So I have been a little out of it this week due to some crazy injury to my back.  Don’t ask, I am not sure how it happened either, I just know it hurts like all hell and I apparently did the worst thing I could do for it.  You see, the Doc tells me that I strained the cartilage on my ribs.  So when you strain a muscle you want to apply Ice to reduce swelling and heat to encourage blood flow.  Yeah, when you strain cartilage, you apply ice, and that’s it.  When you apply heat it only makes it worse.  So the other night when my back was hurting to all high hell, (and I hadn’t been to the doc yet) I came down and slept with a electric blanket balled up on my back……alll night.  Needless to say the next day was insanely painful.  They gave me lots of good drugs and I am spending most of my time laying down on an Ice pack.  So I have had lots of time to sit and play on the Xbox.

Enter Toy Soldiers.  Toy Soldiers is a new Arcade title that was released about 2 weeks ago.  The premise of the game is more tower defense style set with your old fashioned Toy Soldiers (Duh).  Now, back in the 90’s there was a game called Army Men, which took your old green army men and animated them to a strategy game.  This game is nothing like that.  The soldiers in this one are the old old style, think the old metal soldiers your grand dad would have had.  (for some of you, your great grand dad, damn I am getting old)  In Toy Soldiers you have your toy box and an unlimited stream of soldiers at your disposal.  You however only control the defensive aspect of the game.  You can queue up your offensive force and hope they make it to the other side.  You can take control of the various turrets and defenses to add more of a human element to the defense.  But that is all just the basic game play.  Some of the best parts of the game come from the overall design.

So lets charge into it, shall we?

The Hoo Rah’s!!

• The overall look of the game is awesome.  The setting of making the backgrounds look like a bedroom where you are really sitting and just playing with your soldiers is great.  Add in the period music and it’s a great package.  I could almost just set the menus and leave with the background playing and enjoy it.
• Upgrades Upgrades Upgrades!  Each unit has a series of upgrades which not only make the unit perform better, it changes the look!  A machine gun turret changes to a cannon and it has a completely different look of the soldiers.
• No Launch and leave.  Most Tower Defense game you can build them up to a specific place and then just leave them alone to finish the job.  Like it or not, you can’t do that here.  You have to stay engaged.

The “Don’t Ask Don’t Tells”

• It’s a race!  When playing multi-player you pretty much are in a race to get your upgrades done the fastest.  If I can get my howitzer up to level 3 it will have the range to destroy your guns.  So first to get there usually wins.
• The AI is smart, but not that smart.  You need to be on top of almost every aspect of the defenses if you want to catch everything before it gets to your toy box.  It can get a little “Micro (no pun intended) Management” like.,
• No Specials for teams.  Maybe I just haven’t found it yet but it looks to be just two Teams, the Brits and the Krauts (British and German troops) and they all seem to have the same equipment.  It would have been nice to have the Germans get a special gun that the British don’t, and vice versa.

Now all that being said, I really do like the game.  It’s a great way to spend some time while I am laid out on the couch.  And I am sure I will find more good in it the more I play.  (I could do without the creepy gas mask Avatar award though).  If you enjoy the old timy aspect of classic Toy Soldiers, I Highly suggest you at least download the demo and check it out!  If you buy it then feel free to send me a game invite!