Toy Soldiers
Publisher: Signal Studios
Developer: MGS
Platforms: Xbox 360 
Release Date: March 3rd, 2010

Story
“Put your foot soldiers, snipers, cavalry, and fighter pilots to the test in Toy Soldiers. Poised to be a smash hit on Xbox LIVE® Arcade, Toy Soldiers is an action-packed strategy-based game in which players command antique WWI toy soldiers vying for control of the trench-filled battlefields of Europe. Deploy an exciting arsenal such as tanks, cavalry, biplanes, and flamethrowers in vintage WWI toy dioramas. Developed by Signal Studios exclusively for Xbox 360, Toy Soldiers allows you to take control of individual units or control the entire battlefield from a strategic view. Integrating multiple game genres and world-class visuals, Toy Soldiers is a unique and action-packed entertainment experience!” [via Xbox.com]

Remember when you were a kid, and you used to play with toy soldiers. Well Toy Soldiers lets you reenact those good old days without the need to clean up all of the soldiers afterwards.  The only disappointment is the inability to kick over your enemy’s base and army after you lose.

Take command of your army as you defend yourself in the campaign that reenacts classic WWI battles. After you are done with WWI battle your friends over Xbox live or on the couch in verses.

Gameplay
Toy soldiers is an overloaded tower defense game. The base gameplay comprises of you setting up defensive units to keep the enemy soldiers from reaching your toy box. You can upgrade your units but can only place the units in specific locations placed on your side of the field. Think of a tower defense game and now give yourself the ability to control certain defensive units. You have now just pictured Toy Soldiers.

Upgrade your defensive units to increase their power, and defend against multiple waves of enemy units. Control your defensive units to use your advanced shooting skills to mow down the enemy waves or control the entire field from a bird’s eye perspective all while attempting to keep your toy box safe.

Every kill you get will give you a certain amount of money in order to buy more defensive units as well as barb wire. Multiple kills after each other will get you multiplier bonuses and give you even more money.

Once a certain amount of people get past your defenses and into your toy box, you lose. Different levels have different amounts of people that can break through before losing. Use your defensive units and barb wire to stop all types of enemy units and survive every wave to beat a level.

Multiplayer
Multiplayer is available for online 1v1, or local split screen 1v1. No matter what the combat will always be 1v1 though. The gameplay in verses changes slightly. While in campaign you simply defend, in verses you defend as well as attack.

Y lets you create vehicles to attack with, and depending on the level you are on, determines which vehicles you can choose from. It could be tanks, biplanes, or even agile horses.

The only main problem with the multiplayer is two good players can keep a game going on forever, and there isn’t really anyway for either side to gain the upper hand. While on the other hand, if either player is clearly better than the other there isn’t any way for the worse player to stand a chance.

Audio
The soundtrack is comprised of music that feels like WWI. Even though you are fighting using toy soldiers, the game partially reenacts scenes from classic wars. The music simply helps to push the effect completely through.

The sound effects are also nice. All the weapons sound heavy when firing them, the heaviness kind off pulls you out of the feel that you are in a toy box playing with toy soldiers, but it doesn’t really matter since it is still a fun game.

Achievements
The Achievements in Toy Soldiers are based mostly within the campaign, and will require you to play on harder settings as well as getting certain scores. If you are good at tower defense games, the achievements in this game should be pretty easy. A few may take a while though, such as beating every level with a general rank.

There are also 2 avatar awards in Toy Soldiers.
A gas mask for buying the game.
A German helmet for beating the game.

The Achievement List is:

• Jumped the bags: Complete level 1.
• Old Contemptible: Defeat Tsar Tank.
• Flying Pig: Defeat Zeppelin.
• Old Sweat: Defeat Uber Tank.
• Coffin Nails: Complete the Campaign.
• Foot Slogger: Earn General Rank on any level.
• Pickled Monkey: Win a Multiplayer Match on every level.
• Throw a Seven: Complete any level in Elite mode.
• Pip, Squeak & Wilfred: Survive until Round 5.
• Fire in the hole: Guide a shell to its destination.
• Sweet Fancy Adams: Earn General Rank on all Campaign levels.
• Brass Hat: Complete Campaign+ and earn all Ration Tickets.

Overview
Toy soldiers is an extremely fun tower defense game, but it is still only a tower defense game. The ability to control certain units is what makes this tower defense game stand out. A majority of you game won’t be spent building defenses, but rather upgrading your current units and jumping from one to the next to use your superior shooting abilities to mow down the enemies rushing you. I give Toy Soldiers 8 Capsules out of 10.

Pros

• Split screen verses leads to fun on the couch games with family and friends.
• The ability to control your units makes this tower defense game stand out.
• Multiple difficulties and bonus objective for extra hours of play time.

Cons

• Two good players in verses mode leads to a game that will never end due to any chance to gain the upper hand.
• Once you get your units placed, the remaining of the match is usually played out in control of only one unit.
• Lack of options.

Source