Portal Runner

Vikki Grimm AKA the Portal Runner

Believing she is following a lead on a story that could be her big break, ace investigative reporter Vikki G. is actually falling into a diabolical trap set by her nemesis, the beautiful Blue superspy Brigitte Bleu!

Portal Runner is technically the third entry in the Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes timeline. Following the events of Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes 2, General Plastro, the general of the Tan army, is locked away by the Green Army.

Vikki G. and her friend Leo the Lion, meet action and adventure head-on!

Lured into the Portal by the evil Brigitte Bleu… and lost in time… Vikki G. and her ferocious sidekick Leo the Lion must battle through exotic worlds. Join them in a journey of imagination and adventure as they work together to find new portals, battle deadly foes, solve tricky puzzles, and explore each world for a way home. Going through seven action-packed worlds fighting Dinos, Aliens, Wizards and more… with only a bow and martial arts skills.

Brigitte Bleu observing this through a magic mirror. Feeling lonesome, and in need a king worthy of her magnificence, she makes a sinister plan to marry Sarge and get rid of Vikki Grimm, Colonel Grimm’s daughter and Sarge’s girlfriend, with Brigitte deciding that Vikki is a treasure waiting to be buried.

As Vikki follows Sarge to his mission, she ends up in a giant outer space chessboard and then a candy store in the Real World. Then Vikki has to fight off gingerbread men to continue her mission for a better story, as if the fact that gingerbread men were attacking her isn’t good enough.

Then, Vikki finds Sarge trapped in a castle by the gingerbread men and has to save him by using her arrow techniques to shoot down a plastic pig. After Vikki saves Sarge, he gets her into trouble by telling her father, Colonel Grimm, that she followed him on his mission.

Vikki gets into an argument with her dad. He tells her that he doesn’t want her in any danger and that she’s grounded “Until further notice”. She tries to say something else, but her father tells her to go home. She replies: “Some home – I live on an army base”.

It all started when the notorious Blue spy, Brigitte Bleu on her constant quest for power, discovered the mysterious Portals leading into new unexplored worlds. It didn’t take long before she proclaimed herself Queen of these new realms. But when she wasn’t happy being their sole sovereign and decided she needed a “King” worthy of her hand, she set her sites on Vikki’s boyfriend, Sarge Hawk!

Brigitte knew the only way she’d have a chance with Sarge is to take Vikki out of the picture… permanently. It took an anonymous tip of a news story about these new worlds to lure her to a secret meeting place.

As Vikki walks back, a Green Army soldier gives her a package from an unknown person. Inside was a dinosaur egg and a letter. The letter said, “The story of your career awaits you. Follow the map and seek out the one called Rage. Tell no one, leave now”. Sarge walks up to Vikki and tells her that her father’s right about her being too adventurous for her own good. Vikki walks off in disgust, with Sarge commenting about how that was a good start and how he’ll be buying plastic flowers for a week.

As the star reporter for the Green Star News, Vikki’s always looking for a scoop; so when she realized there were brand-new worlds out there to explore, she couldn’t help but follow up on the story.

Vikki uses a camera to take all of her pictures on her trip.

During her trip, in the Lost Caves, she was ambushed by Rage, Brigitte’s Shock Trooper friend who will do whatever she says.

Unfortunately, her “mysterious” contact turned out to be Brigitte, using Rage as her executor, Brigitte Bleu’s evil warbot. Vikki immediately found herself in Rage’s robotic clutches!.

Suddenly, from out of the darkness sprang her savior — a mighty Lion named Leonardo!. As Rage struggled to free himself from Leo’s powerful claws, Vikki was thrown head over heels into a Portal and into a whole other world!. Vikki was forced to the Prehistoric jungle toy world.

Leo leaped in after Vikki, leaving Rage free to live up to his name–he blew up the Portal, their only way home.

That was also when she met a lion, who was also forced to the same world as Rage destroys the portal. Vikki decides to be friends with the lion, which she calls Leo and they both help each other on their great adventure. Vikki G. and her friend Leo meet action and adventure head on!

Suddenly, Vikki and Leo are hurled through a Portal over distance and time into a strange new world. Now they must work together to find Portals, battle deadly foes, solve tricky puzzles, and explore unknown worlds… battling their way to new Portals and realms in search of the way home!

Now Leo and Vikki work together and take care of each other. They explore each new world they find in search of new Portals, battling deadly foes and solving tricky problems… hoping that the next Portal they find will lead them home.

After enduring magic pillars, a pyramid, and air lifts, they come upon a volcano with another portal. Once they step through, they end up in a Medieval World.

Exiting the Prehistoric World

Medieval World

Vikki rescues a wizard named Merlin from death in a chessboard. Merlin explains that he made a magic mirror that could see anywhere for Brigitte, thinking she would appreciate his mind.

He directs Vikki to another portal, guarded by a ghosty barrier, an evil tree, and a moat dragon. When they reach the portal, they’re captured by Rage and Tan Soldiers who appear to be minions of Brigitte.

Brigitte had lured Sarge into the dollhouse where she lived and wanted to marry him. She and her henchmen found an space-alien themed toy set, which acted as a portal to an Outer Space World.

Brigitte acquired a love gun from some Martians, who lived in the Space World in exchange for the secret of the portals; she used the gun on Sarge, and he instantly fell in love with her, murmuring,”I… wuv… you…”.

Brigitte Bleu wins all the fronts

Brigitte visited Vikki, who was being held in a dungeon in Brigitte’s Medieval Castle, and told her that Sarge and she are going to get married, and that Leo was going to be burned alive. Brigitte leaves her mirror for Vikki to let her watch “This magical occasion”.

As Vikki cries to herself, she contacted by Merlin. He informs her that he left a few secrets in the mirror before handing it over. When Vikki asks about Sarge’s situation, the wizard tells her only the kiss of his true love can apparently break the inducement somehow. Vikki asks him if he’s kidding and he says that he’s not. Meanwhile, in a toy store, Leo is being transported in a circus carriage, and is about to be burned in a microwave when he notices the bars are melting. He breaks out and travels to a portal that takes him back to the Medieval Castle.

After fighting off some ghosts, he and Vikki head to the Space World to stop the wedding.

Once they acquire a stolen key from a Martian saucer, Vikki breaks into the room and kisses Sarge, breaking the trance on him. A voice tells all Martians to report for battle. Vikki tells Brigitte to call off the attack. She tries, but some monitors show they expanded the attack into all the other worlds. Brigitte yells at them to stop but a robotic voice says that they “Come in peace.” Sarge says that they don’t look too peaceful to him, and goes with Leo to stop most of the aliens.

Vikki heads to the Alien Brain room, where the Brain, a cyborgic-style creature resembling a Martian head on a robotic spider body, refuses to call off the attack.

After Vikki destroys the Brain, the attack stops.

Portal Runner ending

Sarge and Leo head on, with Leo holding Rage’s third leg in his mouth. They meet up, as Merlin congratulates Vikki for stopping the attack, and they head back to the Plastic World. At the Lost Caves, three lion cubs run up to Leo. Sarge mutters, “Oh great, we’ve walked right into the lion’s den.” Showing that he wasn’t guarding the Portals, but protecting his family, he stays. Vikki hugs him and Sarge pats him on the head. Back at the Green Army Base, Vikki apologizes to Colonel Grimm and says that her home is wherever he is, with her father thanking her.

The game ends with Brigitte sharing a cell with General Plastro, who says that before she gets any funny ideas, the top bunk is his and blows a raspberry, leading to Bridgette yelling out in horror and dismay.

The Portal Runner Comic Book

Yeah. This story had a Comic Book introduction

Portal Runner bios

Portal Runner Screenshots

Real behind the game facts:

A one-time spinoff from 3DO’s Army Men franchise. Portal Runner is a video game produced by 3DO and Handheld Game and distributed by 3DO for PlayStation 2 game console and Game Boy Color handheld on September 10, 2001 in the US and one month later on October 19 in the UK. The game serves as a spinoff of the Army Men series.

Portal Runner is an action and platform game starring a doll named Vikki, a journalist for the Army Men’s Green Army (and girlfriend of Sarge). But outside the Army Men’s world of plastic warfare, the spy Brigette Bleu (and her right-hand war bot, Rage) plots to abduct Sarge, sending Vikki a map with “the story of a lifetime” which shortly sees her attacked by Rage and thrown through a portal to another toy world. Chasing after her is a large lion, whom she befriends and names Leonardo (“Leo” for short), and together they set off through a variety of locales to put a stop to Brigette’s plans.

The mother of all cat fights!

Trapped in a Portal and lost in time. Help Vikki G. and her sidekick Leo the Lion battle their way through action-packed adventures.

Fantasy becomes reality – explore primordial lands of dinosaurs with raging volcanoes, medieval castles, spaceships, aliens and more!

PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system

5 extreme types of 3D game play include shooting, puzzle-
solving, platform jumping, exploration and multi-player!
5 fantasy filled worlds with over 25 challenging levels
including: the Army Men World featuring the Lion Cave
level, Our World featuring the Toy Store and the Candy
Store levels, the 5-level Prehistoric World featuring the
Canyon Escape and the Volcano levels, the 8-level
Medieval World featuring the Dragon and the Chessboard
levels, the 4-level Space World featuring the Atrium and
the Brain Boss levels plus 6 multi-player levels!
Over 35 wicked creatures hell-bent on your destruction –
including raptors, pterodactyls, triceratopses, bats, knights,
flying saucers, aliens lords, killer trees, dragons,
evil Lions, soldiers, alien brains and more!
4 ways to play – as Vikki alone, with Leo at her side, Vikki
riding Leo, or on the prowl as Leo himself!
Look out! As Leo’s Fury Meter rises, he becomes stronger
and faster, but also more vulnerable. Only with proper
care and strategy will Vikki be able to keep Leo at the
right level of Fury.

Portal Runner contains examples of:

Action Girl: Vikki may be an Army brat and freelance journalist/photographer, but she always carries around a bow.
Alien Invasion: In the last few stages of the game, the Martians usurp Bridgette as the villain and start attacking the other worlds.
Aliens Are Bastards: The Martians attack other worlds and start mindlessly blasting everything in sight.
Aliens Speaking English: The Martians speak English.
All There in the Script: Merlin’s name is only revealed in the character descriptions.
Androcles’ Lion: The first thing Vikki does upon her arrival in the dinosaur world is tend to Leo’s injuries and find some food; this is enough to get Leo’s loyalty in return.
All Animals Are Dogs: After Vikki bandages his wounds, Leo thanks her by licking her face repeatedly. He does this again after saving her from a dinosaur attack.
Animals Lack Attributes: Justified in the sense that Leo is a toy lion figurine in a toy world, and not many toy companies include “those” details when manufacturing animal figures.
Artistic License – Paleontology: The dinosaurs in the dinosaur world. Justified, though, in that they’re supposed to all be toys, and toys are rarely accurate in the first place.
Ascended Extra: Vikki Grimm is a supporting character in the Army Men series. Here, she is the protagonist.
Badass in Distress: Vikki and Leo are both captured during the Medieval world. While Vikki is simply left in the dungeon, Leo breaks free on a search to rescue her.
Bag of Spilling: Vikki can hold nearly unlimited arrows, but they do not carry over from one level to the next. Even if she’s depicted using them in a cutscene.
Beast of Battle: There are a few levels that are played entirely from Vikki riding atop Leo. Other levels typically have Leo following alongside Vikki and acting independently.
Boss Arena Recovery: Boss arenas typically include a few health and arrow powerups which respawn over time. Regenerating powerups are also found across the game as a whole, frequently for puzzles that require special arrows.
Bottomless Pits: While they’re not strictly bottomless (one of the dinosaur levels features a fall which isn’t far enough to actually be fatal, but is treated as a Bottomless Pit anyway to prevent Sequence Breaking), if it’s not within jumping distance, it’s probably lethal.
But Now I Must Go: When the heroes make it back to the military world, Leo cannot follow them back to the army base, as he is revealed to have a family of three lion cubs he is looking after. Vikki tells him she’s gonna miss him. It is possible however that she could return to the cave to visit him in the future if she decided to.
Cave Behind The Waterfall: Present in the first level. It’s relatively well-hidden behind the waterfall spray, but Vikki even Lampshades it as the player ventures inside.
Convection, Schmonvection: Even as a plastic toy (which the Army Men franchise in general often melts with flamethrowers) Vikki has no trouble coming mere inches above hot lava with nothing but a Fur Bikini to protect her. (And even if she falls in, it’s just minor damage.)
Corridor Cubbyhole Run: There’s one in almost every world: A hallway with rolling gumballs in an early level; a cavern passage with steam vents; a Medieval hallway with an array of arrows shooting down from the ceiling, and a futuristic passage with (lethal) balls of pure energy travelling from one end to the other.
Crate Expectations: Found primarily in the Medieval world. A few arrows (or claw swipes from Leo) will demolish them, typically revealing health or arrows.
Cutscene Boss: While Vikki readies her assault on the Martian Emperor, Sarge and Leo fight off Rage and a brigade of Martians in a cutscene.
Descending Ceiling: One of Leo’s puzzles in the Medieval world dungeon is to hit four switches and then make for the exit before a spiked ceiling kills him.
Difficulty Levels: The game has four of them, three being “Easy”, “Normal”, and “Hard”.
Easier Than Easy: The “Dream” difficulty level makes Vikki immune to all enemy attacks – only environmental hazards or Bottomless Pits can kill her.
Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Pteranodons in the Jurassic world shoot fireballs at you.
Enemy Mine: Bridgette works with the heroes when the Martians turn on her.
Fall Damage: Vikki has this. Depending on how far the drop is, it may kill her or just take some of her life.
Fanservice: The game’s cutscenes like to emphasize Bridgette’s voluptuous body. Also Vikki in her prehistoric level outfit. She even lampshades it, exclaiming “Whoa! Check me out!”
Fisher Kingdom: Vikki’s outfit changes with each world she traverses, from her default green army fatigues to a zebra-hide skirt and bikini in the Dinosaur world, to a silver-green jumpsuit in the Space world.
Follow the Money: Gems are frequently arranged in midair to help the player align jumps from one platform to another.
Floating Platforms: Every level has (at least) one platform with a lion’s head on it, which is often the reward for solving a minor puzzle. Other platforms include floating leaves and chessboard tiles.
Freelook Button: It’s mapped to the Circle button by default. Doubles as first-person targetting for Vikki, but even Leo can use it to look around.
Fur Bikini: Vikki spends much of the game in a white striped bikini and skirt.
Gravity Screw: Near the end of the penultimate level, one puzzle involves climbing to the top of a huge spherical room and disabling its artificial-gravity generator, which subsequently enables some spectacularly high and far jumps between the platforms.
Lethal Lava Land: The final prehistoric level involves Vikki and Leo reaching an exit portal located on the side of an erupting volcano.
Level-Up Fill-Up: Vikki and Leo’s HP are refilled whenever the player collects enough gems to earn a new Hit Point.
Little Green Men: All Martians are green, and most are quite small, though there are some large ones.
Love Potion: In a non-“potion” example, Brigette commissions futuristic Martians to create a love ray, which she promptly uses on Sarge.
Loyal Animal Companion: The only character Leo appears comfortable around is Vikki.
Magic Mirror: Merlin made one for Bridgette. It’s a small mirror that can be carried around.
Misbegotten Multiplayer Mode: The multiplayer mode in this game is two-player PvP only and the players can only play as one of Vikki’s four costumes and Brigette, who plays exactly like Vikki, on select maps that are pulled from the main game.
Motive Decay: Rage is Brigette’s loyal hench-bot, yet he continues to aid the Martians after they betray her with no explanation.
Ms. Fanservice: Both Vikki and especially Bridgette can be considered this.
No “Arc” in “Archery”: There is no apparent limit on the range of Vikki’s arrows.
Not the Fall That Kills You…
One-Hit Kill: A few environmental hazards are instant death if you contact them. Others (even hot lava) simply inflict damage.
100% Completion: Collecting at least 80% of gems within a level unlocks images in a bonus image gallery (generally of various scenes, called “vista points”, within each level). Getting a perfect score across the entire game unlocks a few extra images of Vikki in the gallery.
Orcus on His Throne: Outside the Army Men world (which at this point is firmly under Green Army rule), Brigette Bleu has grown a bit bored of her status as queen of various other toy worlds (particularly the Medieval world).
Panthera Awesome: Leo, obviously.
Raptor Attack: Jurassic Park-styled raptors are the main enemies of the dinosaur world, and they come in different sizes.
Ray Gun: The Martians carry these as weapons and also make a love ray for Bridgette.
Rise to the Challenge: In the volcano level, there is one puzzle that involves a cavern flooding with lava – fortunately, the player has safe footing on a platform that floats atop the lava, so it’s unaffected as the player raises the lava level. Played straight with Vikki’s rescue in the Medieval world, where the player must hit various counterweights on a platform to keep Vikki’s cage away from rising poisonous goop.
RPG Elements: For every 10,000 points the player acquires, Vikki and Leo both acquire an extra Hit Point on their Life Meter.
Panthera Awesome: Leo is a Loyal Animal Companion who proves to be a valuable ally. Averted with the demon lions.
Power-Up Food: T-Bone steaks are found in a few levels; they are generally placed on ledges to give Leo enough speed to jump across.
Prehistoria: The dinosaur world.
Puzzle Boss: The tree in the Dark Forest.
Save-Game Limits: You can only save your game between levels, and the game utilizes only one save file (per memory card).
Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: Found primarily in the Medieval world dungeon; one hallway in particular has several rows of spiked cogs spinning across that the player must avoid.
Spin-Off: A spinoff of the Green Army Men games focusing on Vikki Grimm.
Spread Shot: “Trident” arrows are picked up primarily in the Medieval world.
Stationary Boss: The tree in the Medieval world’s dark forest, as well as the Final Boss. Rage also blocks the portal back to the Medieval world, requiring te player to defeat him with Leo.
Take Your Time: Averted in the prehistoric world. While gathering eggs for Leo, if you take too long, a raptor will attack him while you’re gone, and you will have to hurry back to save him.
Timed Mission: One puzzle in the dinosaur world involves searching a canyon for eight key stones (within eight minutes); another level requires traversing the level to find the exit portal within ten. Both are played with Vikki riding atop Leo.
We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: When the Martians start invading the other worlds, the Martian leader says that they come in peace…while the other Martians are blasting everything in sight. Lampshaded by Sarge, who states “Doesn’t look so peaceful to me.”
Wedding Deadline: Vikki arrives just in time to stop an entranced Sarge from saying “I do” to Brigette.
When Trees Attack: The Great Tree in the Dark Forest is an evil sentient tree that shoots fireballs at you.
Wizard Classic: Merlin appears as a character you save. He dresses just like a stereotypical wizard, he uses magic, and he’s fairly wise. He later communicates with Vikki through a Magic Mirror, telling her how to stop Bridgette.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Bridgette had Merlin create a magic mirror for her, than imprisoned him in a giant chess arena to be killed by her knights after she no longer needed him.