0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Army Men Sarge’s Heroes 2

       

Army Men Sarge’s Heroes 2 is a third person action shooter and the second game in the Sarge’s sub series of the Army Man franchise. Developed by The 3DO Company the game was released on the 21^st of November 2000 in North America with a European release three days later on the 24^th.

The game also released on the Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64 and had a cross generation release on the Playstation 2, like the previous Sarge’s Heroes the game released on the Nintendo 64 first in September of 2000. Vikki one of the main characters in the game is a regular in the Army Men series she also starred in a spin off game called Portal Runner which released in 2001.

Gameplay remains much the same as previous entries in the series with Sarge and now Vikki fighting their way through the Tan army over a variety of locations from pool tables, under beds, across desks  a pinball machine and a showdown in a toy store, and using plenty of weapons to blow up and melt your way through the games 18 missions and the Tan army.

With regulars like the Bazooka, Assault Rifle and Flame Thrower all returning the ability to call in an airstrike is a new weapon at Sarge’s disposal. One thing to note however Vikki is only controllable on the PS2 version of the game, if you are playing this on the previous generation of console you will be out of luck.

Sarge and the Green army once again face off against the evil Tan army, who have teamed up with members of the Blue army to wipe the Greens from existence once and for all. The main story carries on from where the first Sarge’s Heroes left off.

General Plastro is rumoured to have suffered plastrification and has been stranded in the real world it is also announced that the capture of Field Marshall Tannenberg will end the war, at the same time Bridgette Bleu a spy from the Blue nation has been developed a serum to reverse plastrification.

It is up to Sarge and new to the series Vikki to destroy the serum, eliminate the Tan and Blue forces and capture Plastro and Tannenberg and occasionally rescue the trouble prone Vikki while traversing the Plastic world and real world.

Critically the game was received fairly averagely, with one decent review score a couple of above average review scores, with the majority registering as either average or below average with one poor review score thrown in as well, but as usual we will start with the best which comes from GamePro.

GamePro scored the game at a 70/100 even though they were the highest review they had plenty to criticise the pop up was a major issue from them, while the voice which they found a nice addition it did become repetitive for the reviewer, sluggish controls were also another issue for them.

Super Play up next the Swedish publication scored the game at a 60/100 and had the following to say.

I have to admit that I did not have particularly high expectations when I sat and played this game on a sunday afternoon. And I can hardly say that the title has changed my life, my way of watching TV games or even my daily rhythm. On the other hand, it was clear of expectation and hence a very nice game.

German publication Video Games also scored the game at a 60/100 the review was disappointed in the untapped potential of the Army Men series, with the game lagging far behind comparable games in the genre. They did praise the much smoother running of the game over its predecessor but the game was let down again by the pixilated graphics and the all too frequent clipping incidents.

Over to France next with Jeuxvideo.com who scored the game at a 55/100 and called the manoeuvrability in the game as deplorable, add in the awkward camera angles they concluded only masochists would find this game enjoyable.

Heading next to the bottom end of the review scale we find the one abysmal review score from GameSpot who rated the game at a lowly 30/100, with the reviewer going over the general plot of the game first before calling it horribly contrived. They concluded with, Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2 is nothing more than the continuation of a theme, but more than that, it is also the worst Army Men game to date.

Two reviews tied to be the second lowest scoring both giving the game a 40/100, these were from All Game Guide and French publication GameKult. The former were highly critical of the uncreative enemies, the lack of decent pacing in the game, and weapons that lack balance and innovation with the reviewer only needing a couple of get through the whole game.

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 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 who currently have one copy of the game available, it is a complete copy in very good condition with a 7/10 disc quality rating and is priced up at £4. Moving on to eStarland next who have all releases listed for this game.

For the Playstation they have two used copies available, the first is a complete copy and will set you back $8.50, the second copy is a disc only copy and is available for $5.10, eStarland.com also offer a trade in for this game and are willing to pay $3.75 for a copy.

For the other consoles versions, the PS2 release can be picked up for $9.03 this is for a complete copy of the game, again a trade in is available with eStarland paying $4 for a copy. The Game Boy Color version can be picked up for just $2.60 this is for a cartridge only copy of the game, a trade in is also available for $2.50.

Finally the Nintendo 64 version of the game while currently out of stock the usual price for a copy is between $14.58 and $27.50, as with the other releases eStarland offer a trade in for this game and are willing to pay $13.00 for a copy of the Nintendo 64 version of the game.

Lastly we have Amazon.com where we find a decent supply of used copies available, again several of the cheapest on offer are disc only copies of the game, however a very good condition copy is available for $9.15 once shipping has been added in, this copy is also a complete one, a good quality copy is available for a similar price as well.

Several used copies that are complete and in good or better condition are available for between $10 and $15 if you are on the other hand looking for a like new copy then you will have to pay significantly more, at the time of writing the only like new copy available is priced at $52.10 once you have added the shipping costs in. Same goes for one of the three new copies that are currently on the market with prices starting at $70.59 for a new copy with prices peaking at the time of writing this at $87.99

  

Written by

P J Gibbon