PlayStation – Megalextoria

Army Men 3D is a third person action game released in 1999 by 3DO for the PlayStation. It basically turns the idea of playing with those green plastic toy soldiers into a 3D action game. Your enemies of course, are the tan soldiers.

You play the role of Sarge who must lead his armies against the tan soldiers across various terrain. Since this game is based on toys, some of those terrains will be familiar household territory such as the kitchen or backyard. The game is pretty straightforward 3rd person run-and-gun action with a variety of weapons including rifles, bazookas, grenades, flamethrowers and more. You can also control vehicles such as jeeps and tanks. Generally, each mission or level has a specific goal. Once you achieve the goal, you can move on to the next level.

The graphics were pretty average for a PlayStation game at the time. However, it did do a good job of making the characters and other items seem toy like. It’s sort of like you are playing an interactive version of Toy Story (of course, there were Toy Story games as well). Likewise, the voice acting is campy and cartoon like adding a touch of humor to the game.

This was not a great game but it’s still ok for a bit of fun if you are into the toy soldier theme. Camera angles aren’t great, missions are somewhat repetitive, and perhaps worst of all there is no multi-player. None of this is enough to really make it a bad game though. It is to other 3rd person action games what Micro Machines is to racing games.

This wasn’t the only Army Men game. In fact, there were quite a few. This was the third game in the main series and the first to appear on the PlayStation. There were nearly two dozen Army Men games in total with some being better than others.

The ad above is from the March 1999 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Disney’s Hercules (PlayStation)

Source: Electronic Gaming Monthly – Issue Number 98 – September 1997

From the ad:

“Zeus has answered your prayers. And now, it’s time to take your place among the gods in this hot new PlayStation game console adventure. Explore three worlds of 3-D game play right out of Disney’s Hercules movie – with the original character voices, sound effects and music. Mangle monsters like Hydra and the Cylcops. Terminate the Titans. Save Thebes from a hostile takover. Hey, this game can make you immortal!”

Hercules was published by Virgin Games in 1997 and is based on the Disney animated movie of the same name. This is sort of a hybrid 2D/3D platform game. Whereas the 16-bit generation included endless side-scrolling platform adventure games, 32-bit systems were transitioning to 3D. Games like Tomb Raider and Super Mario 64 popularized this genre but personally, I never really made the transition. Hercules fits in sort of a middle ground but for the most part feels more like a traditional 2-D side-scroller.

If you like 2D and/or 3D adventure games and are a Disney fan, this game isn’t bad. While movie licenses often make terrible games, it isn’t always the case and Disney really did an above average job most of the time. While not the masterpiece that games like Aladdin and Lion King were on 16-bit consoles, it is still reasonably solid.

Hercules does a good job of capturing the look and feel of the movie. Environments are colorful and varied (and of course match the movie), the animation is smooth, and the voice clips are even from the original cast. While the controls are nothing special, the mechanics are straightforward and there isn’t much that should frustrate the average player in that regard. The soundtrack also includes music from the film and this is another thing that Disney has typically always done a good job with. This game is no exception.

While the game overall is pretty good, it isn’t perfect and I would say it was made with the younger player in mind. This makes sense of course being a Disney game based on a Disney movie. The game is very short so experienced players will likely be able to complete it in a matter of hours. Even though the game is pretty good, I don’t think there is a lot of replayability here. Also, while the controls might be easy and straightforward, this is a double-edged sword. There is nothing here to frustrate you but there is also a lot of repetition when it comes to combat.

This game isn’t really my cup of tea but it isn’t a bad game. If you like Hercules, usually like Disney games, or just like this style of game in general, then you should definitely give it a try. In addition to being released on the PlayStation, it was also released on the PC. I was a little surprised to see that this game was available on gog.com. Often, licensed games don’t see these kinds of re-releases. While being more of a retrogamer I would probably prefer the original PlayStation version, but at only $5.99 it’s hard not to recommend this as a cheap and easy way to play the game.

Screen shots above are from the PlayStation version of the game. The ad (top and bottom) is from the September 1997 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly.