Short Version: Toy Soldiers is a fun WWI-themed tower defense game that will appeal to fans and newcomers of the genre alike. You would be hard-pressed to find a better gaming experience for 1200 Microsoft points ($15.00).

Signal Studios' newest Xbox Live Arcade title, Toy Soldiers, is a unique tower-defense game that features those plastic-toy soldiers you may remember from your childhood. The game replicates the trench warfare of World War I and takes place on a diorama in a child's bedroom. The main combatants are the English and the Germans, but some other WWI countries also make an appearance.

In keeping with the children's theme, the combatants merely break apart when killed or destroyed, and the game is devoid of any blood or gore, making the title as family friendly as any war game could possibly be. If you're a war buff, you won't find historical accuracy or realism here. However, you will find one of the most fun and addictive Xbox Live Arcade titles available today.

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Single-Player Campaign

The gist of Toy Soldiers is to defend your Toy Box (or base) from waves of attacking troops. Let too many troops past your defenses and you lose the battle. As with any tower-defense game, placement of your units is critical to your success. In Toy Soldiers, you are limited to placing your stationary weaponry in predetermined fixed locations, which may irk some experienced tower-defense gamers. However, you can install barbed wire on most paths or roads, so if placed properly, you can funnel your enemies right into your units (or cause them to become sitting ducks). The barbed wire is also useful for blocking the main entry to your Toy Box.

Weapon units in the game include machine guns, mortars, howitzers, anti-aircraft weapons, and chemical weapons. As you would expect, each weapon has strengths and weaknesses, so placement and utilizing them at the proper moments are the keys to success.

What makes this game different from some other tower-defense games, which offer only a passive experience, is that you can take control of the various stationary weaponry at your disposal and individual vehicles, including a Red Baron-like bi-plane, bombers, and tanks. In fact, controlling these units directly is usually more effective than the AI. While individually controlling most units is fairly simple, air combat requires a little more patience. The bi-planes' controls are a little cumbersome, but they make sense given that you are flying a low-tech bi-plane with a machine gun mounted on front. Players can also make use of snipers, but I did not find this unit particularly useful during my playthrough of the campaign.

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As you progress through the game, you will unlock upgrades for your weapon types that will allow you to increase their range or damage output. Additionally, you'll find all of your unlocked weapons in your Display Case, where you can review their potency.

Each enemy unit that you destroy will earn you money so that you can either buy, upgrade, or repair weapon stations. You will also need money in order to place barbed wire. Hitting a series of enemies in a row can result in a multiplier, which will earn you cash quicker. Destroying the enemy's stationary weaponry will allow you install your own weapons in their place.

The single-player campaign mode offers 24 levels, each featuring a distinct battlefield and objective. Some levels will focus on tank battles and dogfights, while others will be an all out blitz. On certain levels during the final wave of enemies, you will have to prevent a boss such as the Uber Tank or The Zeppelin from reaching your Toy Box. Additionally, at the beginning of each level, players will be presented with a special objective, which if completed, grants players a Ration Ticket that can be redeemed for special in-game camera effects.

Click to continue to page 2 for the rest of our review of Toy Soldiers

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The single-player campaign offers amazingly addictive gameplay. The controls are fairly straightforward and can be mastered during the game's tutorial. During the action, you have the option of using a third-person camera angle, which is useful while controlling individual units, or an aerial vantage point, which lets you get a quick fix on the location of your opponent's units.

Upon finishing the main campaign, you can play a "Campaign+" mode, which plays from the vantage point of the Germans and their allies, or Survival mode where you must protect your Toy Box from invasion from wave after wave of enemies.

On the Casual, Normal, and Hard difficulty settings, players can opt to either manipulate multiple units or control an individual unit and allow the AI to control the rest of your army. However, when set to Elite difficulty, which must be unlocked, you're totally on your own since your units will not fire unless they are being used. The Elite setting is very challenging and should please hardcore gamers.

Multiplayer

Unlike many tower games, Toy Soldiers offers a multiplayer mode as well, which can be played both online and on the same console via split screen. In this mode, not only do you have to defend your Toy Box, but you also must simultaneously launch an offensive attack against your opponent. There are five scenarios included with the game, which focus on a specific type of combat, i.e. tanks, aircraft, or all-out blitz. Variables for each battle can also be modified such as the goal (amount of units that enter the opponent's Toy Box), beginning cash, weapons restrictions, unit AI, and whether any of the vehicles can be driven. The multiplayer mode almost feels like a real-time strategy game sans the ability to directly control offensive units (not including the planes or tanks). While the multiplayer is not quite as compelling as the single-player campaign, it still offers a great experience for those who would like to compete against human opponents.

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Graphics

The art style and overall graphics in Toy Soldiers are much more impressive than what you routinely see in other tower games or even other Xbox Live Arcade titles. The weapon units are detailed enough that you can quickly tell them apart during the heat of battle. Signal Studios also included quirky little details, such as the wind-up keys in the tanks, that make the game visually appealing. Even the room outside of the diorama is displayed during gameplay.

Even with all of the action on screen, I never encountered a noticeable drop in frame rate. There are some camera issues every now and then, especially when controlling the aircraft, and I did see the "great void" underneath the bottom of the diorama on rare occasions, but neither proved to be much of a detriment to the gameplay. Toy Soldiers has definitely raised the visual bar for this genre.

Conclusion

I've never been a big fan of tower-defense games as most tend to be tedious and frustrating experiences, but Toy Soldiers is a definite exception. For $15.00, this title is well worth the cost as it provides hours and hours of fast-paced and enjoyable gameplay.

Toy Soldiers is now exclusively available on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live.