Toy Commander

by Sega

Product Features

• full immersion in an awsome 3d interactive envirement
• choose from 35 different vehicles!
• 50 missions with multiple objectives
• deathmatch mode with 3 distinct ways to play
• up to four-players screen action

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00002EQAP
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches ; 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: November 3, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,682 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Editorial Review

Most of us remember waging monumental battles and planning out complicated rescues with toy planes, boats, and such in our youth. Now you can do the same, virtually, in Sega's Toy Commander. The premise is straight from a six-year-old's dream: some of your toys have gone bad and are rampaging through eight rooms in your intricately detailed home. It's up to you to take command of the loyal toys and lead them through 50 individual missions to put a stop to the plastic menace.

The progressively more difficult missions, consisting of action sorties like rescuing toy steamboats from malicious submarines, or strategic ones like transporting eggs into a pot of boiling water, are anything but a tea party. All missions fit comfortably within the game's storyline and can be seriously challenging. The sense of scale, as you commandeer the game's 35 vehicles, is true to the look of an ordinary room to a tiny toy. Fun and offering a surprising amount of depth, Toy Commander is a nostalgic, innovative, and entertaining romp. --Sajed Ahmed

Pros:

• 4-player split-screen death match mode, using any of the 35 vehicles in one of the eight rooms
• All the vehicles look and handle very differently, adding to the gameplay
• Impressive detail and interactivity in the game's environments
• Varied missions include warlike action, racing, and strategy elements

Cons:

• Tedious mission goals could prove frustrating

GameSpot Review

Toy Commander is exactly what you would imagine it to be. You portray a commander of, you guessed it, toys. Everything from racecars to jets fall under your jurisdiction. Before you're through with it, this mission-based game will have you shooting pencil missiles at submarines, taking out miniature SAM sites, flying through rings, and even pushing eggs into a pot of boiling water.

The game takes place inside one house, which, like most houses, is broken up into rooms. Each room has several missions inside it. The first level is the kitchen, where you'll go through a quick training and a few other missions, in which you'll pilot tanks, trucks, and planes. After completing some of the missions in the kitchen, you can move on to the bedroom, and so on and so forth. Each room has a boss, but you'll only be able to face the boss if you can achieve the best times on most of the missions in the level. Some of the times are easy to beat, while others will have you pulling your hair out in frustration. Likewise, some of the levels are easy to complete, but some are just crazy. Most of the time, the difficulty doesn't really come from enemies - simply completing the tasks given is difficult enough. This is mostly caused by the game's ultra-loose control, which prevents you from ever feeling totally in control of your toys. The toylike physics of the game don't exactly help, either, though it is a nice touch. Sometimes you'll find your truck simply sliding off the side of a countertop. The game also lets you drive trucks up walls and onto ceilings. Since we're assuming that there's an invisible boy hanging on to the truck while it's performing these seemingly impossible feats, they don't really seem out of place, and they bring a little more depth to some of the game's puzzles.

Multiplayer lets two to four players go up against each other or team up in any way they see fit. The game's three multiplayer modes are deathmatch, capture the flag, and cat and mouse. The first two modes are fairly self-explanatory. Cat and mouse rewards you if you don't get hit too often, as it counts up points to the person that landed the last hit. The problem with multiplayer is that the repair items refill your health entirely, so several minutes of dogfighting can be wiped away without anyone ever having scored a point. Your only true opportunity to score a clean kill is when your opponent is out of fuel, which causes him to putter along very slowly. As he's making a run for the refueling item, come up behind him and unload.

Toy Commander does a nice job in the graphics department. The various rooms are large, and none of the items in them seem too terribly out of scale. I'm especially a big fan of the cat, which meows if you shoot it then gets up and walks away. The game's sound is similarly well done, with plenty of explosions and nice-sounding machine-gun fire. Finally, the soundtrack rounds out the package with several unobtrusive tracks that fit the subject matter quite well.

The game has an extremely frustrating learning curve, since you must get used to the control while dealing with missions that require an extremely delicate touch. Also, the game seems to flip-flop between missions that are too easy and missions that are too difficult - there's never any true middle ground. The result is a fair game that will easily frustrate you in both its single-player and multiplayer modes. It should make for an excellent rental, but most players won't remain interested for more than three days. --Jeff Gerstmann
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An immersive, highly entertaining experience., November 17, 1999

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Toy Commander (Video Game)

Toy Commander is a must have for the Dreamcast owner who is a child at heart. The game is solid because the developers took the time to polish the basics--graphics, control, collision detection, mission length...What makes the game excellent is the "wow factor" when you first begin playing. I'm not refering to its graphics, which are quite good, but the emotion the game generates as you realize you've got a unique title on your hands. The 3-d environments do a superb job of creating the illusion that you've somehow shrunk to the size of a cockroach and are commanding an army of toy vehicles. Who hasn't imagined experiencing the world from a lillipution standpoint? As a bonus, this world is inhabited with sundry other toys bent on your destruction, who themsevles blow up real good. Fortunately, after the novelty of the environments wear off (and that takes a long time), what you'll be left with is a game that is deep enough so that you'll be happy you purchased it. For me, Soul Calibur, while graphically beautiful, was dissapointing because it was so easy to beat. Beating Toy Commander will take some time -- you'll get your money's worth, and find yourself giggling like a school girl along the way.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent game - a must-buy, November 27, 1999

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Toy Commander (Video Game)

Tons of different missions with a wide variety of easy-to-control vehicles. Despite the toy theme, little kids might be put off by the difficulty level of some missions without a strategy guide. The level of detail is stunning, though, and my neck hurts from all the straining I'm doing - the spatial 3D effect of the rooms is that real.

There's not much polish to the game (outside of the gameplay, that is), not that it matters while playing. The translation is cheesy, and they could have done a better job with the menus and the mission briefings. You may have to play a level a few times to figure out what to do, and in what order. And unfortunately, they had to resort to "timing" the levels to advance. Overall, though, a very unique and fun, addictive game. Here's hoping for a sequel...

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly Addictive and Entertaining, November 10, 1999

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Toy Commander (Video Game)

I received a demo of Toy Commander with a copy of the Official Dreamcast Magazine. I had read about the game on a couple Dreamcast sites and thought I might pick it up. After I popped the demo disk into my Dreamcast and checked out the three Toy Commander missions included, I no longer thought I might buy the game--I KNEW I would.

I purchased the game and have since logged a solid three hours playing it. Now, granted, I have only played within two rooms, and not all those missions, but I am already addicted to this game. While Sonic, House of the Dead 2, and Soul Calibur are all great games, Toy Commander beats them all. This game is incredibly fun and entertaining. Whether blowing away submarines with a fighter plane or taking out bombers with a heavy duty combat-vehicle, there is no shortage of gameplay here. The developers truly have managed to recreate the fun of being a little kid and playing with your toys.

There are around 50 missions, I believe, and a boss for each room, whom you can battle if you beat their time on a sufficient amount of the missions. You can take control of 35 different vehicles, as well.

In addition, there is a 2-4 player death match included. But, based on what little I played with it, the deathmatch is just as addictive as the regular game.

There are some issues with the difficulty of some of the missions, but I would say this is minor gripe when you take into account how great the gameplay is.

All in all, this is one of the very best games available for the Dreamcast. I cannot imagine anyone not enjoying this game, and it is a potential system-seller. At least, I know it is in one case--my brother was undecided about the Dreamcast but now plans to purchase it in the next couple weeks after he played my Toy Commander demo.

If you have a Dreamcast, get Toy Commander. If you don't have a Dreamcast, buy one then get Toy Commander. Don't miss this game; it is too entertaining.