It’s time to get out your soldiers and your Switch and play Toy Soldiers HD. The game has been out on Steam since his April 2012, but a fully functional overhaul was delayed many times before it was released for Switch. The last thing the developers prepared was the multiplayer feature. Now you are ready to play by yourself or online.
I’ve never played Toy Soldiers on any other platform, so I was unfamiliar with the title. I thought it might be like playing with a plastic little green army guy on a game board, but I was wrong.
A neat twist on Toy Soldiers HD is to start with a bunch of infantry, but they seem intent on charging into enemy lines and are never seen again (too accurate). All you’re left with is deploying machine guns and mortars to ensure your side can withstand multiple waves of enemy infantry, cavalry, armor, etc. After a few waves, fight a boss. You can even
At the start of each level, an overview of the battlefield is displayed. This will show you the path taken by enemy units and the placement point of your weapon. Before the first wave of enemies comes, you have a budget and a little preparation time to get started. The game will let you know what kind of enemy you are about to face and will trumpet when the enemy starts attacking. If you’re ready for the next wave before it’s scheduled to launch, allow it to go ahead and you’ll be billed early. This will give you some bonus points.
Placing a cannon requires resources, but upgrading it requires even more resources. Things get even more interesting when you start with the venerable Vickers and Mortars. The game has several features, such as the standard bearer (the guy with the flag on your side) who gives you a boost on your side, and a sniper on his tower that lets you zoom in and take that one key shot of him. It has some great features. Another feature I love is being able to control a single weapon and handle the aiming and firing functions yourself, rather than waiting for the game to handle enemy units.
There are new weapons that can be unlocked as you progress to higher levels. Keep an eye on your resources (pun intended) as you may need to keep your coins to get your next new toy. With weapons like mustard gas and flamethrowers, collect coins and get ready to experiment. One of the complex realities and fictions in the game, which is both fun and useful, is that you can knock down trees with your mortar. It’s sad to see a perfectly healthy larch swoop down and fall, but now you can aim your enemies better. It sinks and disappears.
In single player mode, Toy Soldiers HD is a very good tower defense game, with new levels and layouts, new weapons and weapon types to use, powerful bosses, and great replayability. You can quickly tackle winning levels to earn more points. Even if you’ve played it before, there’s new content here (including some “experimental” levels) to keep things fun.
Playing online is a new level of fun and frustration in this game. please do not worry. The frustration I experienced was minor, but it tripled. First, connecting for private online play was a bit tricky and took me a while to figure out. There is an option for local multiplayer, but be aware that it is split screen. Second, I lost badly to my Pure Nintendo colleague Kirk Heiner. The third was jumping into a session where you had to pick things up as you went along. This leads to horrible, horrible consequences… such as losing to Kirk (oh, the pain).
Honestly, I really enjoyed the online sessions and learned a few things. For example, you have to launch your own attack waves, and doing this costs game currency. One of the advantages is that since it’s England vs. Germany, you can use some new weapons, including bombers. Be careful with combat resources. Some resources are “one-off” deals.
Toy Soldiers HD has an interesting look that juxtaposes almost realism with the image of a child’s playroom/toy box. It looks colorful and clear without trying too hard to be photorealistic or cartoonishly silly.
There is also nostalgia, but it is very limited. No one actually remembers World War I yet, but we can appreciate the whimsy of the setting as a counterpoint to the dire conditions of World War I. The controls are not as fast as the keyboard or mouse, but they all work well.
Now I have to go to bomber practice. I’ll pick you up, Kirk.
