries on the Playstation, the game was developed and published by The 3DO Company with the exception of the Dreamcast version of the game which was developed by Saffire Corporation and Published by Midway Games.

In addition to the Playstation release in early 2000 and the Dreamcast release in late 2000, the game would release first the year before on the Nintendo 64 as well as a Windows port of the game in mid December 2000 The Dreamcast version of the game does differ slightly to the N64 and Playstation versions.

The Dreamcast version is the N64 version of the game but with improved graphics also by entering the cheat SFFRMV you can watch a small making of video. The Dreamcast version also has additional characters pink bunny, a little girl, a skeleton as well as faces of the games developers.

The player controls Sarge in this third person shooter, with a total of 14 levels for the player to wage war across against the Tan Army in the main campaign mode with an arsenal of 13 different weapons to wage your war with.

The games mission structure is largely the same as other Army Men games with missions such as killing enemies, recuing people and destroying vehicles, during the course of the missions Sarge will be recuing members of his elite Bravo Company from either Tan bases or through the blue portals to the real world

The second single player mode is Boot Camp this is pretty much a training level for the player to get use to the games controls where the player is able to test out the games weapons and also complete an obstacle course and a live fire course.

The game also has a multiplayer mode where players are able to choose their character and the characters colour and weapon choice, players can battle it out in areas from the main game or specifically created maps for multiplayer, the game also incorporated the portal system into the multiplayer with players transported to random spots on the map when entering a blue portal.

Sarge is relaxing in his cot when the Tan army launches a surprise attack on the Green Army base, the Sarge and Colonel are forced to retreat from the overwhelming force of the Tan attack, however in the chaos Sarge’s elite squad Bravo Company are captured by the Tan army.

Even worse the Tan army has found a way to access the real world via blue portals they have been able to being powerful weapons from the real world into the plastic world, things like lethal robot actions figures, fire crackers and the most deadly of them all the dreaded magnifying glass which the twisted and evil General Plastro uses to full effect on one unfortunate captured Green soldier in one of the scenes in the game.

Critically while not sticking as bad as Green Rogue with the game receiving review scores at a decent and above average level from a couple of reviewers largely the game reviewed average to poor with one abysmal review score thrown in as well.

Starting with the best though which comes from Absolute Playstation who scored the game at a 79/100 and called the game stealth but not as we know it, and called the game a good old fashioned style arcade shooter with some strategic elements thrown in, they highly recommended fans of the already released Army Men games should check it out.

A big drop in review score for the next highest which comes from Games Xtreme who scored the game an above average 62 with the reviewer calling the game average but accessible to people of all ages, and with a nice sense of humour and a very different game style which the review found refreshing.

Another drop in review scores for the third highest review score which is now down to a 55 from Game Informer Magazine, who called developer 3DO lazy in their porting of the game to the Playstation, calling the graphics nauseating and the controls frustrating, to make matter worse for the reviewer areas such as hangers and bunker which were explorable in the N64 version are blocked off in the Playstation release, to conclude they called the game pure hack work.

Eurogamer.net were the next highest review score with as average as you can get 50 for their review score, calling out 3DO for once again failing to convert a simple idea into a winner, they also called out the games level design and why the Army Men games have to be based in horrid sickly green worlds rather than real world locations where you would find small plastic soldiers. They concluded with, Army Men are little more than a gimmick for 3DO, and one that’s been milked to excess.

Moving on to the other end of the review scale we find the abysmal review from PSM who scored the game at a 1/5 which converts to a 20/100, calling the controls horrible and a collision detection systems which seems almost arbitrary add in the complete absence of animations when turning a character around as the player characters just stands there while the background shifts, taking such a long time as well you will likely be killed by the enemies before you even get a shot off.

IGN were the next lowest scoring review with a 35/100 with the review admitting the game had some good ideas, but ideas that have been poorly implemented and executed with poor controls, graphics and sound work. GameSpot who scored the game at a 39 were hopeful after the first entry in the series Army Men 3D which lacked the polish needed but there was something to build on. However not much if anything has been improved upon, with the game having more problems than its predecessor.

PSX Extremes review was pissed off opening his review conclusion with I really have had enough, calling out 3DO for clearly not having any clue about the PS1s true power concluding their review with the following. 3DO has yet again failed to deliver what could have at least been an "OK" game. Army Men: Sarge's Heroes was first released on the N64, it didn't stir up anything besides bad ratings. Now the game has landed on the PS and it's stirring up even more atrocious comments and we are making one of them.

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 $4 if you are looking to trade in your copy of Army Men Sarge’s Heroes, if on the other hand you are looking to buy a copy of the game you will be looking at a $9 outlay for a copy form Gamedude.

Retrogames.co.uk currently do not stock Army Men Sarge’s Heroes so quickly moving on to eStarland,com, where currently the game is out of stock, with a usual price of between $3.48 and $6.95. They also offer a trade in with eStarland will to pay $2.50 for a copy of the game.

eStarland.com also have the Dreamcast and N64 versions of the game listed, the Dreamcast version which is also currently out of stock, it is usually available for between $7.48 and $14.95 they also offer a trade in for this version with $6.50 being paid for a copy of the game.

Lastly we have the Nintendo 64 version which is currently in stock, with a disc only copy of the game available for $11.76, this definitely seems the most rare of the three versions with a trade in price for a copy of the game currently sitting at $12 a copy.

Moving on to Amazon.com we find a decent supply of the game available but again many of the cheapest on offer a disc only copies of the game, but a copy in good condition which is completed can currently be picked up for $10.01 once shipping has been added in.

The next cheapest complete copy of the game comes with free shipping and is the collectors edition in very good overall condition and can be picked up for $13.50. If on the other hand you are looking for a like new used copy of the game you are out of look, they do have a couple listed however the price sky rockets up to a minimum of $59 for a like new copy of the game. This is currently the best quality you will find on Amazon.com with no new copies of the game available.

Written by

P J Gibbon