There’s one thing I’ve always appreciated about 3DO’s Army Men series: creativity.  The toys in this series from 3DO, which includes the first-person shooter and real time strategy genres, aren’t to be played with.  These army men are animated killing machines, and continue to slaughter each other amidst a battlefield of teddy bears, dog dishes, and Frisbees.   In Army Men combat, bazookas are replaced by Roman candles, grenades by cherry bombs, and bleeding corpses by puddles of melted plastic. 

This Toy Story creativity is the most enjoyable part of the latest title in the Army Men series, Air Combat – The Elite Missions.  However, this game is about flying helicopters and destroying the evil Tan army, not watching creativity blossom. 

The story follows Captain William Blade, a green army Helicopter pilot, as he thwarts the evil attempts of the Tan army.  The Tan army has gained a stronghold on plastic resources, and a new enemy is dominating the skies, Baron Von Beige, a toy version of the Red Baron.  It’s up to Blade to gain control of the skies and supply lines and push the green army to victory. 

The single player campaign pits Blade against the Tan army over 20 different missions taking place in 10 environments.  HQ barks out orders to Blade, who must complete several objectives throughout each level while providing ample air support to the green bases.  Is it a lot to ask for one helicopter pilot?  Oh yeah. 

Every good pilot needs a good co-pilot, and Army Men features four co-pilots Blade can choose from.  Each co-pilot boasts his (or her) own weapon, such as napalm or homing rockets, and will be vital to completing each mission. 

All of the five helicopters in the game are at the mercy of real-life physics.  Wind, payload, and gravity all effect the flight of each chopper with manageable realism (it is a game after all, not an Army chopper sim), and each chopper has its strengths and weaknesses as well as individual weapons. 

Flying the whirlybirds is not easy.  The control stick controls the forward and backward movement of the chopper, and the left and right buttons control the lateral movement of the chopper in a strafing style.  It’s a bit counterintuitive and takes a while to get used to, but that’s how flying a chopper is.  The A button controls simple machine gun fire, X controls the choppers special weapon (homing rockets, lasers, bombs, depending on the helicopter), and the Y button controls the co-pilot’s weapon.  The most devastating weapon at the pilot’s disposal is the winch, a hook that picks up items on the ground.  Using the winch, the helicopter can hurl all sorts of objects at enemies and pick up power-ups. 

Speaking of power-ups, they can be found all over every level and appear after defeating enemies or destroying buildings.  In addition to the simple armor upgrades and machine gun power-ups, special power-ups such as speed increases and camouflage also aid in the battle against the tan. 

Army Men: Air Combat – The Elite Missions offers a few multiplayer modes, though none of them are worth more than a few minutes.  Two pilots can tackle the single player missions in a cooperative mode and join forces to crush the Tan army, or pilots can square off against each other in several modes of head-to-head combat.  Among the modes are simple deathmatch, capture the flag, and bug hunt, an insect slaughter-fest where the winner is the chopper with the most bugs splattered. 

The graphics of The Elite Missions aren’t very elite at all.  Except for the great-looking cutscenes, the look of the game isn’t much better than the old Nintendo 64 system.  It’s a sharp decline from Army Men RTS, my personal favorite in the Army Men series.  Objects can morph through other objects as though they’re part of another dimension, and the explosions in the game are a major disappointment. 

The audio in the game is equally pathetic.  Most of the sound effects aren’t that impressive at all.  The music in the game stays within the war movie genre, but is average at best.  Once again, the cutscenes prove to be the best as the voice work in them is pretty good. 

Army Men: Air Combat – The Elite Missions looks as though it was put together pretty hastily.  Much of the gameplay is severely lacking in entertainment value and most of the missions play like menial tasks rather than covert operations.  Aside from the creativity of the game, there really isn’t a whole lot to praise. 

Army Men: Air Combat – The Elite Missions is rated Teen for animated violence. 

Gameplay: 5.6

The controls are a bit clumsy, and the overall game just isn’t much fun.  Maneuverability isn’t as good as it should be in a helicopter, making the chopper an easy target for enemy soldiers.  Not much fun at all.

Graphics: 6.0

The graphics in The Elite Missions are a bit disappointing.  The level of detail could have been greatly increased.  A bit more polishing of the objects and this game could get a decent score.  However, as in all Army Men games, the cutscenes are excellent.

Sound: 6.0

The sounds of war aren’t given justice in this game.  The voice announcing the power-ups is especially low quality.

Difficulty: Medium

The hardest part of the game is trying to stay focused on playing it out.

Concept: 7.0

Again, Army Men showcases tons of creativity, but lacks solid gameplay, graphics, and sound to make this title battle-worthy.

Multiplayer: 6.0

The multiplayer modes have limited playability, given the fact that they’re based around the mediocre gameplay of the single player game.  The cooperative mode can offer a few hours of entertainment however. 

Overall: 5.8

Army Men: Air Combat seems as though it was a project that 3DO attempted to salvage.  The game seems as though it were released as an attempt to try and break even on a game that never really had a chance.  The Army Men franchise should see some success on the Nintendo GameCube, and it’s a shame that the debut of the little green guys on the Cube is the lackluster Air Combat – The Elite Missions.