Although flawed, Army Men Sarges Heroes is a very fun shooter that N64 fans with lots of patience will love.
I remember back in the day I purchased this game, but never played it until a few years later. I thought it sucked, but playing i now, I think it deserves much more credit than that. With some time investment, you'll be all over this action packed title like gravy on a biscuit!
Features
.14 varied levels of action packed chaos and mayhem
.Tons of weapons to test on your enemies
.Lots of Cut-scenes and well written dialogue
.Expansion Pak helps the resolution (or so it claims)
.Boot Camp Training Mode to help you get the basics of the controls
.Four Player Deathmatch with eight maps to battle your friends
Army Men Sarges Heroes has you as the Sarge, where you must save the world from the Tan Army and the evil General Plastro. It starts off with you saving your colonel Grimms from the Tan Army and escaping from the Green Base.
Sarge's Heroes gets off to a slow start. When you first move, you'll notice that you can't move left or right without the camera being placed behind you again, which is very stupid. WHO IN THE RIGHT MIND THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?! The Green Army Base level is extremely boring, with excessive fog, choppy animation, and ugly textures in general. Obviously it's the easiest, so you shouldn't have a problem beating it. The 2nd Level (Town) is more interesting, but it has even more fog than the first level!
The third level is where Sarge's Heroes hits its stride. It's actually a bathtub in the REAL WORLD!! That's right! You'll take portals between the Army world and the real world! As you can imagine, the real world levels are much more interesting than the Army Men world levels. The bathtub level is actually pretty exciting. The Tan Army level is tough, but fun as well. And so forth and so on.
You'd expect a game like Army Men Sarges Heroes to appeal to arcade minded gamers, but actually, stealth gamers will appreciate it the most. If you mindlessly shoot enemies, you'll die a lot! Only by carefully sniping enemies and breaking into their hideouts will you then be able to complete the levels. The action is satisfying as hell thanks to the different weapons and moans enemies make when they die. I also love the explosions that destroy tanks and helicopters! It's fun using the sniper to kill someone really far away even IF they're covered in the fog! My favorite weapon is the flame thrower, which can actually MELT enemies! I love it!!!
The Levels are what make this game so great. From a sandcastle, to a garden, to a kitchen, and to a forest and winter valley, the variety is enough to keep things fresh. My favorite level has to be the Kitchen level, with its drawer platforms and cereal box buildings! In the fort level, you can actually destroy giant robots! I love it!!
If you get stuck with the controls, there's a boot camp mode for you! It explains all the controls, weapons, and features an obstacle course! Hell, you actually get FIRED UPON by the tan army and you can kill them too! It's fun, and also gets you used to the controls. I'm glad 3DO put this feature in the game. There's also funny dialogue like "This is terrible! I hate Spiders!" and "It's only a plastic wound!", and the cutscenes are decent, too, being that they're EXCLUSIVE to the N64 version!
The multiplayer deathmatch mode supports four players with eight maps to play on. You can select from tons of characters and even customize their colors (Green, Blue, Tan, or Grey). It's great fun, and I enjoyed killing my enemies to no end! I did find it odd how when you die, you respawn in the exact same place you were when you died, but it's not a big issue.
Sarge's Heroes would be classic status if not for its flaws. The camera system swings slowly to be behind you when you push the analog stick left or right, leading to enemies killing you right away. You'll often get attacked by enemies and you have no idea where the shots are coming from until it's too late! I really hate that in the snow level, if the bridge is destroyed, you fail the mission. This wouldn't be a big issue if there were CHECKPOINTS!!! No matter how far you'll get, if you die, you start the mission over again. BS!!! And believe me, some of the missions are LONG!! I actually played a mission for FOURTEEN MINUTES before dying and having to restart the entire mission over again! What a bad design flaw! It would've been worth at least an A- if there were checkpoints in the game, but no.
Like I said before, the graphics suck, but the levels are varied. There's actually an option to have a higher resolution than before, but I didn't see the difference. The soundtrack is awesome, with some of the best music I've ever heard on the N64, and it's also DIGITIZED, instead of the usual MIDI tracks the N64 would usually have! The sound effects are average, though.
Although flawed, Army Men Sarges Heroes is a very fun shooter that N64 fans with lots of patience will love. I wish the camera was better and that the levels had checkpoints, but otherwise this game kept me hooked until the very end! Shooting fans looking for a big challenge with lots of fun will find it here.
Gameplay: 8/10: Camera system is flawed, but it's not enough to overcome the satisfying and exciting gameplay.
Graphics: 4/10: Horrible textures and choppy animation, but varied levels give it some points.
Sound: 9/10: Audio is okay, but the music is phenominal
Replay Value: 8/10: Multiplayer Mode, boot camp, and exciting single player mode make this game more than worthy for a purchase. Although frustrating, I still recommend this game because of how fun it is.