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Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune
The
original Army Men series was quite cool which spawned a variety of
incarnations from the PC to the console world. This current installment
is unlike the real-time strategy versions of Army Men and is more
focused as a shooter. Add in the other element that this game is suited
to the younger gamer and you have an affordable kid’s game without the
gore and over the top violence that one may expect to find in this
gaming genre.
Soldiers of Misfortune revolves around Timmy, a young boy who finds that
half his army men collection have gone rogue. Unbeknown to our young
hero, his tan collection of army men have secretly captured his green
army men collection and have staged a coup of this toy world.
As your little world is now in dire consequences, it’s up to Timmy to
become a 3 inch action hero and thankfully for him, he has a plethora of
weapons at his side to liberate the world of toys and bring peace to his
little pocket of suburbia. Tommy also has the aid of the green army
which will assist in his liberation of this nefarious coup.
Okay, the story is extremely clichéd, however this is what DSI Games are
known and younger gamers may get a kick out of it, I’m still a little
mixed about the situation.
In its essence, this game is a kid friendly shooter that contains five
different chapters, set in different parts of the home, each with their
own mission goals. The main goal is to explore the gaming environment in
order to find supply crates and liberate your green army men from the
tan army. There are some bosses available as you progresses and the
gameplay is quite simplistic at the best of times.
The control system of the title makes use of the uniqueness of the Wii
controls, with the stick used to control your character, B to shoot and
the wiiremote to aim. Although on paper it seems quite sturdy, the only
issue that we found with the control system of Soldiers of Misfortune is
that responsiveness of the movement which does become a tad frustrating
if you are being attacked or moving on precariously areas. Needless to
say, it tested by patience and my 12 year old nephew who actually played
this considerably better than this old gaming veteran.
The combat is quite easy as you point your controller to where you want
to shoot and it should be noted that there are sometimes quite a few
enemies to engage. Unfortunately the control of Timmy interferes with
this process.
Graphically, Army Men: Soldier’s of Misfortune has the look and feel of
a third party title that contains simplistic animations that actually
look like toys. A little bit more detail would have been nice and
thankfully there are some special effects thrown in for good manages.
The game feels like a Nintendo 64 game with the lack of detail which is
a shame for this franchise.
The soundtrack is extremely ambient and the sound effects are a little
dull when compared to the rest of the gameplay. I understand that these
are “toys”, however in those classic space games, we always hear sound
there.
In conclusion, Army Men: Soldier’s of Misfortune is a considerably
cheaper game than the current “blockbuster” releases on the Wii and this
is definitely a kid friendly title without the gore or violence. As they
are toys, no one really gets hurt, besides our little hero Timmy. The
control system of the game is awkward at the best of times, especially
when attempting to move that almost feels like you are moving through
thick liquid. At the end of the day, it’s an interesting attempt of
franchise that seems like the beta-testing went awry.
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