''Toy Soldiers'' is an

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

and

strategy video game Strategy is a major video game genre that emphasizes thinking and planning over direct instant action in order to achieve victory. Although many types of video games can contain strategic elements, as a genre, strategy games are most commonly defi ...

developed by

Signal Studios ''Signal Studios'' is a developer of both video games and interactive software applications. The studio was founded by industry veterans, with experience working at some of the world's top studios and publishers, combining many years of knowledge ...

released on

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...

on March 3, 2010. It is featured in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview Store. It has been available since February 29, 2012, debuting alongside the Windows 8 Consumer Preview beta release. The game was officially released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

on April 27, 2012. A high-definition port, published by Accelerate Games, was released on October 21, 2021, for

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

, and Microsoft Windows.

Gameplay

Players control one of two armies of miniature toy soldiers on a

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

model

diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...

with wooden and plastic landscapes. The diorama is set in various locations, such as a child's bedroom, library and lounge, and objects such as dressers and reading lamps are occasionally visible in the background. The game features 50 different controllable units including machine guns, mortars and tanks, with the fixed emplacements being upgradable to more powerful versions. Players can create and control numerous units from a strategic command perspective or individual units on the field from a third-person action perspective. They can also command fixed emplacements that they create such as howitzers, mortars, and machine guns, or drive various vehicles such as tanks, biplanes, and bombers. When the player takes control of a single unit, the other emplacements are automatically controlled by

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

. When shot, the toy soldiers explode into plastic chunks but do not display blood, in order to keep the game family-friendly. A

tower defense Tower defense (TD) is a subgenre of strategy games where the goal is to defend a player's territories or possessions by obstructing the enemy attackers or by stopping enemies from reaching the exits, usually achieved by placing defensive struc ...

-style single-player campaign is available, which involves defending a base from

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

soldiers. The player receives money for destroying enemies, which can be used to equip greater defenses. The single-player game features British and German campaigns among 24 unique levels. Once a campaign is finished, the player unlocks

Survival Mode Survival mode, or horde mode, is a game mode in a video game in which the player must continue playing for as long as possible without dying in an uninterrupted session while the game presents them with increasingly difficult waves of challenges. ...

, which involves fighting continuous streams of enemies to last as long as possible. There are four difficulty settings. Multiplayer is also available (Xbox only), and can be played online over Xbox LIVE or locally with two-player split-screen. In multiplayer games, the player must focus on waging offensives as well as defending the base. Scores are tracked and compared in Xbox LIVE leaderboards.

Development

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

anticipated ''Toy Soldiers'' would be one of the biggest Xbox Live Arcade releases of the year. Microsoft officials compared the game to the ''

Battlefield A battlefield, battleground, or field of battle is the location of a present or historic battle involving ground warfare. It is commonly understood to be limited to the point of contact between opposing forces, though battles may involve troops ...

'' game franchise and

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, turn ...

games, but designed to be more easily accessible. A playable version of ''Toy Soldiers'' was spotlighted at the 2010

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. The music acquired for ''Toy Soldiers'' includes ''

Goodbye, Dolly Gray "Goodbye, Dolly Gray" is a music hall song, with lyrics by American Will D. Cobb and music by American Paul Barnes, first published in 1897 by the Morse Music Publishing Company ( Theodore F. Morse). The song was the publishers' first hit. His ...

'' and ''She May Have Seen Better Days'', which play during the opening credits and main menu. Five other pieces were composed by Stan LePard for the game; two of these, ''The Sailor's Life for Me'' and ''There's a Candle Burning Bright'', also play during the opening credits. ''Toy Soldiers'' was released for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade on March 3, 2010. On March 9, 2011, concurrent with their announce of ''Toy Soldiers: Cold War,'' Signal Studios announced their intent to release ''Toy Soldiers'' on the PC. The PC release was on April 27, 2012. On February 12, Microsoft released a companion

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

game called ''Toy Soldiers: Match Defense'', in which users and their friends match items to collectively win countries and conquer

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Downloadable content

''The Kaiser's Battle'' is the first downloadable content pack for ''Toy Soldiers''. The pack adds several new features: French Army skins for all units, two new units exclusive to the French Army, a French mini-campaign featuring three single-player levels and the "German

K-Wagen The ''Großkampfwagen'' or "K-Wagen" (short for ''G.K.-Wagen'') was a German super-heavy tank, two prototypes of which were almost completed by the end of World War I. History In June 1917, before the first A7V tanks had been completed, the Ger ...

" boss, two new multiplayer maps, a new Survival Mode map and three achievements. The pack was released for purchase on June 30, 2010. ''Invasion!'' is the second and final downloadable content pack for ''Toy Soldiers''. The pack adds a new three-level mini-campaign including the "RoboBob" boss, two new multiplayer maps, a new Survival Mode map and three achievements. The player will take control of the German Army to fight off new British secret weapons, including Spacemen, Fire Trucks, Space Tanks, Chivalrous Knights, Flying Saucers, and

P-51 Mustang The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in April 1940 by a team headed by James ...

s. The pack was released for purchase on September 29, 2010.

Sequels

''Toy Soldiers: Cold War'' was announced by Signal Studios on March 9, 2011, as the follow-up sequel to ''Toy Soldiers.'' The game takes an interpretive look into what might have happened had

military aggression A war of aggression, sometimes also war of conquest, is a military conflict waged without the justification of self-defense, usually for territorial gain and subjugation. Wars without international legality (i.e. not out of self-defense nor sanc ...

escalated in the 1980s. ''Toy Soldiers: Cold War'' features a blend of third-person action and strategy similar to the original ''Toy Soldiers.'' It was released August 17, 2011, as part of Microsoft's 2011 Summer of Arcade promotion. ''Toy Soldiers: War Chest'' was released on August 11, 2015, for Windows,

and

HD remastered version

A HD remastered version of game, ''Toy Soldiers HD'' was announced and released on October 21, 2021, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows, and for the

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

released on December 31, 2022. The game was published by Accelerate Games.

Reception

Early reports of ''Toy Soldiers'' were generally positive. ''

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...

'' writer Matt Miller said, "My early glimpse of the game has me pretty stoked." Matt Casamassina of

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

wrote, "Frankly, the title is a lot of fun, inventive and polished. ..The style is great and the blend of fantasy with authenticity drives home the theme that despite all the carnage, these battles aren't real." GameZone writer Dakota Grabowski gave the game an 8/10, saying "''Toy Soldiers'' is a brilliant way to kick start Microsoft's concentration on Xbox Live Arcade titles for the month of March. Signal Studios deserve a pat on the back for creating a unique tower defense title that sets itself apart from the rest of the pack." The game received a

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

score of 81 between 40 tracked critics. On February 11, 2011, ''Toy Soldiers'' received a nomination for Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year from the

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...

, competing against '' StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty'' (eventual winner), '' Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Chaos Rising'', ''

Civilization V ''Sid Meier's Civilization V'' is a 4X video game in the ''Civilization'' series developed by Firaxis Games. The game was released on Microsoft Windows on September 21, 2010, on OS X on November 23, 2010, and on Linux on June 10, 2014. In ''C ...

'' and '' Supreme Commander 2''. As of October 2010, ''Toy Soldiers'' has sold over 429,000 copies. As of year-end 2010, ''Toy Soldiers'' has moved more than 471,000 units, with its downloadable content selling in excess of 66,000 units collectively. ''Toy Soldiers'' was noted as the top selling Xbox LIVE Arcade game title of 2010. As of year-end 2011 sales exceeded 615,000 units on the Xbox 360, with the downloadable content collectively moving over 100,000 units.

References

External links

Toy Soldiers
at xbox.com
Developer website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toy Soldiers (Video Game) 2010 video games Action games Microsoft games Strategy video games Tower defense video games Video games about toys Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Video games developed in the United States World War I video games Xbox 360 Live Arcade games Xbox 360 games Xbox One games Windows games Games for Windows Multiplayer and single-player video games Sentient toys in fiction Split-screen multiplayer games Signal Studios games