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By Contributing Writer Jimmy Payne Rating: Awesome Toy Commander wasn't something that I was expecting to like, but after only a few short hours, the game won me over with its originality, gameplay, and variety of missions. Toy Commander's music is nice and up-beat, but it's a little too subtle for my tastes. Sometimes I don't even realize that music is playing unless I turn the volume up or stop firing my weapons. Still, I'll take soft and good music over loud and annoying music any day. The graphics are disappointing at first, but if you take a good look you'll notice that all the rooms are incredibly detailed and littered with things that you can interact with. In fact, almost everything in every room can be blown up, moved, or shot at in order to trigger some kind of interesting sequence. This includes everything from sink faucets to yogurt cans to little plastic sheep that ignite into flames and then blow up when you shoot them. Toy Commander's control is almost perfect. The only complaint I can think of is that sometimes a slight twitch of the thumb can throw you way off course, but even this problem disappears once you adjust to the control stick's sensitivity. One notable control feature is the use of the right trigger button for the accelerator. The harder you push the trigger, the faster your vehicle will go, and you can't hold the button all the way down all the time or you'll be going too fast for your own good and more than likely run into a wall. One of the best things about Toy Commander is how the different scenarios are mixed up so that you'll never get bored of playing the same kind of scenario over and over again. This is much more enjoyable than the standard formula of five times in a row for one type of scenario, then four times for another type of scenario, and so on until you get to the final boss and beat the game. The missions themselves are very fun, ranging from simple racing with toy cars to flying a plane while trying to blow up submarines. It's also cool that you get new weapons and power-ups as you progress through the game. Playing Toy Commander with friends is even more fun than playing it alone. You can play with two, three, or four players, and no matter how many players there are, there is almost no slowdown. Rather than playing in arenas that are just barren fields with a few mountains in them like you do in other games like Star Fox 64, Toy Commander lets you play in the single-player levels, which are extremely detailed and loaded with objects. This creates a lot of strategic games and loads of memorable matches. It's a shame that there aren't any online capabilities. Most people will take one look at Toy Commander and label it a kiddie game almost immediately. If you're able to look past this outward appearance, you'll discover a thoroughly entertaining game that every Dreamcast owner should at least try. Send your thoughts on this review to jimmy@mastergamer.com
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