This is the starting point of a new era for the Army Men
“A world exists quite different from our own. And there, a battle rages out of control. A battle between good and evil… Green and Tan.” – Game Prologue
The story begins with the Tan Army invading the Green Army’s forward base with Sargeant Hawk being woken up from the attack. After fighting invading Tan troops and making his way through the base, he finds Colonel Grimm who tells him that Sarge’s team – Bravo Company Commandos – were captured and taken away by the Tans, and sets out to find them. While on a helicopter, Sarge and Grimm spot a Blue tank in a nearby town, meaning that a Blue Spy was nearby. Sarge then follows the Blue Spy through a portal to a Bathroom in the Real World and captures him.
When General Plastro finds out that Sarge has captured the Blue Spy and discovered a Portal, he gets furious and leaks footage to the Green Republic of Green Soldiers being tortured by a “Death Ray” which is in fact a magnifying glass. Colonel Grimm then sends Sarge to seek and unite his squad.
He begins by rescuing his bazooka man Riff, from a Tan Base. He is then sent to rescue his Minesweeper Hoover and his Machine Gunner, Thick. He eventually finds Hoover in the middle of The Black Forest. Sarge then learns that Thick was captured and taken through a portal. After Sarge goes through the portal, he is transported to an outdoor garden. Thick is eventually found and both Thick and Sarge go back to the Plastic World. As they leave, Vikki Grimm, Colonel Grimm’s Daughter, sneaks out of the Green Base and into the Black Forest, where she is captured by Tan Soldiers. While Vikki is being interrogated, she proposes to help General Plastro win the war, which he accepts.
Sarge is then sent to rescue Shrap, in a Gulag. There, Sarge releases several Grey prisoners, who in turn, help attack the Tan. Sarge is surprised when he finds out that the Tan are turning Red, Green and Grey Soldiers into Spiders. After Shrap is rescued, Sarge is sent to Fort Plastro to destroy a Portal. Sarge then learns that Vikki is with the Tan Army as he gets thrown in a Sandbox to die. As he fights his way through, he finds Scorch. Scorch tells him that Vikki is deceiving Plastro and tells him about Plastro’s plans.
The Green Army then attacks Fort Plastro, which upsets Plastro even more. Plastro then learns that Vikki was using him and abducts her. Sarge fights his way through a Sandbox to get to a Rocket. This Rocket sends him to a Kitchen where he rescues Vikki and come up with a plan to stop Plastro. As Sarge is stopped halfway through a Living Room by Plastro, who thinks he has Sarge cornered, but is then taken by Precious, a Poodle Dog. After spotting the last Portal, Sarge and Vikki escape, blow up the Portal and reunited with the rest of the Squad including Colonel Grimm. In the end, General Plastro gets plastered.
Real behind the game facts:
Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes was the starting point for a more lighthearted take on the Army Men series. The game was released in 1999 for the Nintendo 64 and in 2000 for Sega Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation and PC.
A few some fans of the PC series were disappointed by the Console spin-offs such as Sarge’s Heroes. This was because 3DO tried to make Sarge’s Heroes appeal to a much younger audience. This corner of the fandom say this killed what was essentially a more mature game (about Toy Plastic Soldiers), but also because 3DO gave Sarge a name and made him a unique character – whereas he had previously been depicted simply as a regular soldier out there doing his job and felt this also drastically reduced the supposed realism of this series. These fans also cite this as the starting point of when the series began to spawn lower quality game after game in wake of Sarges Heroes‘ unexpected success.
Unlike this small part of the fandom, there is a larger fandom for the Sarge’s Heroes series that fondly look back at the game and its sequel. These fans enjoy the story, the unique depiction of Sarge as a character than just a soldier and the dark humor being a pleasant surprise to the game.
Despite the game receiving a mixed reception, it was a commercial success and spawned a sequel in Sarge’s Heroes 2 which was released in 2001 for the Nintendo 64, Sony PlayStation and PlayStation 2.
There are 4 versions of this game. The N64 version was the first to be released, from which the latest version came out, the Dreamcast version, being an N64 port with graphic improvements. The second version was the PS1 version, which is a game with a totally different engine, except for the story in general (similar to Army Men on PC and PS1 Army Men 3D). The PC version came out of this same PSX engine, being identical except for some small graphic differences.
Sega Dreamcast game was the the best graphics version from all of them, with re-recorded voices. But lacks of the CGI FMV from PSX & PC. The same for N64, that lacks of voice acting too.