Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2 is the latest edition of a game series that features those tiny, green plastic men from a million backyard wars of the past few decades. The gameplay and characters will be familiar to anyone who's played the original Army Men: Sarge's Heroes; this time, however, Sarge and the gang not only must defeat General Plastro and his Tan Army, but also deal with the backstabbing Brigitte Bleu. Where Sarge was expected to go it alone last time, players now can take the role of his girlfriend Vikki, and missions often involve other characters from Bravo Company.

The premise, settings, objectives, and weapons are the most engaging aspects of this game. Folks who've used their imaginations to create epic battles with these plastic toys surely will be entertained by seeing them come to life. The battlefields have spread to cool settings, including a train set, a pool table, a child's desk, and a pinball table. There are several objectives to accomplish in each mission, and they sufficiently keep the game moving. The playing fields are littered with great weapons like M-60 machine guns, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, and flamethrowers. It's a rush to take down a helicopter with a well-aimed rocket, and melting enemy toys with a flamethrower is perhaps the game's best element.

Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2 disappoints with controls that are, in a word, plastic. The developers seem to have attempted to address this carryover problem from the original game with a 180-degree turn button, but it isn't much help. The auto-aim makes up for most of the control problems, but the feature is available only on the "easy" setting, which makes the others not fun to play. New enemies such as zombies, spiders, scorpions, and robots provide more of a nuisance than a challenge. They pose little threat, yet are hard to take down, which means that it's better just to avoid them. Another disappointment is