Sarge MIA?. No more!
“A pint of sweat will save a gallon of plastic” – Sarge
“Where am I?” thought Sarge. A sea of white squares stretched out before him. In the distance Sarge could see several cylindrical objects, and, further off, some truly colossal machines of unknown function.
“Where are we, Sarge?” asked one of his men. The soldier glanced warily around him, and Sarge could sense the soldier’s fear.
“Now’s not the time to think, soldier. Just do,” growled Sarge. “Make for those…” Sarge paused. “Round things. You can bet yer ass the Tans’ll be right behind us. Now, MOVE!”
Given a direct order, the troops immediately snapped into action, double-timing it across the white squares. “Good boys”, thought Sarge, “still following orders like the soldiers you’ve been trained to be”. A glimmer of pride showed in the grizzled sergeant’s eyes, and he allowed a brief smile to cross his face as he headed out after his men.
As soon as they reached their objective, a stunned silence fell across his troops. A yawning chasm opened on the far side of their objective; a misstep here would surely be fatal. Sarge gathered his thoughts, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Almost every object in sight had a defined shape: square, cylinder, rectangle. Wherever they were, it was surely unnatural, and his men were depending on him to get them home. He cleared his throat.
“Men, I’ll tell you the truth. I don’t know where we are. But I sure as heck know that Green command wouldn’t have sent us here if it weren’t absolutely vital. But none of that matters right now.” – Sarge
“We need to set up a perimeter defense of this area before the Tans get here. We need to be ready for them when they arrive. Their commander (Plastro) obviously considers this area important, and that’s all I need to know to try to keep it out of their hands.” – Sarge
A change in air pressure made Sarge whirl around and drop to one knee, his rifle coming to the ready almost automatically, as Tans started appearing out of thin air where he and his troops had emerged only moments before. “Get outta sight”, hissed Sarge.
But his troops were too slow, and the Tans had already spotted them. His stomach lurched as he recognized the weapon being brought to bear on their position. “bazooka”, thought Sarge. This isn’t gonna feel good. His rifle began kicking in his hand, a direct extension of his involuntary reflexes. The Tans started scrambling for cover as Sarge’s men opened fire.
“Get that bazooka!” screamed Sarge, but he knew he had spoken too late. A flash of fire and smoke erupted from the muzzle of the bazooka, and, eternal moments later, an explosion knocked him on his back…
Army Men 2 campaign
Army Men II features Sarge as the main protagonist after having disappeared in the previous events of Army Men. Apparently he was able to return to his world between Army Men and Army Men 2, but in the first records of these events he returns to the other world (Real World) slightly remodeled with a sergeant mark and with a squad of soldiers from his nation. What’s not clear on the historic record is if he returned to the same giant kitchen, or if the Portal was the same. Or if indeed the Portal took him to a different place. Nowadays some experts suggest that they may even have been transported to the same place, but during a different time.
Anyway, once Sarge does go back, he and his squad started an adventure that constantly juggle back and forth between the Plastic World and the Real World, completing objectives to halt General Plastro’s schemes, and the schemes of a treacherous former Tan Army Major: Mylar.
In the continuing saga of events of the Army Men plastic soldiers, the four factions, Green, Tan, Blue, and Grey are still at war. No army so far is having the upper hand over the other… but that is about to change, as it is clear there are many powers at work. Magical portals into other worlds smear the boundaries between what is real and what is plastic.
When we last left Sarge, he had just entered the Real World to found out that this Portal weapon is, looking to dispose of the Tan Army.
Leading his plastic infantry against the Tan Republican forces, Sarge attacks through dirty dishes, mugs, and even the kitchen sink – battling off cockroaches and Tan troopers along the way. Combat has never been so cruel and inhumane. It’s time to get back to HQ in the plastic world! After countless battles, dangerous missions, and newfound enemies, the Green Army still faces the Tan enemy, growing stronger and stronger each passing moment.
Sarge crosses multiple planes and battles the Tan in environments ranging from a steamy jungle humans called a front yard, to a hobby table filled with strange and unusual vehicles, to a climatic battle in a fantastic toy playset. Sarge’s enemies range from zombies created from scorched plastic parts to fanatical suicide bombers with M80’s strapped to their backs. The Tan Commander is definitely up to something. Can Sarge and his Green Army found out what and thwart it is before it’s too late?. That was the question made in the news from those times.
Army Men II Storyline
Army Men II events had arguably, for that time, the most variable types of enemies in history for the Green Army, which include plastic soldiers with M80s strapped to their bodies, zombies, an independent group which includes all colors of plastic soldiers, scientists, and even “real life” foes such as cockroaches. There was also a wide variety of battlefields that take place both in the Real World and the Plastic World. This conflict furthered the concept of Portals, initially found for the first time in Army Men events, which function as gateways between the Plastic World and the Real World.
Act 1
Sarge and three other Green Soldiers being teleported to a kitchen in the Real World by a Portal (unknown if it’s the same first found before). Unbeknownst to the Green Troops, the Tan Commander, General Plastro, had arrived at the portal with a large force of troops, who begin to march through it, and into the Real World. Before entering Plastro stops and looks towards a grove of trees where there is nothing, believing he has heard or felt something. But since it was nothing, he proceeded to follow his troops from behind.
Shortly after the Tan do, a renegade force led by Major Mylar materialize in sight from nowhere. These soldiers, accompanied by a Blue Spy, have some kind of visual cloaking device. They destroy the portal, closing it off.
The Plastro’s Tan troops suddenly ambush Sarge and his men, starting a firefight across the kitchen counter. Sarge and his men are forced to flee due to the insurmountable Tan emerging behind them. However, after crossing an electric stove top, they become engaged with cockroaches. Making short work of these pests, Sarge finds a portal back to the Plastic World hidden inside a cookie jar.
Once back, Sarge attempts to contact HQ, but nobody responds to his call. Upon investigating the area, Sarge discovers a broken radio antenna that was preventing his broadcast from reaching headquarters, as well as a Green Veteran being held captive by the Tan that was subsequently rescued. The Veteran readily joins Sarge’s squad and points him in the direction of a shack with repair tools in it. Once Sarge retrieves it, he falls back to the antenna and repairs it. He then attempts to rebroadcast his message and receives a response; headquarters informs him that a train is stopping at the local station and they need him to board it. Sarge does so, and he is redeployed to a tank factory and given a new mission.
Sarge is ordered by the famous Green Colonel to defend a train carrying tanks vital to the war effort, and the bridge that the train needs to cross. It is at that moment that Scorch, the future member of the Bravo Company Commandos under Hawk’s command, appears in recorded history, but in a stage where he was only one more low rank common soldier. Although he looked different at the time, one thing that never changed was that he carried a flamethrower.
After moving to defend the bridge, a horde of Tan tanks appear as a last ditch effort to sabotage the train. Using spare vehicles from the factory, Sarge and his squad are able to fend off the Tan tanks successfully. Sarge then proceeds to the next area.
Sarge arrives at the under attack Maynard Airfield. After clearing the surrounding area, and the airfield itself, he rescues the “Old Man“, who proceeds to tell him that a Blue Spy had been cornered by Tan troops. Racing against the clock, Sarge and the Old Man arrive in a forest tucked away to the south of the airfield. Sarge and his squad then escorts the two to a helipad, where they both were extracted.
Act 2
Finally making it back to headquarters, the commanding officer explains that he sent the “Colonel” on a top secret mission two weeks ago. He played back a transmission for Sarge, detailing that the Colonel had discovered an excavation mission before all contact was lost with him.
“There’s evidence everywhere here of a large scale archaeological excavation but whatever the Tan were looking for they either found it or lost interest because it looks like they picked up and left in a hurry. Wait a minute HQ, we found… (communication lost)”
The commanding officer then says a Scout was sent to look for him, but contact was lost with him as well. Sarge and his squad are then deployed to the tropical islands where the transmission was sent from. After heavy fighting, and piloting a PT boat, Sarge is able to rescue the Scout.
The Scout describes that the Colonel has gone insane and taken over nearby ruins with a handful of troopers from the different nations in the war. While en route to the ruins, Sarge runs across a Grey landing party, but is unable to ascertain why they were there in the first place. Defeating them, he and his squad make their way to the ruins, where they are forced to kill plastic soldiers of all colors; even Green. Sarge is able to confront the Colonel after all this and tries, unsuccessfully, to reason with him. The Colonel questions Sarge on how much he actually knows about “reality”, stating “You only know what you’ve been told.” He continues by saying that the only way to restore peace is by “eliminating all soldiers”, and promptly escapes into a portal back to the Real World.
Sarge and his men follow the Colonel through the portal, and are almost immediately ambushed by M80 Soldiers. They’re forced to push their way through the swarm as they make their way into a nearby garden to take shelter from the suicide bombers, but encounter Tan resistance. After defeating them, they enter the front lawn, and after more heavy fighting, Sarge is able to silence the Colonel’s delusions. After a humorously brief moment of silence Sarge requests due to the death of the Colonel, they work their way towards another portal that takes them to another set of tropical islands. They are then ordered by HQ to rescue the Old Man.
While quiet at first, Sarge stumbles upon unsettling wreckage of a Green helicopter. Soon after, he stumbles upon the Old Man, who was tied to a chair as part of a trap created for Sarge. After rescuing him, Sarge and his men are constantly assaulted by an army of zombies, created by Dr. Madd. Intel reveals that the abominations were being created from a mold factory that was powered by generators scattered around the islands. Sarge and his team manage to destroy all the generators, but unfortunately, Dr. Madd escaped during the fighting. Once finished, they were extracted and taken to another area.
Now in a desert, Sarge and his team were tasked with dismantling and disrupting an excavation site centered around an unusual discovery – a black giant 8-Ball. Sarge pushes north to an area where a group of scientists were performing an experiment on a Tan soldier, apparently enhancing him with increased durability and halts their research. They attempt to retreat via a helipad, but Sarge is able to kill most of them before they can escape. Now tasked with another objective, Sarge proceeds towards the 8-Ball and defeats the Tan opposition there, as well as demolishing anti-aircraft guns. An air strike is called upon the 8-Ball, and its destruction reveals yet another portal hidden within.
Act 3
Venturing through the portal, Sarge and his team find themselves in a Real World workshop. They are tasked with defending a makeshift bridge from M80 soldiers while reinforcements arrive. Continuing forward with new reinforcements, Sarge encounters more zombies and Tan smugglers, who are stealing items from the Real World to bring back to their world. Sarge and his men are able to hold off both the smugglers and the zombies, and enter another portal through a miniature diorama of the Titanic.
Sarge arrives at Area X, a hidden Tan facility deep within a forest. Just as before, M80 troopers assault them immediately, but Sarge and his men are able to hold off the threat. As Sarge proceeds deeper into the facility, he discovers material from the Real World strewn about, as well as a handful of Tan scientists. He is able to kill the scientists and destroy local generators, preventing the Tan Republic from studying portals further. His team are then called away for another mission.
Sarge and his men are deployed to a large Tan fortress with a weapon of mass destruction. Sarge is tasked with destroying this weapon, but the Tan opposition is too overwhelming; taking shelter in a hidden area, Sarge is able to sneak into the base. Here, he finds the Blue Spy from his earlier missions and rescues him. The Blue Spy rewards Sarge with a Tan disguise, allowing him to sneak through the base undetected. He obtains a key allowing him access to the weapon, but he is initially unable to find the correct door the key unlocks. Once inside the main compound, Sarge swiftly destroys the weapon using explosives, and sets the base on high alert. Sarge and his team manage to fight through the Tan horde emerging from buildings on base and exit into a portal.
The ending
They find themselves in a child’s bedroom, with an assortment of obstacles scattered everywhere. However, Sarge is able to spot Major Mylar on top of a castle playset. Fighting through the heavy Tan opposition, and taking advantage of the playset, Sarge and his team are able to take down Mylar and put an end to him.
The castle fortress Mylar was using as a base aflame, with defeated Tan soldiers, and vehicles, strewn about. In a final attempt to kill Sarge, Major Mylar readies a grenade. Just as he’s about to throw it, however, his arm melts off due to the flames consuming his fortress. Sarge manages to jump off the ledge of the castle just as the grenade detonates, which takes out the remaining Tan and obliterates the fortress. Not long after, a numerous amount of Green vehicles show up and celebrate their triumph over Mylar. Sarge says to them:
“You gasoline cowboys sure know how to give lead medicine to the Tan bastards, don’t you? We were done for if you guys hadn’t shown up.” – Sarge
Far from there, in the same room, General Plastro can be seen with a few Tan soldiers. He remarks that he’s glad Sarge was able to dispose Mylar, and that’d he’d promote Sarge, “if [he] weren’t Green”. He finished by saying that he has something special planned for Sarge the next time they meet.
Later on, in an unknown room, Dr. Madd was piecing together all the parts of Major Mylar, which concludes this events there.
Screenshots
Real behind the game facts:
Army Men II is a real-time tactics game developed and published by 3DO on March 3rd, 1999 for PC. It was later re-released on November 22nd, 2000, and November 24th, 2000 for the Game Boy Color, although this version featured a different storyline and altered gameplay.
Being a sequel to Army Men, the gameplay is nearly identical. However, controls are much more fluid and responsive, and greater control is given over individual units in Sarge’s squad.
Sources for this article:
https://armymen.fandom.com/wiki/Army_Men_II
https://armymen.fandom.com/wiki/AWOL_Green_Colonel