Army Men - Air Attack 2

The oddest thing about flying a helicopter over a sandbox, a kitchen counter or a backyard is how quickly the joke stops being the point. Army Men - Air Attack 2 is a toy-soldier war told from the cockpit of a plastic chopper, and the scale gimmick is the wrapper around a fairly traditional helicopter shooter: fly low, strafe things, pick up what they drop, and keep an eye on your armor.

That structure is the series' bread and butter. The Army Men line, produced by 3DO, was one of the great licensed-adjacent factories of the late nineties and early 2000s, turning out a new entry almost every year across consoles. Air Attack was its flight branch, and this sequel arrived on PS2 with the usual promise of better visuals and more missions. The jump in hardware shows mostly in the lighting and the larger, tidier environments, which let the household settings read as real places rather than flat backdrops.

What holds your attention is the handling. A helicopter that can hover, turn in place and slide sideways makes for a different rhythm than a jet game, and the missions lean on it, asking you to pick off ground targets, escort or rescue units and clear out enemy positions. Pickups for ammunition and repairs keep you moving instead of camping. It is simple and it works, though the work is repetitive.

The weak points are the ones the whole series carried. Targeting can feel loose, mission goals repeat themselves, and the camera and draw distance sometimes make it hard to judge height over cluttered terrain. The enemy variety does not do enough to freshen long stretches. These games were built quickly to a yearly schedule, and the polish reflects that.

Still, there is a charm here that more serious helicopter games rarely managed. The idea of a war fought in a living room, with green plastic men and a rotor blade the size of a ruler, gives even routine missions a slightly absurd edge. It will not convert anyone, but it has a clear sense of what it is. Sometimes a toy is enough.