Army Men

Army Men is a series of

The idea of a strategy game using plastic army men arose from the developers' desire to avoid censorship issues with the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle ratings board when publishing the game in Germany. Chris Wilson, producer of the original Army Men, explained:

The Germans are extremely uptight about realistic violence, so Command & Conquer, for instance, changed all its units into robots and changed some of the cut scenes. But we didn't want to have to do two versions, and very early on in the design process we'd been planning things out with little plastic army men, so we suddenly realized that this was what everyone always likens a game like this to anyway!^[2]

Army Men used cutscenes done in the style of Movietone News clips.^[2]

Army Men: RTS was the final game in the series to be released by The 3DO Company. Their major franchises were auctioned off when the company filed for bankruptcy, and Army Men was purchased by Crave Entertainment.^[3]

In 2004,

that incorporates characters from the Sarge's Heroes subseries.

Games

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (December 2008)

Title	Release date	Platforms	Genre	Notes
Army Men	1998	Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Color	Real-time tactics
Army Men II	1999	Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Color	Real-time tactics
Army Men 3D	1999	PlayStation	Third-person shooter
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes	1999	Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Microsoft Windows	Third-person shooter	The first installment in the Sarge's Heroes subseries.
Army Men: Toys in Space	1999	Microsoft Windows	Real-time tactics
Army Men: Air Attack	1999	PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Microsoft Windows	Third-person shooter	Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color versions are re-titled Army Men: Air Combat.
Army Men: World War	2000	PlayStation, Microsoft Windows	Third-person shooter (PS) Real-time tactics (WIN)	The first installment in the World War subseries. Titled Army Men: Operation Meltdown in PAL regions.
Army Men: Air Tactics	2000	Microsoft Windows	Real-time tactics
Army Men: World War - Land, Sea, Air	2000	PlayStation	Third-person shooter	The second installment in the World War subseries. Titled Army Men: Land, Sea, Air in PAL regions.
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2	2000	Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, PlayStation, PlayStation 2	Third-person shooter
Army Men: Air Attack 2	2000	PlayStation, PlayStation 2, GameCube	Third-person shooter	Titled Army Men: Air Attack - Blade's Revenge in PAL regions. GameCube version titled as Army Men: Air Combat - The Elite Missions
Army Men: World War - Final Front	2001	PlayStation	Third-person shooter	The third installment in the World War subseries. Titled Army Men: Lock 'N' Load in PAL regions.
Army Men: Green Rogue	2001	PlayStation 2, PlayStation	Shoot 'em up	Titled Army Men: Omega Soldier in PAL regions for PlayStation.
Army Men Advance	2001	Game Boy Advance	Top-down shooter
Portal Runner	2001	PlayStation 2, Game Boy Color	Platform	Spin-off of Sarge's Heroes subseries.
Army Men: World War - Team Assault	2001	PlayStation	Third-person shooter	The fourth and last installment in the World War series. Titled Army Men: Team Assault in PAL regions.
Army Men: Operation Green	2001	Game Boy Advance	Isometric shooter
Army Men: RTS	2002	PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, GameCube	Real-time strategy	A 3D real time strategy game.
Army Men: Turf Wars	2002	Game Boy Advance	Isometric shooter
Army Men: Sarge's War	2004	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube	Third-person shooter	The third and last installment in the Sarge's Heroes subseries.
Army Men: Major Malfunction	2006	Xbox, PlayStation 2	Third-person shooter
Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune	2008	Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2	Third-person shooter
Army Men: Mobile Ops	2010	Mobile	Isometric shooter
Army Men Strike: Toy Wars	2017	Mobile	Real-time strategy	Volcano Force Studios.

Reception

During its later years, the Army Men series was criticized by

3DO released over 24 games within 10 years, leading to speculation that the company was rushing production, with little time and effort put into each title.[11] Former creative director Michael Mendheim said in 2021 that after the success of the early Army Men games, the executives at 3DO pressured the team to ship a new game every quarter. 3DO co-founder and designer Trip Hawkins even wrote a letter to GamePro magazine to defend Portal Runner's harsh reception, describing the editors as “angry young men” and threatening to reduce their advertising.^[12]