I am a big fan of EA's Strike series (Desert Strike, Jungle Strike, etc.), so it was only natural that I would be drawn to the Air Combat series put out by The 3DO Company, since they are basically the same thing. Of course, this is only at the most basic of level, since the Strike games have proven to be much deeper than anything in the Air Combat series. This doesn't mean that the games haven't been enjoyable though, since they have proven to be rather good. Air Combat: Elite Missions doesn't quite live up to its lineage, but it is still fun for a game or two.

Graphics have never been a hallmark of the Army Men line, and Air Combat continues the tradition. The tagline for the series has always been 'Real Combat. Plastic Men.' The soldiers certainly look plastic, but so does everything else - even some of the items that aren't plastic, like gloves, apples, and baseball caps. For example, when you pick up a glove with your winch, you would expect it to droop a little (unless, of course, it's been sitting in the back alley of your Rockingham Estate). While this could certainly be attributed to the lack of physics in the Army Men universe (which is something I'll get into later), it came off as laziness.

Another sticky issue was the game's lack of scale. Since you're taking on the role of a toy, it's understandable that everything would be bigger than you. This is one of the more enjoyable aspects of the game. However, many of the things in Air Combat just don't match up. A prime example of this would be the missile-shooting dogs (yeah, I typed that right) that are smaller than their food bowl. To be more exact, they could fit in the food bowl. There are a few more instances of this that occur in the game, but why kick someone when they're down?

The soundtrack is your typical Army Men fare. Most of the in-game music is good and fits the style, but some of the other tracks (like the 'Mission Compete' score) are weak. The voice work is good, and is likely the most enjoyable part of the game. As with Army Men: RTS, it was great to see the influences of old war movies in the game's dialog. Although, it wouldn't be a bad idea to start finding some new movies to quote, since you can only hear 'I love the smell of plastic in the morning' so many times before it gets old.

Like the East Coast / West Coast rap battles, the never-ending conflict between the Tan and Green Armies rages on, and this time the battle is taking to the skies. The Green Army is running low on plastic, while the Tan Army has been able to tap into a large resource. At the helm of this influx of new plastic is the evil Baron Von Beige, a Darth Vader like henchman to General Plastro, and a top air ace (just like Snoopy) who has been able to massacre all of the Green Army's best airmen. The duty falls on Captain Blade and the Alpha Wolf Squadron to end the Baron's reign of the skies. The Captain's Mission takes him through 20 levels in order to win the war against the Tan Army and ground the Baron for good.

Each mission puts you, or you and a friend if you play the Co-op Mode, in one of five different helicopters, each with their own unique abilities and special weapons. The speedy King Cobra is the vehicle you will likely spend the most time in, while the Chinook and Osprey will allow you to carry bigger loads. Players who manage to stick the game out until the end will get the chance to fly the ultimate in modern day helicopter technology, the Apache. While it's always fun to blow things up with missiles and machine guns, there comes a time when you just want to humiliate your enemies. For these special moments, you'll be glad to have your winch. Though it is primarily used to grab power-ups, it's always fun to pick up a random object from the battleground and sling it at opposing forces. This is a great way to take out enemy bases, especially when you can get your hands on a large object like a baseball glove or Frisbee. Each of the game's four co-pilots also comes with their own special weapons for even more firepower.

I'm going to keep this short and to the point. Air Combat: Elite Missions is an easy game. I was able to waltz through the game in less than a day, and had to intentionally kill myself in order to check for the continue options (or at least see the Game Over screen). Veterans of the Air Combat or Strike games will easily beat Elite Missions while newcomers may take a level or two to settle into it.

Air Combat: Elite Missions plays about as well as it looks - which isn't much of a compliment. If one were to read the back of the box, they'd notice a bullet point announcing 'Amazing helicopter physics'. Actually, now that I look at it there are two bullet points that mention 'real-life physics'. If that's the case, then I hope that I never have the pleasure of visiting the Army Men universe (or their plastic version of the 'Real World'). First of all, there's an amazing lack of friction and gravity in the world. If you remember back to the 'Graphics' section, you'll see where I mentioned the absence of gravity, but the friction is a different story entirely. After picking items up with your winch you can swing them around by guiding your helicopter. The reaction of the winch line is generally pretty good, but once you throw the object, it lands on the ground and goes into a short, frictionless slide as if it were on a wet ice patch. This only gets worse when your see that the object doesn't roll or pitch in reaction to being thrown. Go ahead, throw an apple on the ground, I can guarantee it won't just slide on one side.

The control setup is pretty good, and works well with the game. My only complaint was the lack of an option to rotate the camera around your helicopter to get a better look at your surroundings. Although it's not a big problem, there was a few times where I was wishing I could look to the side and see who was shooting at me.

The Army Men series of games has never been hailed with much fanfare or glee from gamers. Okay, so gamers usually roll their eyes and give the game accolades usually reserved for Pauly Shore movies and Joe Lieberman. However, the Air Combat series has usually proven to be one of the diamonds in the rough. After outings on both Sony consoles, as well as the N64, the series is finally making its debut on the GameCube. Unfortunately, this 'diamond in the rough' still has a few flaws and doesn't make quite the impact it could have.