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"Is it really a major malfunction?"

Army Men – Major Malfunction is the newest game of the big Army Men franchise. Unlike the other games, this one isn't playing in big outdoor environments but in single rooms of a house. Let's begin with the

Gameplay
It's a standard third-person-shooter. The missions are very straight forward. Basically, you just have to run from point A to B and shoot everything that's in your way. The game is pretty easy because the AI is really stupid. But it can get frustrating because of the bad auto-aim and the awful camera. You can't really move it with the right stick because there are often fixed viewing angles or the camera is stuck on objects. At the end of each mission a golden medal pops out of nowhere and if you collect it, the mission is completed. You have to collect 10 medals that are hidden throughout the missions. They're not really hidden, in fact you'll find most of them in no time. Finding those medals unlocks some extra stuff like model renders, cheats or additional play modes for example arena where you have to shoot as many enemy as you can in a limited time. There are also minigames such as riding down a pipe on kind of snowboard. Although the gameplay has many annoying flaws, it makes fun and so I'll give it a
7/10

Story
The first shock comes right with the intro movie: Sarge is dead, melted by a microwave. So, is an Army Men game without Sarge a real Army Men game? No. Hell, you don't even fight against the tan army but against “Major Malfunction”. What the f. His “army” is made up of Lego fighters, Duke Nukem fakes, Frankenstein robots etc. But back to the storyline. You play as Private Anderson and your mission is to find more out about the death of Sarge and the find a scientist. Overall the story is pretty basic. It is told in crappy cutscenes without voice acting, just subtitles and in text-based mission briefings.
4/10

Graphics/Sound
Well, the graphics are basic, too. They are not really bad, but far away from good. There's not much detail in all the levels. Same for the textures. A nice filter is used to blur everything in distance. That doesn't look bad, together with the decent anti aliasing. But in conclusion, the models lack of polygons, the textures are washed out and the animations are choppy. For the sound, the game doesn't do any better. There's no voice acting, lame weapon sounds and as good as no music.
6/10

Play Time / Replayability
Unfortunately the game is quite short and you'll probably make it in a weekend. Every of the 10 medals of each mission is quickly found and all extras unlocked, so there are not much reasons to play it again.
4/10

Final Recommendation
There you have it, the latest and maybe last Army Men game. If you like the other Army Men games or third-person-shooters, pick it up for around 10 bucks or rent it for a weekend.

Final Score: 6/10 (not an average)


Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/18/07