In Soviet Russia, Toybox Napalms You! (Toy Soldiers: Cold War Napalm and Evil Empire DLC)

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Signal Studios has come out with two pieces of DLC back-to-back for Toy Soldiers: Cold War, each providing players with a three-mission campaign, multiplayer map, mini-game, and the obligatory medals and achievements.

Napalm has soldiers pushing through the jungles of the Viet Cong in three different missions and focuses around having multiple bases to defend which is a nice twist.  In one case, the second base you need to defend is extremely out of the way and can only be reached by artillery and a tank.  In another level, it has several entrances which will have enemies flanking from multiple sides.  Players also have the opportunity to make use of the new Napalm barrage and a laser tank which are both somewhat satisfying modes of destruction.  Napalm also introduces the mini-game, “Hang Time,” which has players rescuing POWs from camps and ferrying them to safety within the time limit.

Evil Empire has players taking the field as the USSR fighting through missions where the enemy already has control of a good chunk of the map.  The first time I played this game, it took me a little while to notice the artillery at the back of the map which was constantly destroying my emplacements (I thought it was the overhead planes).  I found the Evil Empire missions more difficult than the Napalm counterparts and dread the idea of trying these on the Elite or General difficulty settings.  What is debatably the best addition, however, is the mini game, “Pop-a-Pig,” a spin on the classic Whack-a-Mole, allowing  players to take pot-shots at those capitalist piggy banks. Here, you’ll aim for those dollar-filled pigs and time extensions as they pop up on the board, while avoiding other targets, maximizing your score before the timer runs out.

The downside to both of these expansions is, unfortunately, the size of their campaigns.  Three missions (even including a boss on the third) just feels really small for what it is; you’re probably going to be able to play through them in about an hour unless you want to go back and attempt a perfect run-through or play on higher difficulties.  This can be somewhat balanced out by the new multiplayer maps for those playing multiplayer, but campaigners will probably be itching for more.

Overall, both DLCs breathe some life back into this game, letting fans continue to melt and blow up plastic soldiers to their hearts’ content.  Napalm and Evil Empire can be picked up on XBLA for 400MSP a piece.

Wanderson75.net gives these DLCs 4.75/5.0 for exploding dolls action figures.