DKZ's Review

Reviewed by DarkKamikaZ on November 04, 2007  |  report this review

AS A little boy, games were everything.
Cowboys and Indians, football and Action Man were just some of my fond playing memories.
But it’s when I think about little plastic army figures that I start to get excited. If you are in your 30s then you’re bound to remember the little army figures with plastic bases in green and desert tan.
Some would stand tall, others would have wobbly bases and be sent to the frontline just to get them out of the way before the ‘real’ games began. I used to spend hours organising my army. Lining them up, sending groups to do a little reconnaissance ready to let their plastic weapons rip if they found themselves ambushed.
I was therefore delighted, like a lot of 30-something males, to see ToyStory which captured the army figures perfectly – complete with their plastic bases.
I remember even then wishing there was a console game available so I could carry on my plastic wars – even though I was now a little old to play with toy soldiers!
To date, there have been nearly 20 titles in this series, but this latest from Take Two is the grittiest ever, with Sarge having to fight the war on his own after his battalion is wiped out in an ambush by the Tan Army.
Sarge must go renegade to avenge his fellow comrades and defeat the leader of the Tan Army Colonel Malice. It’s like Rambo, but in green plastic. Apparently the Tan Army has
discovered a new mass weapon of destruction which can reduce a plastic warrior to a gooey mess with the click of a button...a bit like the sun then!
What makes this game unique apart from being based on toys is the ‘our world, their world’ scenario, whereby you have battles in both, providing the opportunity to wage war in the kitchen...as you can see from the screenshot on this page.
While this game is good, it’s not great. And despite it bringing back fond memories of my childhood, it struggled to keep my interest for than about half-an-hour.
Graphically, it looks great, the sound is great, but the playability just lacks that certain sparkle I remember from these army figures as a child.
Perhaps it’s the fact that none of the men have bases attached. At least in ToyStory Sarge and his men had the bases and they actually moved the way I remember moving them.
These guys have normal legs and can walk normally – which means they lose their appeal as plastic characters.
There’s no doubt that this third-person army shooter will have a place in some people’s collections. It will stay in mine if only as a reminder of all the great battles my green army have fought over the years...now where’s that Tupperware tub of plastic men gone?