Action Man: Search for Base X

Action Man is always ready for action -- with a name like that, he'd better be. With an arch-nemesis like the nefarious Dr. X, however, he'd also better be highly skilled and prepared for the fight of his life. From the mysterious Base X, Dr. X has developed a powerful new weapon with which to threaten the safety of the entire globe. Action Man will have to take some time off from his day job as an extreme athlete and scour the world searching for Dr. X and his base, doing all he can to acquire new action suits, assuring that he has the strength to put Dr. X down yet again before his weapon destroys humanity as we know it. In Action Man: Search for Base X, you take on the role of the titular hero as he searches for his most vicious enemy. It will, of course, be a globetrotting affair in this platform action game. Alex "Action" Mann will amass a variety of weapons to make up his arsenal, from a bow-and-arrow to powerful machine guns. He'll find his way to various locales in search of Dr. X and his weapon, places such as the jungle, an old mine shaft, Snow Mountain, ancient ruins, and a number of evil bases on Earth as well as beyond our atmosphere. One of the chief features of Action Man is the ability to dress the hero up in a number of different outfits, from SCUBA gear to Artic clothing, each suited for a different area and giving Action Man different abilities. You can find different outfits within the levels, as well, plus new weapons for you to render Dr. X's robot forces into a pile of scrap metal. The seven included levels are designed for multiple plays, with different objectives for each run through. Action Man also features a password save feature for you to record your progress.

Contorl Pad Left or Right = run left or right
Control Pad Up = climb ladder, grab vine or ladder
Control Pad Down = crouch
A Button = jump
B Button = fire weapon
Select Button = change weapons ~ Keith Adams, All Game Guide

Action Man, perhaps the most generic hero currently saving the lives of animated characters everywhere, has finally come to the portable market, with the suitably generic game title Action Man: Search for Base X. Developed by Natsume, Action Man is a platform game that possesses some adventure elements, including the option to customize your character's wardrobe. Ultimately, however, despite the additional features the gameplay offers, Search for Base X ends up being average, fitting in perfectly with its bland title and theme.

There is no real plot to speak of in Action Man beyond the typical story that would appear in the computer generated television show the game is based on. Action Man, sports hero by day and world hero by night, does anything and everything he can to stop Dr. X and his wicked plots, and that includes blowing up a horde of Dr. X's robot troopers. And in game terms, that means combing levels, looking for power-ups and destroying enemies in hopes of eventually getting to Base X so he can blow it up nicely.

The game itself involves running, shooting, and jumping, and is fairly simplistic in terms of play. The main problem with this game is its control. As it stands, they are very loose and touchy, with the kind of delayed reaction in jumping that becomes a real hassle in titles like this, where you're one slip-up away from falling into a bottomless pit. When a game only lets you perform a small variety of actions, it hurts when these actions don't feel sharp.

The weapons you begin with in Action Man: a pea-shooting handgun and a bow-and-arrow, are a sad, sad joke, and really are not effective in taking out the tremendous number of enemies that the game hurls at you. You won't really appreciate the arsenal of the game until much later, if you can play it that long, as you discover more methods of destruction, such as machine guns and grenades. Later in the game, in fact, the gameplay does manage to become a bit sharper for this very reason, but it is too bad that it feels like too little, too late by the time this happens.

Another important aspect of the game, at least apparently, is the ability to choose from a number of different outfits, from arctic clothing to SCUBA gear to regular old fighting clothes. The main problem with this is that neither the instruction booklet nor the game itself really explains what the outfits do, leaving it up to you to figure it out along the way. Once you do, things start making sense, and you'll find you can wear different outfits in the levels to accomplish different things. This is certainly a nice aspect to Action Man, but it would have been better in conjunction with stronger gameplay.

The visual appeal of Action Man is fairly cut-and-dry, with some of the usual suspects making their appearances in the make-up of the levels (yes, more jungles, ruins, snow levels, and secret bases), and while they all look fairly decent, none of them stand out. Similar to this is the music, which is merely a passable part of the game and in no way meets the lofty standards that Action Man fails to shoot for.

If you're a big fan of action in any form or variety, you might want to give Action Man: Search for Base X a try. It does manage to pack some action in its seven levels, but that action is fairly repetitive, bland, and ultimately it leaves a lot to be desired. ~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide