The Army Men series was very prominent in the late 90s and early 2000s. It seemed like every time I went to rent a new game during that period, a new one was coming out featuring the little green people. These weren’t phenomenal games, yet they always kept me entertained whenever I played them. The series took a nosedive as the games started piling up, and it’s all but forgotten today. Despite that, what fascinated me most about the series was its diverse range of genres, encompassing strategy, third-person shooter, and air combat. I mostly played Army Men 3D and the Sarge’s Heroes games when I was younger. Those were fun games, but I always wanted to revisit one of the games that I only played a little bit of back in the day. That’s what led me to Army Men: Air Attack.
Check out our full playthrough here!
Gameplay
Army Men: Air Attack is reminiscent of the Strike series from EA, which was most prevalent in the 16-bit era. You’re piloting a helicopter for the green army, playing through 16 missions to defeat the evil tan army, led by the nefarious General Plastro. You’ll be going back and forth from the plastic world to the real world through portals found at the end of every level.
Helicopters and Co-Pilots
There are four types of helicopters in Air Attack that you unlock as you play through the missions. Huey is the most agile helicopter in the game and the one you start with. The Chinook is a delivery helicopter equipped with increased armor, allowing you to transport items across the map using your winch. The Super Stallion is a well-balanced combination of the first two helicopters, offering good mobility and excellent combat mechanics. Apache is the best helicopter in the game and is only unlocked in the last few missions. It has the most armor in the game and can withstand the most hits. I didn’t feel a significant difference between the helicopters, except in mobility. None of them seemed to withstand much damage, and I didn’t feel like there was much change in attack power. It might be more noticeable if you use the Apache on an earlier level, but it’s more of a natural progression as you unlock them than a conscious choice.
Co-Pilots
In addition to helicopters, you can choose one of four co-pilots who have different specialties. Woodstoock specializes in machine guns, Hardcore specializes in explosives, Rawhide makes your winch more effective, and Sarge raises your overall stats. Sarge isn’t available until very late in the game. I was hoping that these co-pilots would be able to act on their own accord and shoot the machine guns for me or drop an explosive, but they’re just a simple buff to specific stats. It felt like a missed opportunity to give the game some more identity. You do get to hear one-liners from your co-pilot once in a while, but they do get repetitive.
Weapons and Pickups
There’s a variety of weapons in the game to keep the enemy on their toes, like napalm, missiles, machine guns, lasers, paratroopers, homing missiles, and homing cluster missiles. The machine gun has unlimited ammo and helps you take out some of the ground troops. I forgot to use it for most of the game and didn’t have many issues. There’s enough ammo for the good weaponry that you don’t need to ration ammo too often. The laser is the most potent weapon in the game and is only found very late in the game. You can use different objects in the environment to drop on your enemies if you’re sick of blasting them. It was fun to drop apples and cans of food on top of unsuspecting foes. There could have been a few more additions here, but they do a good job of adding new things when it starts to feel stale. There are also health, shield, and speed pickups in various levels.
Enemies
There are tons of different types of enemies in Air Attack. You’ll see everything from vehicles like tanks and helicopters to infantry units, to huge ships that can destroy your chopper in moments. Stationary anti-air units are all over the levels, shooting different types of projectiles at you to stop your progress. The tan army isn’t the only people you have to worry about, as there are also blue enemies that drop valuable items for you. They appear sporadically here and there, and it’s always worth destroying them. You also have to worry about the environment, as things like sprinklers and bugs can damage your helicopter.
Mission Structure
Diversity
The diversity of the mission is what sets Army Men: Air Attack apart. There are a handful where you’re just trying to destroy the enemy, but there are even more where you’re doing all sorts of different things. A standout mission to me was when the tan army had a machine that was changing green army men to tan army men. I had to drop some green crayons in the machine to change them back to green army men. Another set of missions involved escorting a Teddy bear down the river so that we could use it in the next mission to destroy radar dishes. He had freakin’ laser eyes! There are additional missions where you have to drop food in the tan bases so bugs will eat them, and then another where you have to cherry bomb those ants so they don’t eat you.
Cohesive Story
What I appreciated about the mission in the game is that they all tie together to form a cohesive story. You’re not just picking up pieces of a helicopter that the Tan army was trying to build for no reason. You end up creating the Apache helicopter with the pieces you found in the previous mission. You save a bunch of green escapees in one mission, and Sarge is available as a co-pilot in the next mission. Far too often, we see missions in games that do not affect the story. That isn’t the case here. Everything has a purpose. The game doesn’t overstay its welcome either. You can complete it between 4 and 8 hours, depending on how quickly you want to get through it. I think that’s the perfect amount of time for this game, and it kept it from getting too repetitive. Good luck with that final boss, though. I wanted to tear my hair out on that one before I realized you don’t need to worry about the batteries. Just hit that robot with everything you have and maintain your health, and you’ll be fine.
Multiplayer
Air Attack features full co-op support for the entire campaign, allowing you to take a buddy through it with you. I vaguely remember doing this way back when it came out, and the experience is relatively the same. You can also play Flag Nab-It, which is a Capture the Flag type game mode. It’s nice to be able to play through the entire game with a friend, especially given the scarcity of co-op games released today.
Presentation
Army Men: Air Attack looks pretty good for its time. The environments are pretty similar in the first part of the game before opening up to some water and ice levels. The textures look good for the time and clean up nicely in an emulator if you prefer that, like I did. The sound design was pretty much as you’d expect, with loud explosions and quips from your co-pilots. There’s even a funny “we’re free” line when you release the bugs to take out the tan bases. It sounds almost robotic.
Final Thoughts
Army Men: Air Attack is an above-average vehicular combat game that offers a high level of diversity across its 16 missions. The fact that you can play through it alone or with a friend is just icing on the cake. I think it’s definitely worth playing through, and it’s enjoyable to try to complete it on a weekend afternoon. This is one of the more highly-regarded Army Men games, and that’s for good reason. The only criticism I have is that it’s a little too easy until the very last mission.
