Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2 Hands-On

With a version of the game available on every console except the newly launched PlayStation 2, it was only a matter of time until the little green army men invaded Sony's new system. Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2 is making the jump to the console, and it will actually be a port of the N64 version of the game. We recently got the chance to play a fairly respectable build of the game and found that not much has changed since we saw the game on the N64.

Since the game is a straight port, neither the storyline nor the game mechanics has changed at all. You play as Sarge, and you must move about several environments and shoot soldiers from the evil tan army. Your ultimate goal is to defeat the evil General Plastro - a tan dictator who wants to enslave both the pretend army men world and the real world. As such, you'll spend plenty of time jumping around levels and using plenty of standard-issue military weapons to deal with the tan soldiers.

The game controls very similarly to the PlayStation version of the game. You use the analog stick or digital pad to move Sarge about, one of the face buttons to shoot, another to switch weapons, another to jump, and another to roll. You'll use the shoulder buttons to strafe left and right. While this control scheme isn't particularly horrible, it's sometimes difficult and imprecise when you're traversing particularly precarious ledges or walkways.

The graphics in Sarge's Heroes 2 are probably the most enhanced feature in the PlayStation 2 version of the game. The characters and the environments all have a very clean look to them, almost to the point of being unrealistic. The plastic sheen effect seen in previous Army Men games has been pushed to the max, and everything is unbelievably shiny. The environments all look very good, and they are actually quite big, without any hint of fog or draw-in.

Fans of the Army Men series who somehow missed Sarge's Heroes 2 might want to check out the PS2 version. But without any real changes from the N64 to the PS2 version, Army Men Sarge's Heroes 2 looks as though it'll end up being a quick and easy port.