Little Soldiers Review

Written by: David Laprad Published: October 27, 2004 Peruse the shelves at any retail game store, and you'll find a seemingly endless array of war-themed titles. Hostilities between armies make a great starting point for games because of the intense life-or-death nature of the action on the battleground and the tactical maneuvering that goes on at the higher levels of command. It was only a matter of time, then, before the war theme invaded casual gaming. Enter Phelios' Little Soldiers, a wonderful puzzle offering for armchair generals who only have a few minutes to spare. In Little Soldiers, you must get one or more combatants to the exit. To do this, you give the tiny warriors a variety of commands - including walk, climb, jump, shoot and dig - that propel them over, across and through different obstacles. Each level contains a limited amount of resources, all of which your squad must gather before using. Little Soldiers offers two kinds of ammunition: bullets and rocket propelled grenades. Bullets are good for clearing soft targets such as planks and crates containing explosives; grenades are best reserved for more resilient objects such as stone blocks. Your warriors can also gather pick axes for digging through soft objects and bricks for building stairs. Little Soldiers is almost entirely mouse-driven, which makes it easy to pick up and play. To issue a command, you click on a soldier, after which an assortment of icons appears around the character indicating the actions he can take; click one of the icons, and your hero will show what a first-rate soldier he is when it comes to following orders. Snapping up resources is just as easy; walk across a pick axe, for example, and one will be added to your inventory at the bottom of the screen. Click on the axe in the inventory, and icons indicating potential targets will surround the chosen hero. The warriors can also push select blocks, climb on top of each other and set off chain reactions. So far, so easy, right? At least Little Soldiers starts out that way. Out of 36 levels, the first few act as a tutorial. Even after that, your commander gives you advice at the beginning of each map. For example, on the level titled "Teamwork," your leader tells you you’ll need to sacrifice one of three combatants. Little Soldiers uses its core gameplay elements to create clever puzzles that range from simple to challenging, but are never too difficult. With careful planning and a little experimentation, the average gamer should be able to solve every level. For instance, one map contains a row of bricks that supports a large number of boulders; my two warriors were at the bottom and the exit was at the top. It took me a few tries to figure out how to use the grenades and bullets I gathered to bring down the rocks while creating steps to the way out, but eventually, the light bulb above my head blinked on and illuminated the solution. Most of the levels contain a linear solution, although the devious minds at Phelios threw in a little misdirection here and there to keep you on your toes. Little Soldiers got its start as a Pocket PC game, so graphically, it's not going to knock off your socks. It plays in a small window, the animation is simple and everything you see is a two-dimensional sprite. That said, the artwork is charming and the side-scrolling perspective plays to the game's strengths. A full screen option would be nice, but other than that, I don't have a single complaint about the visuals. What's more, the music, with its drum corps rhythms and synthetic brass, fits the war theme well. Little Soldiers is one of those rare puzzle games that contain a perfect balance of gameplay elements and challenge. Plus, there are no enemies to kill, so it's kid-friendly if you're not opposed to exposing a child to the war theme. If you enjoy solving brain-teasers but don't like being stumped, then add Little Soldiers to your arsenal of entertainment. [Try Little Soldiers]