The standard turret types are still present: machine gun, anti-tank, anti-air, artillery. While the essential Toy Soldiers recipe is intact, Cold War adds a number of flourishes. The AI is competent enough in managing your turrets, but nothing beats hopping into the gunner’s seat to mow down enemies yourself. And the unique tension that mechanic fosters, the challenge of balancing macro-level management of your defenses with micro-level control of individual units, still makes for exciting play. The remarkable innovation of the first game-allowing you to jump right into the action by taking control of units, thus breaking the reactive mold of most tower defense games-is unchanged. It’s easy to once again slip into the mindset of a kid playing with action figures.Ĭold War is the latest entry in a welcome trend: sequels that improve on their predecessors while preserving the core formula that made the originals successful. The world outside the battlefield-a young boy’s bedroom-is now littered with floppy disks, boomboxes, and other ‘80s paraphernalia. The game’s riffs on Reagan-era staples like Rambo and Top Gun are immediately endearing. The tone is pitch-perfect: from the red-white-and-blue fighter jet exhaust to the synth-heavy soundtrack, Cold War feels like a G.I. This time around, the backdrop is a flashy, tongue-in-cheek recreation of the long-running U.S.-Soviet conflict-as filtered through the stereotypes of an ‘80s action movie. Like its WWI-themed predecessor, Cold War is a twist on the tower defense genre in which plastic armies face off for control of a toy box battlefield. It transcends its gimmick.Īt first glance, Signal Studios’ recent Xbox Live Arcade release Toy Soldiers: Cold War might look similarly gimmicky. But Mahaffey’s knack for catchy hooks, funky harmonies, and effects wizardry make Gizmodgery stand on its own as a rock album, not merely as a novelty.

You’d think that conceit would be a recipe for disaster for any rock musician worth his salt, a one-way ticket to Weird Al territory.

Every song was recorded exclusively with toy instruments, such as you’d find on the shelves of your local Toys“R”Us. As gimmick records go, the 2000 album Gizmodgery by Matt Mahaffey’s band Self is one of the best.

Small soldiers game boy controls