I was an avid fan of the Army Men games growing up. While I loved the Sarge's Heroes games, especially when my best friend would come over and we'd kill each other in split-screen, the PC games had the most replay value to me.
With my toy solider collection, over 2000 figures, and an avid lover of military history at a young age, I created all of these elaborate battles, drew battle plans, moved my figures around the field, even wrote battle diaries. I loved commanding toy soldier armies. And the PC Army Men games allowed me to do this in a virtual form. With Army Men Air Tactics, now, I could command the skies!
Oh these games were so clever. Dropping M80 grenades, dropping beacons to order your men around, shooting robotic houseflies with cannons on their back, escorting a pair of destoyers being hunted by subs, evading venus fly traps, and a Sarge's Heroes version of Sarge in the isometric RTS games, this game had almost everything!
I remember listening to the wonderful musical score composed by Barry Blum on the main menu over and over. I appreciated the character model of Sargeant Hawk compared to the rest of the soldiers. The last levels in the jungles and island chains were my favorite. Reminiscent of Army Men 2. The Volcano base! The final helicopter you got was bada**!! I remember being engaged with the story too, like rescuing the Green President, rescuing Sarge and his men in this huge living room battle under attach by tanks carried by balloons!
This is one of the games that inspired me to write my own mission outlines and features if I made my own Army Men game. I wrote down a level in the sewers where you escort naval vessels in a chopper. I felt like I worked for 3D0 itself!
I still have my physical copy, the big box, the original poster included, and the manual. I guess I could mount it to ISO, but I am not tech savvy and that would be a pain. Please GOG, make this happen! I hope you enjoyed my unscripted reaction to this.