0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Army Men World War Land, Sea, Air

      

Army Men: World War: Land, Sea, Air is the second entry in the World War sub series of the almost plague of locusts like Army Men Series from the late 90s to the early 2000s. The game takes the battle against the Tan army on land the sea and in the air in this 3^rd person action shooter.

As with previous Army Men titles I have covered the game was developed and published by The 3DO Company and release in North America and Europe, releasing first in North America on the 20^th of September 2000 and in Europe on the 3^rd of November 2000, the game released exclusively on the Playstation.

Army Men World War takes the Green Army to two new theatres of war in addition to the ground war with the Tan Army the brave soldiers of the Green army will now face off against the Tan’s in the air and on the sea.

Using a selection new vehicles to wage this all fronts war fly helicopters and bombers launching aerial bombardments of the advancing Tan armies use assault rafts and battle carriers and their accompanying arsenal of weapons to send the tan forces to the bottom of the sea.

Speaking of the sea this is one of the three campaigns on offer in Army Men World War Land Sea Air with the war fought in the jungles and the mountains to assist you in your resistance to the Tan army is a stockpile of weapons with the Howitzer and Mortars joining the regulars of Flame Throwers, Bazookas and machine guns, a two player split screen capture the flag mode is included as well.

The games initial story is given to the player in the way of a world war II style black and white recording, telling the player of the Tan attack upon the Green Army territory and how their advance has been rapid against the Green army. Acting as a rallying call to the Green nation to stand against the Evil and tyrannical Tan army or watch as the world is sucked into a Tan dominated abyss.

  

With the exception of one above average review score generally they go downhill pretty quickly, with a couple of poor scores and a dismal one thrown is as well, but as usual we will start the best first which comes from GameSpot who scored the game a 65/100.

GameSpot opened by praising the Army Men franchise calling it a successful one, with more than 20 games, related books and merchandise tie-ins, however despite the success the game themselves are usually poor. With contrived gameplay with a fun factor peaking about the time you tear off the wrapper.

However they concluded that Army Men World War Land Sea Air is actually a good game they called it a well rounded game, with the inclusion of vehicular combat and far better enemy AI result in a game that can satisfy adult gamers. The graphics however they could not get over calling them abhorrent and looking like a game from 1996 not the 2000 graphics they should be.

A very average 52 up next from PSX Nation who commented on the expected leap in quality once the franchise makes the switch to PS2,  which has the technical muscle to allow the premise of green vs. tan toy soldiers to be taken to a new visual height (and let's face it, 3DO was never good at graphics on any of its games, including the one's for the defunct 32-bit Opera system).

They concluded with, But does that mean we have to indulge Trip Hawkins' obsesion with sticking it at Disney for not copyrighting the plastic soldiers of Pixar's "Toy Story" movies by buying his "Army Men" games? Hell no! "Army Men World War: Land, Sea and Air" looks/plays/feels like a PSX budget title, but it's being sold for $40. And that's too high a price to pay for the good, clear wartime sounds emanating from this CD. Save yourself the dough, and rent "Saving Private Ryan

Another big drop in review score for the next one which comes from IGN who scored the game at a very disappointing 30/100 with the review going over the premise of the whole Army Men series, and the fact that it has never been able to reach the potential of this unseen war going on right under humanities feet between two warring plastic army men armies. they concluded with hopes the switch to PS2 will do something to remedy that but here with this game it just doesn’t seem doable.

On to the final review which comes from Game Informer Magazine and is a dismal 10/100, opening their review conclusion with. At this point, I think Game Informers position on the Army Men games is quite clear, we are tired of them and want them to go far, far away to a place where they will never again sully out Playstation.

Game Informer Magazine also came to the decision to give all Army Men games a 1/10 until the series shows some serious improvement, the review clearly very bored by Army Men World War: Land, Sea, Air that they being trailing off and talking about new coasters they found in Target for $1.99.

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 World War Land Sea Air, 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 don’t have the game listed so moving quickly on to eStarland.com, who have two copies of the game currently available, the first is a complete copy and is priced up at $9.95. The second copy in a disc only copy and can be picked up for $5.47, eStarland also offer a trade in and will pay up to $3.50 for a copy of the game with a minimum trade in value of $1.22 if your copy has no manual or case.

Finally on to Amazon.com where we find a decent supply of copies available, however a used copy is not that cheap if you are wanting a complete copy of the game prices start at $15.97 for a very good condition complete copy of the game.

With prices for a complete used copy continuing to climb from here to the like new used copies of the game which will set you back from $34 up to just over $50. New copies of which there are two available at the time of writing this, can be picked up for between $59 and $60.

Written by

  

P J Gibbon