Army Men : Sarge's Heroes

Army Men: Sarge's Heroes for Dreamcast brings the Army Men series' toy-soldier war to Sega's console in a 2000 third-person action game. Developed for Dreamcast by Saffire and published by Midway, it adapts the earlier 3DO game around Sarge, a Green Army soldier fighting the invading Tan Army. The central conflict begins with the Green base under attack and Sarge's Bravo Company scattered or captured. His campaign sends him to recover his comrades, protect the Green Army, and stop the enemy's use of strange portals.

The action is played from a third-person viewpoint as Sarge moves through combat zones, searches for equipment, and works through mission objectives. Gunfights with Tan infantry are only part of the job: tanks, helicopters, mines, obstacles, and environmental hazards turn individual operations into a mixture of shooting, climbing, careful movement, and item use. An M16 is the standard weapon, while levels can supply heavier and more specialized tools including machine guns, sniper rifles, shotguns, grenades, flamethrowers, artillery weapons, satchel charges, and mine-detection gear. Auto-aim helps keep the focus on positioning and completing objectives amid busy firefights.

Its small-scale premise gives the campaign its defining contrast. Some battles take place in the plastic soldiers' own world, across military bases and outdoor territory, while others put tiny troops in oversized household spaces. A kitchen, backyard, beach, jungle, fortress, and bathroom can become battlefields when viewed at army-man size. This shift in scale supports the series' playful take on warfare without abandoning straightforward combat missions. Sarge must press forward through each operation, find allies or key targets, and deal with the Tan Army's plans before moving on to the next assignment.

The Dreamcast edition is not simply the same package as the earlier console releases. Saffire's version contains 16 missions divided into multiple segments, for nearly 40 sections of action, and it features updated gameplay adjustments and in-engine cinematics. Its Dreamcast presentation improves the visibility and detail of the toy-sized environments, with more elaborate scenery and effects supporting the plastic-soldier theme. The port also includes autosave support, a useful addition for missions that link several segments together and require Sarge to survive through the entire operation.

Army Men: Sarge's Heroes also expands beyond the solo campaign with local multiplayer for up to four players. Players can choose colorful toy-soldier sides for competitive matches, including a four-player deathmatch mode, and bring the game's assortment of weapons into separate battles. As the first Army Men game released on Dreamcast, it represents a later, technically enhanced version of a series entry that moved away from strategy toward character-led third-person action. For Dreamcast players, it offers a campaign built around plastic warfare, oversized everyday settings, and co-located competitive play.