Few toys are cooler than the little green men.  Not aliens – toy soldiers.  The kind that had their feet stuck to flat pieces of plastic in order to stand up straight.  Pixar's Toy Story showed a whole new generation just how cool these guys really are.  And 3DO's Army Men series carried on the coolness through video games.

When the series' publisher called it quits, it seemed like the Army Men series might have went on its last mission.  Lucky for gamers that wasn't the case.  3DO held an auction of all their popular franchises, giving hope to gamers that their best titles would live on.  Take 2 grabbed Army Men and gave the series to its Global Star Software division.  Months later we have the first GameCube game of that acquisition: Army Men: Sarge's War.

Army Men: Sarge's War plays like any other decent third-person shooter on the market.  Army Men fans will notice subtle differences, primarily in the size of the soldiers (they're quite a bit larger) and the way in which they control.  Everyone else will pick up the game and say, "Another third-person shooter.  Who would have thought?"

Now just because a game is lacking in innovation does not mean it's a bad game.  There are some explore-and-collect elements that I could have done without, but when it comes to the action I wasn't about to put down the controller.  The weapons, mission layout and traditional objectives make Army Men: Sarge's War the baby brother of your favorite third-person shooters.

The control layout doesn't need an explanation, but their accuracy and responsiveness are definitely noteworthy.  When you have to sniper an enemy, for example, the targeting is very accurate.

This brings to mind a point about the graphics.  While not exactly stunning, it is fun to watch the tan soldiers (the green soldiers' evil enemies) lose their heads.  They'll stand guard near tanks and send their comrades signals to take you out, making the sniper rifle a great weapon for dealing with these situations.  Explosions are generic-looking, but the backgrounds are somewhat redeeming.  You won't see anything special in the tall buildings, which look just like any other building you'd see in a third-person shooter.  But the giant shoes and other real-world objects help give the game that extra kick.

Both kids and adults will enjoy these elements.  They'll remind you of what it was like to play with toy soldiers – or modern action figures – in a backyard filled with unnecessary objects.  In the game world these objects become necessary to convince the player that he or she is in the midst of a toy vs. toy battle.

Back to the controls, they are the thing that carries this game through.  Besides being responsive, it's fun to maneuver the soldiers in and out of tricky situations.  Players can get behind mounted gun turrets and fire away at dozens of oncoming soldiers.  Because the gun is mounted, you'll most often use grenades, your assault rifle, and the most integral piece of weaponry, the sniper rifle.  There's also a flamethrower, a shotgun, a rocket launcher and other third-person shooter favorites.

The mission objectives are so typical that they're everything players have come to expect: kill enemies, capture a flag, locate new areas, etc.  They don't go too far beyond that.  This doesn't cause boredom to ensue, something I'm sure all Army Men fans will be thankful for.  But in the future it would be nice to see the game try something different within the genre.

If given the chance, I would remove any collect or locate-style mission objectives and replace them with more shooting.  That's what this game is all about anyway: the shooting experience.  You don't come for something new, you come to watch the little green men make the little tan men suffer.  They're evil I tell you, pure evil!

It's not every day you can get a great time-killer for $20 or less.  I remember the "budget priced" games released on the PSone -- absolute garbage.  Army Men: Sarge's War is anything but.  It's not innovative.  It won't blow you away with beautiful graphics.  You won't see advertisements for it on MTV.  And you won't read about it very frequently in game magazines.  But that's the way this industry has gone.  With so many games on the market, no publication can give equal time to all of them.  The only amount of time that I can give is the time I have now.  Hardcore shooter fans, especially those who game on their PC, should stay clear of this one.  Army Men fans, however, should not even question the purchase.  This game is one of the best Army Men games the series has seen.  The super-low price and decent replay value make it worth more than your average six-dollar rental.

Gameplay: 7.6
Army Men: Sarge's War puts the green into mean!  No wait, that didn't come out right.  It puts the ban into the man!  Er...tan!  Er...  Oh forget it.  What this game does is what few third-person shooters can do, and that's keep you interested enough to see it through.  The fast action, dodge-and-fire gameplay is the primary draw.  You don't know this looking at the screenshots, but once you play it you'll see that it's not a reason to keep playing, it's the reason to keep playing.

Graphics: 7
Army Men: Sarge's War is another game with graphics far inferior to what the console is capable of.  This is to be expected of the lower-budget games, but if it weren't for Capcom and Nintendo, no one would know how powerful GameCube really is.

Sound: 6
My first mission was played with the sound off.  Judging by cool the game looked, I figured there must be some really good music – or at the very least some great sound effects – to back up the war sequences.  That wasn't the case.

Difficulty: Easy
Sarge's War is recommended only to fans of the Army Men series.  Hardcore shooter fans will blast through this one in a night.

Concept: 4
If you can find a new gameplay element, clearly you're not playing Army Men: Sarge's War.

Multiplayer: 6.9
Moderately entertaining for brief intervals.

Overall: 7.2
Army Men: Sarge's War will surprise anyone who doubts the power of the Army Men series.  It's by no means an original experience, but it still manages to entertain from start to finish.  Army Men fans are going to love it.  They'll rave about it, chat about it, and play it till the cows come home (or until the next Army Men game is released).  If it retailed for $50 I'd have to say proceed with caution, but at twenty dollars or less, why shouldn't you add this game to your collection?