0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Army Men Air Attack 2

       

Army Men Air Attack 2  is an air combat shooter and is the sequel to the 1999 Army Men Air Attack and was released at the time of cross generation releases, the game was also released on the Playstation 2 and was titled Army Men: Air Attack - Blade's Revenge for its PAL release on the PS2 system, as with previous Army Men games it was developed and published by The 3DO Company.

Unlike the previous Air Attack this would be a Playstation exclusive release first releasing on the original Playstation in late 2000 in North America and Europe with a PS2 release in the same regions in March and June of 2001.

Air Attack 2 and like the previous entry the game is a shooter a similar type of game to EA’s Strike series of games, with the player controlling a plastic green helicopter this time through a suburban setting using a variety of weapons to defend the green armies territory from the encroaching and evil Tan army.

At the beginning of each mission the player chooses their aircraft and co pilot the latter is the most important as the co pilot gives the aircraft a specific bonus for example the Specialist will provide a boost in accuracy. The missions vary between rescue missions either rescuing a person or object, demolition missions destroying a specific object and escort missions with the player providing cover from enemy attacks.

Locations vary from a Japanese garden, Halloween night, the wild west as well as a flowerbed and back yard, at the players disposal are five different types of helicopter, the King Cobra, Chinook, Osprey and Apache each with their own unique weapons a plastic collection system is used to unlock the helicopters hidden weaponry.

The evil general of the Tan army Plastro has enlisted the help of the equally evil and villainous Baron Von Beige to trap the Green army hero Captain Blade, the player joins forces with Captain Blade and the rest of Alpha Wolf Squadron in the battle of good vs evil and green vs tan

Reviews ranging from good to average for the second entry in the Air Assault sub entry of the Army Men series, as usual starting with the best which comes from Electric Playground who started by insulting the integrity of 3DO games and their slap a new coat of paint and a few new levels approach to the Army Men series.

However they go on to say, there seems to be an exception to that though in Army Men Air Assault 2 concluding with It seems that all of the programming effort that is missing from the other Army Men titles has been poured into Air Attack This game is actually fun to play and runs smoothly, a large step from any other Army Men title.

IGN also scored this game favourably with an 82/100 with the review admitting to the strange looks they receive when buying an Army Men Air Attack release the strange looks are worth it for them with the review finding both Air Attack games to be awfully entertaining, and praised the developer for taking the first in the Air Attack series and generally improving all areas of it and adding new elements for an overall improved package.

A slight drop in review score down to a 75 from French publication Jeuxvideo.com who concluded that it is a good war game which is fun and addictive however concluded, there is no more novelties and the handling of the helicopter is so erratic.

German publication Video Games praised the improvements to mission design and slight improvements in graphics quality make this a must for fans of the Army Men Series, however the reviewer would have liked to see far more reaching changes a year on from the first Air Attack game. While GameSpot who also scored the game a 72/100 were critical of the lack of replayability in the game due to its mission based structure leaving little reason to play through the game more than once.

At the bottom of the review scale we find a 50/100 from PSM who praised the addition of a grappling hook as a step in the right direction, however the changes a too few and problems with balance and variety result in Army Men Air Attack 2 being nothing more than mediocre.

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 $3 if you are looking to trade in your copy of Army Men Air Attack 2, 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 have this game listed on any platform so we quickly move on to eStarland.com who are currently out of stock of the Playstation version of the game, which is usually priced at between $4.54 and $8.25 which is between £3.37 and £6.12.

They do have the Playstation 2 version of the game available with a complete used copy priced at $8.50 or £6.30, as well as two incomplete copies the first without a manual which are priced at $7.23 the second priced at $4.68 is a disc only copy of the game, eStarland also offer a trade in $3.50 being paid for a copy of the game.

Finally on to Amazon.com where we find a significant drop in the number of copies available compared to the first Air Attack game, again however there is a lack of complete copies at the lower end of the price scale, for a complete used copy of the game you will be looking at a minimum spend of $10.99 this copy is fulfilled by Amazon so the free delivery only applies to orders over $25 same goes for the like new copy currently available for the same price.

A very good condition complete copy that is not fulfilled by Amazon can be picked up currently for $11 this is with the shipping added in, from here the remaining two copies on the market jump up to $14 and $28 the latter of the two is for a like new copy.

If however you are in the market for a new copy of Army Men Air Attack 2, there are a handful of copies currently available with prices starting at $29.71 this is with the shipping costs added in from here prices for a new copy continue to rise with them reaching a peak of $49.95 for a new copy.

Written by

P J Gibbon