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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Real behind the game facts:
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.
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!
Game Boy® Color
- 7 environments (Land of Toys, Castle, Forest, Dungeon,
Volcano, Jungle, Spaceship). - Over 3 dozen levels and sub-levels.
- Bow & Arrow, with Fire-Arrow Power-ups.
- Leo the Lion powerup (allows Vikki to temporarily ride the
Lion for a brief period of time). - Several Hand-to-Hand attacks (punch, spin kick, flying
kick, summersault attack, crouching punch). - Dozens of enemies and bosses (Wizards, Knights, Wolves,
Bats, Skeletons, Ghosts, Aliens, Raptors, etc.).
Game cheats & codes:
Sources for this article:
Portal Runner website from archive.org Wayback machine
https://armymen.fandom.com/wiki/Portal_Runner