#3DO Army Men

[found-in-retro-game-mags]

Army Men 3D

"Just like the real army. Except for the syphilis." (PSM #10, June 1998)

[retrocgads]

UK 1998

[waterkirby--64]

WaterKirby__64's Video Game Hall of Fame:

Portal Runner

[z-raven]

Some more Army Men related games.

The only one of these that I played was Advance and the demo for RTS

[devileaterjaek]

[n64retro]

Army Men Sarge's Heroes (3DO, 1999). Gifs by Gfycat and N64th Street.

[lesvegas]

Did you know 3DO released a console back in the day that was also 700 fucking dollars when calculating for inflation? Did you also know it- yeah of course you know it flopped because you've never even heard of it. Also 3DO doesn't even exist anymore. They went bankrupt in 2003. Not because of their shitty console, no, but because they decided to make like 5 shitty Army Men games a year instead of 1 good one every 2 years. The only reason I even know they existed is because a game that came out a year after they went under credited them because they did technically develop parts of it before someone else bought the IP and finished the game for them. It was also the last Army Men game ever made. Sorry this was supposed to be an enraged post about the price of the PS5 and how it reminded me of a much dumber game dev company but the Army Men autism took over.

[tetley1173-igb220-blog]

What is this blog about?

By Shannon Tetley

I'm creating this blog to document my journey learning game design and it will be submitted as part of my assessment for the class IGB-220 taught at the Queensland University of Technology. It's my aim to create an interesting record of my learning and to share what I learn with others in an informal yet professional manner.

Why am I studying game design?

Well, I'm actually studying for a bachelor in IT believe it or not. My major and passion is in computer science and I'm studying minors in mobile/cloud applications and user experience. I'm learning game design for the purpose of gamifying mobile apps but that's just the academic reasoning. I've loved video games from a young age and have dreamed of making them for a living since I was a teenager. I chose to study computer science for job security and only discovered my passion for it after beginning my studies. Studying game design for my user experience minor was a happy accident but due to my interest I have embraced it enthusiastically.

How did I become obsessed with video games?

I became interested in them by watching other people play them from a young age. I've always had an active imagination and a lust for adventure. I enjoyed playing make believe and video games are a natural extension of that for me. There's nothing more fun to me than to be immersed in a fictional world were you can explore and act out fantasies.

I don't remember the first game that I ever payed but I do remember being frustrated when I had to stop playing other peoples games when I had to go home from a friend or families house. Eight year old me was determined to get hold of my own games, so when my parents gave me the option of pocket money or a PlayStation for Christmas I gave up the pocket money 😂.

Army Men: Air Attack developed by The 3DO Company

My first game was Army Men: Air Attack published by 3DO. I loved this game because I got to play with army men that could actually shoot! I loved the light-hearted and comical story of this game but it was all about the action for me. From that point, I collected games over the years and even swapped consoles with friends, including an N64 which introduced me to the world of Nintendo. In Lecture 1; Fundamentals of Game Design (Conroy), we discussed how culture naturally forms around games and play. This resonated with me, given my own experiences, sharing and playing video games with friends. My friends and I have incidentally formed a unique culture of our own which stemmed from our mutual ownership and playing of games throughout our lives.

What kind of gamer am I?

While studying in my first week of game design I came across a concept I found interesting written by Richard A. Bartle (Bateman, Step 4). Professor Bartle talks about the four main types of player, from the point of view of a game designer.

My interpretation of the four gamer types are:

Achiever - That friend who brags about getting 100% in every game they get their hands on.

Explorer - They love to learn the lore of the world and discover all the cool things in the game world.

Socialiser - Plays the game to hang out with friends or to meet new people. Often found hanging out at the grand exchange in their favourite MMO.

Killer - They're those SOBs that hang out on your ship spawn killing you in Sea of Thieves! Yes I'm still salty about that 😠, they didn't even take my loot 😂.

Metroid Prime developed by Retro Studios

I can safely say that I'm an explorer. The first game I ever got truly obsessed with was Metroid Prime developed by Retro Studios. To me, Metroid was about exploring an abandoned and corrupted alien world. I got hooked on finding all the lore walls to piece together the story about why the world was corrupted and to find out what happened to the mysterious Chozo who left behind such beautiful and intriguing ruins.

What do I hope to get out of game design?

My dream is to write backend code for games and to have the skills to turn boring old phone apps into more enjoyable experiences. Even if that dream doesn’t pan-out, this class will be a valuable opportunity to learn design practices which I wouldn’t normally learn in my more technical computer science degree.

Gaming has always been an integral part of my life. I’ve always been subconsciously aware of the culture my friends and I formed and I internally knew what kind of gamer I was – I just never had the vocabulary to describe it. Just one lecture of Fundamentals of Game Design, has prompted me to critically reflect on why my experiences playing games have been positive ones and making these links has shown me how I can tie academia to my game design.

So far, the theoretical concepts I’ve been introduced to have been very insightful and have inspired me to apply these theories to my own game design. I hope this class will continue to open my eyes to the concepts which make good games so enjoyable.

References:

Conroy, David. “Fundamentals of Game Design Lecture 1.” IGB-220 Fundamentals of Game Design, 25/7/2023, Queensland University of Technology, Online. Lecture.

Bateman, Chris. Beyond Game Design : Nine Steps Towards Creating Better Videogames, Course Technology, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/detail.action?docID=3136230.

[titleknown]

Even though the 3DO Army Men games are notoriously jank and I've heard some... stuff about how Jim Cummings is not the best as a person, it is still very funny to me that they spawned multiple games where the entire male voice cast was just Jim Cummings talking to himself.

[cola-canine]

There aren't many games I consider a hidden gem but I really think that Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue is such a fun little platformer on the PS1 that definitely does not get talked about a whole lot. I've a lot of fond memories of exploring Andy's house, the backyard level set during the night, Al's toybarn, the construction yard... The stages were just full of character and charm. It's like one of the few platformers without gyro control that I can really get into.

More games need to be set from the perspective of a toy. I feel like that was done so much in the PS1/N64 era and now it's a completely unused setting. The 3DO Army Men games were so neat especially when you got to Sarge's Heroes and you're battling it out in a freezer or the kitchen counter tops. Like level designs practically make themselves with settings like that. Bring this back!

[ultimateoptimus]

Autobot All-American Megaheroes

Autobot Flagborn America Futura's Man of Tomorrow - OF Tomorrow! Origin: Mutation/Technology Archetype: Original Alignment: Hero Primary Power Set: Invulnerability/Super Strength/Luminous Blast Secondary Power Set: Empathy/Energy Blast/Luminous Aura Ancillary Power Pool: Energy Mastery/Body Mastery/Power Mastery Inner Robot Alt Mode: Cybertronian Rocket Flying Cadillac Autobot Touchdown America Futuran Gladiators' #1 Breakthrough and Conquer Star Player! Origin: Mutation/Technology Archetype: Tanker Alignment: Hero Primary Power Set: Invulnerability Secondary Power Set: Super Strength Ancillary Power Pool: Energy Mastery Inner Robot Alt Mode: Cybertronian Monster Truck Autobot Merrymaker From Zero to Cyberpsycho Mischievous Megahero! Origin: Mutation/Technology Archetype: Scrapper Alignment: Hero Primary Power Set: Street Justice/Titan Weapons Secondary Power Set: Regeneration/Invulnerability Ancillary Power Pool: Body Mastery/Weapon Mastery Inner Robot Alt Mode: Cybertronian Custom Racecar Autobot Torchlighter The Red-White-and-Blue Torchlady of Liberty! Origin: Mutation/Technology Archetype: Tanker/Defender Alignment: Hero Primary Power Set: Fiery Aura (Tanker)/Empathy (Defender) Secondary Power Set: Fiery Melee (Tanker)/Fire Blast (Defender) Ancillary Power Pool: Pyre Mastery (Tanker)/Power Mastery (Defender) Inner Robot Alt Mode: Cybertronian Twintail Rocketfighter Autobot Goldenager Real America Futuran GI Joe Hero, Plastic Army Man Body! Origin: Science/Technology Archetype: Scrapper/Blaster Alignment: Hero Primary Power Set: Martial Arts (Scrapper)/ Assault Rifle (Blaster) Secondary Power Set: Bio Armor (Scrapper)/ Martial Combat (Blaster) Ancillary Power Pool: Weapon Mastery (Scrapper)/ Munitions Mastery (Blaster) Inner Robot Alt Mode: Cybertronian Armored Hummer Humvee Autobot Tankhead The Super Heavy Metal Living Tank Guy! Origin: Mutation/Technology Archetype: Tanker/Scrapper Alignment: Hero Primary Power Set: Invulnerability (Tanker)/ Street Justice (Scrapper) Secondary Power Set: Super Strength (Tanker)/ Titan Weapons (Scrapper) Ancillary Power Pool: Energy Mastery (Tanker)/ Body Mastery (Scrapper) Inner Robot Alt Mode: Cybertronian T28 Super Heavy Tank

@aae-demon-zone333

[slade-neko]

22 years ago today, I got this game for my 5th Birthday. 🎂 Ahhh, good times...

[found-in-retro-game-mags]

Army Men

“Rekindle your youth” (Next Generation #40, Apr. 1998)

[miloscat]

[Review] Portal Runner (PS2)

For my final game of 2021... why not this Army Men spinoff?

I’m not too familiar with the Army Men series, but I played the GBC version of this years ago on a stream. An errant comment recommendation led me to pick up the console version, and my friend Laureline picked the related game Sarge’s War for game club this month, so I took that as an excuse to get around to this. Compared to the gritty turn that Sarge’s War took the series in, this was a light-hearted romp with a dodgy control scheme.

The heroine is Vikki Grimm, who is otherwise the Smurfette of the Army Men franchise and love interest of the lead character Sarge. The series has covered genres from strategy to air combat to third-person shooters; this instalment with an odd name fits broadly in the latter category (and its story directly follows Sarge’s Heroes 2), although there’s lots of platforming to be had as well. Vikki grabs a bow for her playable outing—with a wide variety of specialised arrow types—and gains a lion companion in Leo. Various levels will have you control different combinations: Vikki or Leo alone, Leo following you, or Vikki riding him.

The companion mechanics are a little underdeveloped though. Even when Leo is supposed to be a partner he’ll often get separated from you and your actions are limited, and riding him is just like controlling Vikki but faster. Here I’ll bring up the controls again because they cast something of a pall over the whole experience. The game uses tank controls (Tomb Raider is perhaps a reference point), which are poorly suited to the platforming... or anything, really. They’re slippery, and their directionality is irrespective of the camera position, which I found disorienting, so I left it alone as much as I could. The dedicated strafe buttons help, but not enough.

The game partially fulfilled one of my wishes for it: using the fact that all the characters are toys. Most of them have a plasticky sheen, which in this case is intentional, and some levels take place in eg. a sweets shop, or a giant chessboard. This kind of thing always charms me. Other levels just use the toy factor as an excuse for somewhat generic fantastical settings in dinosaur times, medieval times, or space alien times, although they are nice and colourful.

Originally, the GBC version caught my eye due to its female protagonist... but as a feminist text it could be better. The central conflict is between the only two women in the cast over the affections of a man, with a side conflict between Vikki and her strict father, both tired sad old tropes. The changing settings put Vikki in new, usually revealing, outfits, and she even gets imprisoned into a damsel in distress role at one point in her own game, leaving the lion to save her!

Oh well, they can’t all be winners. There’s a basic multiplayer mode that’s not worth bothering with, and an unlockable gallery for finding secrets and collectibles in the levels. I enjoyed collecting them as an end in itself and exploring the maps, more than the simple combat and janky platforming at least. On the whole I reckon the GBC version, with its larger enemy variety and combat mechanics, is the superior game despite its obvious limitations. One final note, I was tickled to recognise a reused music cue from another 3DO Company project that I’m intimately familiar with, Heroes of Might and Magic 3, as well as some sound samples that were also used in Conker’s Bad Fur Day! (The same vocal sample is used in the music track in both games’ prehistoric world, and I think maybe the Martians have the same voice as the armoured Goblings...!)

[z-raven]

Various Army Men games

I have not actually played them all, but I have played both Sarge's Heroes games, Team Assault, and Toys in Space