Toy Soldiers: Cold War Review (XBLA)

Written by Ryan Johnson (RyanDJ) Saturday, 10 September 2011 11:00

Toy Soldiers: Cold War is now available on XBLA. This fun, downloadable title is worthwhile of a playthrough.

I hit start, learned the basics of a couple units, and was then thrown into battle. Wasn't too impressed. I figured I should try one more time though, before I reviewed the game, to see if I missed anything. Now that I knew the basics, I could pay more attention to the nuances. I learned the second time around how you can move to other platforms to add more units...the direction your unit faces does matter...how the awesome attack chopper can be reused after it recharges....just how well secondary fire can work....the subtleties of AI vs. manual control.

That extremely long run-on sentence was intentional to show you just how many layers this simple downloadable title has. Toy Soldiers: Cold War is a tactical game that allows you to deploy units on the field to stave off an ever-approaching army, with the added bonus of being able to go down to the field view and take complete control of a particular unit. The combination of both play styles definitely ups the excitement value of the game, as meandering around as a solo unit eventually becomes taxing and confusing (like a military Dynasty Warriors if you will) while doing nothing but managing your units could get boring for most twitch gaming players.

In my first play through, I felt confused and helpless against the advancing army. Playing and judging this game on its' first merits proved disappointing, but further play garners you an understanding of depth you may not see the first time through. My first attempt at the first boss took 20 minutes, and I felt like I was constantly failing to succeed by throwing rocks at the giant. Second time, with full knowledge of my arsenal, the boss didn't stand a chance. The humor is subtle too, from the stiff toy death animations amidst violent realistic explosions to the Mint-On-Card characters deployed to the field.

Toy Soldiers currently sells for 1200 points on the Xbox Live Marketplace, and is worth full retail price, rather than waiting for a sale. Pick it up, and witness the physical interpretation of what went on in your mind as a child with your military toy box. Head over to Amazon and get some points, then hit xbox.com or your console to download this fun strategy title.