Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2 (N64)

Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes 2 is one of the games I remember most fondly on my Nintendo 64. As I said with Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes, there were several things that could stand to be fixed. The movement was too fast and jerky, the manual aiming was too slow, the graphics made it difficult to see what was what at times, and the sounds got annoying after a while.


Well, 3DO stepped up to the plate and did a good job of fixing these problems to make a truly outstanding sequel. The movement was still a bit faster than I would like, but only a hair; not even worth mentioning, honestly. The manual aiming was adjusted to an almost perfect speed, making sniping and precision M-16 firing MUCH easier. The graphics are good enough to tell what’s what with minimal confusion; for the Nintendo 64’s capabilities, they’re not bad.

I can’t explain what it is that makes the gameplay on Sarge’s Heroes 2 so much better than on Sarge’s Heroes, but for some reason, Sarge’s Heroes 2 has AWLAYS been more fun to me and holds MUCH more replay value with me. Sarge’s Heroes 2 was the last great Army Men game. After Heroes 2, we got games like Sarge’s War and Green Rogue; games that were okay (I guess), but that honestly should either have spent a lot more time in development or just not been released in the first place. Sarge’s Heroes 2 marked the end of an age; the age of living out our boyhood (keep in mind that I write this from a male perspective) fantasies of having massive battles between hoards of plastic soldiers. It honestly depresses me to play the newer Army Men games because I think of how great the franchise was and how great a company 3DO was, and I find myself asking “What happened?”
Maybe that’s why Sarge’s Heroes 2 holds such value with me; it was the last great struggle against the Tan Army. It represents the culmination of what made being a gamer great when I was 10 and what made 3DO a game company that won’t be forgotten for decades to come.


Presentation: 9 – At this point, Army Men had always been a popular series, and Sarge’s Heroes was a popular game that left players begging for more; Sarge’s Heroes 2 didn’t need any advertisement with all of the hype it had.

Graphics: 6 – The graphics are still below what we would expect for Nintendo 64 by the turn of the century, but they’re not awful; just not good.

Sound: 7.5 – The sound is less annoying than in Sarge’s Heroes, but Sgt. Hawk still does more than his share of grunting and groaning.

Gameplay: 8 – There’s something about this game that keeps one playing. The multiplayer still sucks, but the single player is nothing less than addicting.

Lasting Appeal: 9 – Even when I stopped playing games for a few years, I had one strong, vivid memory of my Nintendo 64; Sarge’s Heroes 2. So many people remember so few things about gaming as a child, but there’s always one memory; Sarge’s Heroes 2.

Overall Score: 8.2