“Well, Portal Runner is no longer considered canon, with this situation that you say (PR is canon), we should add Superman and Batman to the game because it adds new things to the game.” – A particular Army Men die-hard fan
Everything this guy said have no sense. Who said Portal Runner is not considered canon?, and what does Batman have to do with it? I get it, it’s a metaphor. It doesn’t make sense anyway.
Portal Runner is canon (whoever likes it or not)
“head canon” it’s a personal thing, not the real thing.
It’s VERY strange that some fans have that “I like this so it’s canon. But I don’t like this so it’s not canon” with things that don’t really bother them, but it seems to hurt their sensitivities. You may not like Portal Runner, that’s legal. But it is exaggerated that if it offends you to such a degree that you hate it.
I really don’t understand it. I mean, it’s not that I like Portal Runner, but it doesn’t bother me either. It’s like Teletubbies annoy me just for existing lol
“I’m not a fan, but I know it brought interesting things to the Army Men canon. Because it is a game from the Army Men franchise. That is unavoidable.” – Thanos
What rules said that Portal Runner isn’t canon?. Be careful with imagining something so strongly that you believe it to be true. Because there is no such rules. There are only presumptions by some fans who believe that some things are not canon, others are from another continuity, etc etc etc. But no one said anything about Portal Runner lol.
Sarge’s War clones!
Another debate in the Army Men community is about Army Men: Sarge’s War: the Heroes, Vikki Grimm and Colonel Grimm who died in the Peace Treaty terrorist attack were all clones… because many refuse to accept that that happened. And while the ending shows us those tubes with names, the reality is that it remains somewhat ambiguous… unless you listen to the father of the Army Men canon, Michael Mendheim: he himself said in an interview that he wanted to kill them, as a metaphor for the bad time they were going through during the development of Sarge’s War, the bankruptcy of 3DO, between layoffs, cancellations and warnings of a bleak future for the company and its employees. On the other hand, it is understandable that the childhood of many has been marked by this… but that is the truth. ALTHOUGH, it does not mean that it has to be the end… since despite their intentions, they left us some elements to reverse that bitter ending (the tubes with names).
Holders of the truth
The only ones who knew the truth about these “canon” & “inconsistencies” things no longer exist, the 3DO team from that time, behind the Army Men games. And I’m not even really sure about that, since I don’t think they were that involved with it to the point of being obsessive about it.
By the way, before someone does it: It is not valid if a former 3DO employee say something today and for that reason it will be considered the truth, because years passed and those who decided that, were an entire group with bosses who had the last word. Anyway in these years since that, we have never seen anyone on the internet talking about it. So, point for this theory!
But then… how?
The only way I think we can bring some light to this “canon” matter is to gather the entire old group, together, and ask them. But anyway, a LOT of time passed and more than sure they no longer even remember, because of this, or because it was simply a job and they were never that interested in it.
Or on the other hand they can be gathered by someone and made them to say whatever he wants them to say, which is why I think it is no longer possible to get REAL answers today.
What should perhaps be accepted is the suggestion or ideas of an old member of the team. That couldn’t be ignored!
But with all my years in video game development I can tell you one REAL thing that few or no one can tell you here…
Because of how storytelling works, most of the biggest inconsistencies were actually left, on purpose, with AMBIGUITY. That is, without really defining it. And that’s totally on purpose. When you don’t know how to solve something or fix something that is difficult to fix, but that should be a necessary change, you leave it poorly defined, open to interpretation, ambiguous. That can be understood in various ways or admit different interpretations and, consequently, give rise to doubts, uncertainty or confusion. But also a certain level of satisfaction on each side of the debate.
I’ll give you an example… Sarge VS Sarge Hawk. It was NEVER defined, and that’s on purpose. Surely, according to what I personally assume given my knowledge, for the developers Sarge Hawk was supposed to be the same protagonist of the previous games. The clearest clue is the similarity between Sarge’s original voice and Hawk’s voice, as well as their personalities. And of course, that Sarge disappeared from continuity with Hawk appearance lol.
Here is the solution: SOFT REBOOT
You have a classic property (Army Men), one that’s made money hand over fist for you for years, perhaps decades, but now, it’s getting a little long in the tooth. Maybe it’s dated, maybe recent installments have tarnished their name, maybe it’s just bogged down in “Continuity Lockout”. Perhaps you’ve just finished the story you wanted to tell, or you’re still telling that story and don’t want to ruin it yet. Or maybe you’ve finally been given the budget to make the entry in the franchise you’d wanted to make years ago but couldn’t afford.
That’s what happens with good ol’ franchises. But in this case I know for a source that was the dev’s bosses who want a different approach, a more “mainstream” product, or just what they need to upgrade their approach.
Resetting the thing to bring in new fans sounds like a good idea, but maybe the core storyline is still interesting if you can get rid of the bad superficial elements that accumulated around it over the years, or peel back the exaggeration of its problems over time; maybe you’re about to release it into a wider market where they never got the previous entry while pleasing existing fans; maybe you want to make a straight sequel but have to take a new direction because of drastic creative team changes; or maybe you’re simply afraid of the backlash to a Continuity Reboot.
In the case of the Army Men franchise, I think YES OR YES they needed a change. What else could they do after AM1, 2, TIS, WW and AT that was new using exactly the same elements without going away from that? It would have worked with the die-hard fans and bigots, but not with the general public from whom they need the money.
Yes, Army Men 1 was a success… but when could they replicate that success with exactly the same thing? It was a one-time win.
What to do? Well, perhaps a “softer” approach will serve. Instead of starting over, dip into the Troper Well and pull out a way of explaining you’re not really tossing away the classic stories the fans love. There are many ways to accomplish this:
- It could take place after a lengthy Time Skip, allowing you to make a Same Plot Sequel with a new generation of characters and a few old favorites popping in for a Continuity Cameo.
- It could be an Alternate Timeline that diverges from the “main” timeline thanks to time travel shenanigans, so you can do a fresh, modern take on iconic scenarios while the main timeline exists in parallel.
- It could start with a Retool where the setting and scenario are significantly changed and the cumbersome or outdated aspects are dropped.
- It could be a prequel with younger actors where all the things the old audience knows are hinted at, without being burdened by excessive continuity that will drive off new audiences.
- It could be a side story taking place in the same universe that coincidentally features characters or situations the old audience is familiar with.
- It could treat the original with Broad Strokes, so that the things the old audience liked happened for sure, but the things they didn’t like didn’t happen.
Essentially, a Soft Reboot. It has many elements of a reboot, and feels a lot like one, without actually getting rid of the old continuity.
Contrast the “hard” Continuity Reboot, in which the old story and continuing plotlines are explicitly kept, but minimally/mostly copied and started over from Day 1. Also not to be confused with a Soft Reset or Canon Discontinuity.
In the case of Army Men and what came after with the big changes made with Sarge’s Heroes, Air Attack, etc. was a kind of Soft Reboot, where they introduced everything new with a great future ahead, a lot of room to expand a develop (or at least that’s what they thought), without removing many of the elements that fans were familiar with, such as the plastic soldier original design.
Something very symbolic to represent this change and say goodbye to the old continuity, and that NO ONE has talked about, is the first scene of the Sarge Heroes campaign, this one…
This is LITERALLY the developers sending you the message of the change, to you and for them, like a “farewell” tribute. You go from the Sarge continuity to the new. It shows you the classic soldier, as always was, who suddenly leaves the scene, drastically, to make way for Plastro’s new design with everything that is coming behind with him, and the next scene shows you the new protagonist, Sarge Hawk.
To finish with my words…
They NEVER clarified anything because from the beginning they didn’t want to. They wanted it to be open to interpretation so that everyone would be satisfied with their interpretations of the events. Those who want to believe that Sarge Hawk and all that continuity is something different have nothing to contradict them. And those who want to believe that it is a sequel and that Sarge is now somehow Sarge Hawk, have nothing to contradict them either (au contraire). In short, everyone is happy. And Portal Runner is canon.