Toy Commander
System: Dreamcast
Publisher: Sega
Developer: No Cliche
Released: 1999
Genre: Action/Adventure
Capabilities: VMU & Jump Pack Compatible

The Game

The Dreamcast doesn’t have a big share of the so called ‘kiddie’ genre of games, but this very unique title by Sega and No Cliche gave people first thoughts of being one, but don’t let this first impression fool you, because it has way more depth than you can imagine. Will this game deliver an all-out great gaming experience, or just end up a game for your little brother? Let’s get onto the review and find out.

The Story

You are Andy, you just got a whole bunch of new toys, and you neglect to play with all your old ones. So Huggy Bear, forms a group of rebel toys to overthrow you and your new toys. Go control your new toys and take out all the rebels in 50 different missions so you and Andy can live happily ever after! It does have a kiddie type of plot, but once you get into the game, the story will grow on you.

Graphics

I gotta say that I was impressed right off the bat with the game’s opening movie. Everything in here looks great, and looks so real. The environments look so close to the way they look in real life, like the living room, looks exactly like a living room, the kitchen looks exactly like a kitchen, the fisher price people look...., well you get the drill by now. There’s 35 different vehicles you control in the game, and most of them look pretty darn good, like the tank, various airplanes, etc. I was really impressed with not much slowdown at all in multi player or with lots of action going on at once in some of the missions. Just everything looks great in this game overall, the only thing I gotta say that I have a problem with is some of the camera angles in the game, where it’s hard to get lock on aiming with targets, and at times it can be hard to control your camera, but after a while you’ll get over this nit picky flaw.

Sound

The background music is all right, and I guess it fits the theme of the game well with it’s lets-go-beat-up-the-bad-guy type of story. And it’s faded just right during the game, so it doesn’t interfere with game play. All the sound effects are done nicely and sound exactly like they should, like the gunfire, explosions and so on. So I guess the sound is done pretty good, but I really felt their was a need for voices in the game, all you hear is that boss bear, grunt and laugh with accompanied text, I just felt that the use of voice in the game could’ve helped out the sound department a lot.

Game play

The controls are pretty easy in the game, you move around with the control stick, and the 4 main buttons on the Dreamcast controller are used for changing your main weapon, using your main weapon, firing your gun, and changing the camera angles. This is a really nice configuration and you should get the controls down in no time. For main weapons and guns, you pick up upgrades for them 3 different times to effect their damage rate. Like their’s missles, which start off as pencils, but then get upgraded to screwdrivers, then toothpaste bottles, sounds weird, but it works. Then there’s another type of drop bomb for the second main attack, and some land mine type weapon for your third main weapon. All of those can be upgraded to, as with your gun by moving across certain icons in the area you’re in.

The game play missions are pretty easy, they’re about 5-7 main levels, with each level cotaining about 8 missions each, including a boss. Those missions can either be airplane/car races, or objective type missions that can be anything from putting out a fire, to saving inhabitants from green army men, there’s just so much you can do in the missions, and since there’s about 50 of ‘em, you’ll be playing them for a great deal of time. Then there’s the multi player levels, which you can play in 3 different ways. Those being capture the flag, death match, and Cat and Mouse(kind of a tag type of game) and up to 4 players can play where you can establish teams, set limits, and pick your vehicles. You can play as either cars or planes, and both vehicles have their ups and downs, so everything’s all evened out. The multi player is a blast to play, and so are the missions, but one really nice feature I would’ve liked in the game would’ve been a map editor, just imagine making your own environments.

Replay Value

There’s so many missions in the game, you’ll be playing them all for hours just trying to complete them all. And if that’s not enough there’s a multi player mode too! I loved playing this game with my friends for all out brawls. No Cliche added so much to this game that it’s unbelievable. Trust me, you’ll be playing this game for a long time.

In Brief

+: Great environments, 50 missions!, multi player!

-: Some camera problems, Voices seemed like a must in this game

The Final Ratings Rundown

Graphics: 9.1
Sound: 7.2
Game play: 8.2
Replay Value: 8.5

Overall: 8.2

Rounded to fit GameFAQs Score: 8

Final Analysis

This game really surprised me when I bought it, because it turned out to be more than what I thought it was to be. I gotta say, this is one of the most underrated games on the Dreamcast. I’ll have to say everybody should at least give this game a rent and find out for yourself to see how addicting this game is.