Army Men Operation Green 2001 By: 3DO

Overview:

"Army Men Operation Green" is an over-head isometric shooter from the Army Men franchise of games. "Army Men Operation Green" does a fantastic job of making the player feel as if they are in the middle of a an actual battle. The game's beginning is reminiscent of the start of "Saving Private Ryan". Immediately after being dropped off on a beach, the player's character witnesses all of his comrades get literally melted into the ground from an enemy grenade attack, pretty disturbing stuff for a soldier made of plastic. Luckily, the player's soldier is an army of one, intent on turning the tide of the war with his combat prowess.

The first thing that I noticed while playing "Army Men Operation Green", and loved, is the absolute chaos of the levels. Enemy soldiers and armored vehicles pelt the player's soldier with small arms fire, and explosives. Barbed wire and other obstacles are scattered about the stages making moving in a straight line for any amount of time impossible, adding to the difficulty and anxiety of navigating a map that is packed with fatal dangers. The maps are huge, and as the stages progress the player has to complete an increasing number of objectives to advance. This is what an army game should feel like! Pure unbridled terror, and not much of a chance to make it home.

The music is decent, and the sound effects and voice effects are awesome, adding to the confusion of the map (as it should be, it's war!). The graphics are vivid, and the objects are detailed enough to impress. While the maps are huge, and the objectives can be plentiful, I completed the maps surprisingly quickly, I suppose it was because I never stopped moving, there are no fox holes to chill out in and catch your breath, so the player ends up trekking like Usain Bolt through the levels.

My one complaint about the game is kind of a big one, the controls. The controls in "Army Men Operation Green" are very awkward. The player uses the left and right direction buttons to rotate their soldier, and forward to advance him. The control issue is exacerbated by the fact that the player is constantly navigating around obstacles, and also because it makes it difficult to line up enemies with player projectiles, and impossible to hit the enemy with grenades, often leading to the player being swarmed and killed. Despite the somewhat frustrating controls, "Army Men Operation Green" is the military game I've been waiting for, and one of my favorite Game Boy Advance titles found on Console Classix.

Directions:

"Army Men Operation Green" has a single player campaign game with only one difficulty setting available to the player. There are 15 different mission played out on five different environments. The player is tasked with completing the mission objectives before advancing to the next mission. The mission tasks include activating, destroying, and finding objects, rescuing and escorting P.O.W.'s, finding and destroying portals, and more. The player's map can be a huge help when trying to complete objectives. The map is accessed in the pause menu.

Player will face a wide range of enemies including soldiers, helicopters, tanks, armored vehicles, anti aircraft enemies, and even missile assaults. There is only one boss, he appears at the last level. Luckily the player has a considerable amount of firepower at their disposal. The assault rifle is the starting weapon, but the player can later obtain rocket launchers, flame throwers, light machine gun, and of course grenades.

Health can be picked up from crates that are airdropped onto the map (the player will seem them slowly descend, connected to parachutes), as well as ammo and charges for the minesweeper. When the players health has been depleted the game will end. "Army Men Operation Green" using the unpalatable password system to recall progress.