published on .
Army Men: Air Combat on the Nintendo 64 is among the better Army Men games, but that's a low bar to pass. Anyone familiar with the franchise knows 3DO churned out a lot of awful games featuring plastic soldiers. Even with the same name, their games were often radically different across consoles. Fortunately, Air Combat is basically the same game as Air Attack on the PS1 and PC, with some graphical and audio differences.
The graphics are generally superior to the PS1 version, but sometimes inferior to the PC version. Vikki, for example, has her own model on PC, but on the N64 version she looks like another green army man. Still, the visuals hold up, with tanks, helicopters, and even little army men looking good by Nintendo 64 standards.
Where this version really falls apart is in the sound department. There is a noticeable reduction of voice lines, and they are often muffled sounding. This absence really hurts some missions, like Have an Ice Day, where you gotta rescue Sarge, Thick, and Vikki. In Air Attack, the voice lines provide helpful hints and tell you who is in danger. Without them, some missions become much more difficult and frustrating. As for sound effects, the explosions, helicopters, and bugs all sound good — but the high-pitched bullet impact sounds on Blade's helicopter are rather loud and fatiguing. The music also got changed, from an orchestral style to instrumental rock. Honestly, I kind of like the music in Air Combat better.
I'll wrap up the criticism part of this review by complaining about multiplayer. While it's nice to be able to play with friends, the vertical split screen for two-player modes is awful. Field of view is restricted, and it's easy to get disorientated. I wish they had stuck with the traditional horizontal split. As it is, I'll stick to single player for this one.
Both Air Combat and Air Attack are short games, featuring 16 missions that can be played through in an afternoon. Once unlocked, missions have passwords that are 4 characters long. I wish there were more single player missions; as it is, the game feels very short. I suppose that's better than it being too long and wishing it was over with already.
Air Combat feels like a third-person arcade-style helicopter game. Controls are good, and you can strafe side to side via the C buttons. You start out with the agile Huey, then unlock the strong Chinook whose armor is tough at the expense of maneuverability. Then you get the Sea Stallion, and finally the mighty Apache who excels at everything (you'll need it for the final mission). You also have co-pilots like Woodstock who buffs your machine gun, and Felicity who specializes in napalm. Sadly, there are no melting animations, so you don't get to see the Tans turn into puddles of goo like in other Army Men games. And of course you have other weapons like rockets, homing missiles, and lasers which make for a fun mix.
My favorite levels are the lower pressure ones where I could explore and do things at my own pace. I especially liked Mission 6: Uninvited Guests. I moved food the humans left around the picnic grounds and used it to lure ants to attack the Tan bases. I got to stand back and watch them fight each other, which was a blast. Of course you can win this mission by just rushing the Tan bases, but emergent gameplay like this made the game so much more fun. I wish 3DO had introduced more opportunities for it.
I also enjoyed Mission 5: Tan Terror, and Mission 12: Nighttime Teddy. In the former, our new Battle Tank follows Captain Blade's helicopter around the map and destroys the Tan bases. The latter features a stuffed teddy bear who shoots lasers from his eyes. Both are a blast to play, and it's fun to watch your powerful allies in action.
While Air Combat has its shortcomings, I think it's a fun game. It's short, memorable, and did the franchise proud. If you like helicopter or Army Men games, I can recommend giving Air Combat on the Nintendo 64 or Air Attack on the PC a try. I think you'll enjoy either one.
Attribution
Screenshots in this article were captured from Blasto192's Army Men Air Combat Nintendo 64 Playlist on Youtube.
