Team Buddies is a truly twisted game. The object is to help these squat, cartoonish 3-D buddies collect colorful crates and bring them back to their designated crate depot. Inside those crates, however, is a variety of weapons, vehicles, and personnel to help wage war against other buddy armies. You'll see several different buddy types--medic, cyborg, commando, spy, each with different abilities--as well as 32 playgrounds in eight different areas. As if that weren't enough, you'll also have to contend with a variety of bizarre barnyard animals that will try to attack you or steal your crates. Though you don't need a buddy to play Team Buddies--there are over 60 missions against a computer opponent--the game supports up to four players in a split screen, thanks to the separately sold Multi Port accessory and extra controllers. Battles are viewed in the third-person perspective, with a binocular mode for the true tactician.
Review
Once upon a time in Buddy land, all the Buddies frolicked together in the simplicity of peace and harmony. However, such innocence could not last. A giant moon fell from the sky, delivering unto the Buddies crates of unknown origin. The red and blue crates contained weapons, which the Buddies had never known before. The introduction of weapons brought chaos to their world, separating the Buddies into color-based factions, enveloping them in a brutal war. This is the plot of Midway's Team Buddies, an eight world romp of hands-on warfare, block stacking, and RTS-style resource management. Team Buddies is standard in what it offers: eight worlds of mission-based warfare across 64 total missions. There's a variety of four-player multiplayer options as well, such as deathmatch, capture the flag, and domination, and continual progress may be saved to a single block of a PlayStation memory card. Stack blocks to enlist new soldiers, complete all 64 missions, and unlock all of the multiplayer features, and you've cracked the game.
Thankfully, Team Buddies' gameplay experience is a bit more interesting than its features. Team Buddies wraps three gameplay styles into a single overhead-viewpoint game. On the surface, your goal is to protect your base while eliminating the enemy's stronghold. To do so, switch between your armed Buddies, kill your enemies, and accomplish any tasks the game calls for. The control scheme uses every button of the controller, and while it seems easy in theory, it's difficult in practice. The D-pad maneuvers your Buddy, X shoots, and the other buttons control Buddy swaps, team commands, and object manipulation. Keeping track of four Buddies while performing three or more maneuvers at once is painfully confusing, though, and poorly suited to an action game. Should you need to gather improved weapons or increase your ranks, the game's second gameplay facet comes into play: block stacking. Mysterious blocks perpetually drop from the sky during each level, containing any number of weapons and health power-ups. By bringing them back to your base and stacking them, you can earn even stronger weapons or create new soldiers to send into battle. Depending on the shapes you create, commandos, ninjas, and medics may join your team. Be warned, your enemy is busy performing the same tasks. The final gameplay element Team Buddies incorporates is that of object gathering. Each mission, though offering a series of major goals, asks that you complete minor goals as well, such as waste disposal, weapon component gathering, or hostage freeing. As you attempt to kill your enemy and build up your forces, you must also wander the arena to accomplish these goals. If this sounds fun, it isn't. Block stacking is too time consuming, your CPU-controlled teammates are useless, and repeatedly killing the same jelly bean-style enemies is horribly boring. The storyline is amusing, and the plot twists portray a rather interesting outlook on the psychological effects of warfare, but this game is just too uninterestin
#playstation1 #ps1 #teambuddies
0 Comments