Team Buddies (PSX)

Last year on same date, i wrote TankForce review. That means...wear your party, blow the horn, and throw confetti, everyone! It's this site's 1st birthday! By the way, throw the confetti in your mind only, please! I don't want you to clean up the mess because of this petty celebration. Thus i celebrate it with make an article about game that can be considered obscure gem: Team Buddies (2000).  

Team Buddies was made by Psygnosis. I know that Psygnosis's products are mostly not good, like Shadow of The Beast. But this one is one of the exception. By the way, i play it with CD that i bought long time ago.

 

Yes, i don't use PS1 ROM/virtual CD. I use the real ones. It's in thin case and still works well in my emulator. I heard that Team Buddies real CD is considered to be rare. That means, it values high price if sold. But i won't sell it, no matter how high anyone can offer because i'm very proud of it. Also because i'm arrogant person.  

 

Before we jump into the action, i should narrate its backstory. The capsular race called buddies are once peaceful funky dancers that keen on discotheque music. Everyone is happy party-goers.

 

Until there's mass crate drop. One crate lands perfectly on this guy and killed him. Unhappy with that, the purple buddy kicks the crate...

...to reveal a bazooka. Like some primitive monkeys that are curious about hi-tech stuff, the buddies act the same. You shouldn't examine that thing in that end, mate!

 

The purple one is accidently killed. Then a red buddy opens other crate to get an Uzi. Both red one and blue one blast each other and get killed at the same time.

 

Soon the buddies know other pleasure than swing their body under funky music: killing each other with deadly weapon. This make the buddies separated based on their color and kill anyone that has different color than theirs. That's pretty much violent racism. In single player mode you will control the buddies who work under government to restore order. So you're quite good guy there. I have completed the game 100%. So i will show you some run-down of the missions on Single player. Here goes...

World 1 - Mission 1: Battle Hill

 

The default control: direction pad to move, square button to attack or grab/put crate, cross button to jump, circle button to enter vehicle/turret or kick crate, and triangle button to switch buddy that you control. While L2 button to issue build order, L1 button to issue combat order, R2 to use binocular, and lastly R1 to strafe or lock on a target. It's on VR training (which is equivalent to tutorial), by the way. As i'm veteran on this game, I don't need to go through that, my muscle memory is enough to make me back in action from one-and-half-years hiatus. This mission is Skirmish type ones. If you don't familiar with the term that often found in most Real-Time Strategy game, it's basically a map/mission where you and your opponent are more or less on the same ground and there's no special objective. Just eliminate all enemies to win! The basic of building: in some place there's red crate drop periodically. Take the crate to stacking pad (which is square pad with size of 2 X 2 and with your corresponding color) to build weapons, buddies, or vehicles. One crate on stacking pad will produce light-tier weapon, 2 crates that are build side by side will produce grenade-tier weapon, 2 crates that are build on top of another will produce low-tier Buddy, 4 crates that are build side by side will produce heavy-tier weapon, 4 crates that are build on top of another will produce high-tier Buddy, and 8 crates building will produce vehicle. If you have finished build crate for weapon/extra buddy/vehicle, give it a kick and you produce something.

 

My advice to win this mission or any skirmish-type mission: use "Blitzkrieg" strategy which is armed your Buddy with Heavy-tier weapon ASAP and immediately seek enemies. Building for too long will most likely makes you lose, because there's time-limit to obey. Destroying enemy's base is quite good idea as it will prevent your enemy to build-up and you will get power-up from its wreckage.

World 2 - Mission 2: Country Ville

 

My mission is to return a farmer's tractor and kill the culprits. In this map there's geyser that can launch me to other place. Wheee!

 

My "Blitzkrieg" strategy works well so far. The enemy here has huge mistake: wearing a grenade-tier weapon. More often than not, it bounces and explode away from the target. On the other hand, i have Gatling gun that excel at dealing constant damage and knockback-lock the target. There's a big flaw on A.I both enemy and ally has when its health is low (indicated by big-sweat spurts), it will goes panic. It stops fighting back and hurriedly seek free crate to get more health. I forget to mention if you break crate that's not on stacking pad you will reveal either a heart (that restore 10 health) or a bullet (that add ammo by 15). While the enemy panics, you can finish it easily.

 

I have finished all of the yellow buddies. It's the orange one's turn. They leave the turret near their base unmanned. Wait! I mean unbuddied. By using the turret, i can conserve my ammo reserve to kill enemies. It also shoots rocket that has decent damage and explosion radius. I can win this with no problem.

 

Well i was too overconfident. Now i'm cornered. Not only the enemy outnumber me (with same weapon), but also they're medics. There's several different type of buddy in this game: 1) Infuntry which is the standard one (like i'm) 2) Commando which has more health and movement speed than Infuntry 3) Medic which has slightly more health than infuntry but has health regeneration ability 4) Ninja which is the fastest and jump the highest 5) Stealthy which has cloaking ability 6) Cyborg which has the highest health and immune to burn and squished 7) Super Buddy which has the same health with Cyborg and can shoot laser from his eyes but unable refuse to use any weapon, vehicle, or turret. So you can guess that Medics here are more resistant to "Panic" status. At least there's shield power-up (which grants me temporary invincibility) within tree that i destroyed so i can run safely from them.

 

Somehow i can dispatch them one by one. Now that there's no more enemy i can retrieve the stolen tractor there. While using binocular, my buddy will stand still and i can see farther within certain radius. Also i can order my other buddy more specific this way. As i'm all alone, i don't use this extra benefit from binocularing here.

 

The farmer will be happy that i return his tractor. But i can't guess what's his feeling with the raging bull that come along with me here.

World 3 - Mission 1: A-Nile-ation

 

This is one of the difficult mission. I have to score more than the enemies within time limit. To gain score you have to occupy ankh that all over the map and it will grant you score income whenever it didn't change ownership within certain time. At least the crate content is interesting here: flamethrower for heavy-tier weapon! I'm pyro. So you know why. :p

 

The strategy to win this mission: gather enough buddy to build weapon and later told them to defend while i take the ankhs and kill everyone in my way preferably as Ninja. he seems perfect for this strategy. Should any team lost all of their buddy, a low-tier buddy will respawn near its base so there's no total dead end in this mission.  

World 4 - Mission 2: Nursery Crime

 

Our group found troubled Bo Peep. Her sheep escaped and her friend Little Red have been confined in the oven on Gingerbread house by local witch. So my mission: rescue Little Red and return the sheep. What? The mission called Nursery Crime for nothing, you know. By the way there's one group enemy: yellow buddies. I swiftly told my team-mate to take over the unoccupied turret thus enemies get dispatched quite easily. Time to herd the sheep.  

1,2. Wait! Where's the 3rd one?

 

There you are, you undisciplined wool. The briefing said that if it doesn't follow you. Give it a slap. Time for disciplinary fist!

 

Alas! It  moves away from the pen. I try to punch it to the point it's dying but not working. Fine. I'll restart. 3:

 

Saving all the sheep is secondary objective. But once it's fulfilled, a Megacrate that has color black-yellow, will fall from the sky. Megacrate contains something that you can't build in current mission. So it can be considered very valuable. If only i can reach it that is. Ordinary crate can be used as makeshift platform. But i can't seem to get up there even though i have jump from it so....oh i did it! By the way, the real threat not come from enemy buddies, it's from wolves as you can see one of them on left side. They respawn when killed and they're treated as neutral unit by ally that they don't immediately engage them. My friend only fight back when he's gnawed first and that's really bad if he's armed with rocket launcher that can harm the user in close range.      

 

Inside the Megacrate: Multi-Orb gun that can shoot slow-moving orbs that make huge explosion in contact, in usual spread pattern. With it can destroy the gingerbread in a jiff. But it seems the witch isn't there so i can't punish her. What a pity. Soon i have to escort the lady to my base. You don't think buddies race only consist of male, do you? The red riding here is the prove that there's female amongst them. Just look at her.

She's so beautiful. Like a dream, huh?

World 5 - Mission 2: Herdy Birdy

 

There's 2 enemy teams here: Yellow and Orange. I only build power-orb gun for myself. No extra buddies. No Vehicle. Just the strongest gun here. In this map, there's ice turret that i can use to kill enemy. Ice shoot will make enemy frozen. Not the kind of abnormal status that make the bearer unable to move at all. He can still move normally, but any hit from other weapon than freeze ray, will make him shatters. Immediately kill him. Sounds horrible, right? Actually, on my first attempt i got shattered that way. It's horrid, indeed.

 

Now that the enemies are all gone, here comes the essential yet the hardest part: Herding this unflyable birds. I was bit surprised about that 1 sheep is hard to escort. On the other hand... 

 

...i know too well that these penguins really tedious to herd. They move back and forth in long distance. So it happens often that one or more of them got separated from convoy chain. See! 2 of them are out of radar's range, already.

 

Also it's quite frequently they don't follow you at all. And would you look at that! There's time limit for this mission. Very tight ones on top of that. Initially you got 6 mins but it's reduced to 5 mins 58 secs because of your buddy posing first before he can be controlled entirely. Great, huh?

 

Just get in here. Quickly! All of you! Dammit! I know you're not penguins of Madagascar. But at least be more obedient and do less unnecessary movement! For the sake of all of us! It's miracle that i only need to retry twice in escorting attempt before finish the mission successfully here. Herdy Birdy is simply the most difficult mission in this game. Why i do this mission you ask? Of course. For you, readers!

World 8 - Mission 4: Boss-A-Nova

 

What's more proper last mission that i review except the Final boss fight? This big robot is Mega Mech. By the looks of it, you can already tell that it's frightening enemy. Why yes, indeed. It has mean red eyes and a dozen of devastating weapons build on it.

 

Actually, 80% things in this map can and will kill me: a dozen of auto-turret and vast amount of lava pool. Lava pool is certainly the deadliest one as i can't destroy it with my weapon at all unlike the turrets. Weapon that i got from first megacrate: laser rifle. The deadliest light-tier weapon yet consumes ammo the most. The weapon isn't fit for mission. So all i can do is: damage the turrets a bit (especially this one as it guards an important teleport there) and run away from Megamech through series teleport and jump booster. But you have to take it slowly to keep healthy distance between you and the Megamech. Should you low on health or ammo you can break crates or destroy plant for pick-ups.

 

Through the series teleport and jump booster, you will meet these generators. According to the briefing, they will heal Megamech should it took many damage. I strongly suggest to destroy them all before fighting the Megamech. Not only it can no longer receives damage repair but a new megacrate will drop every time you destroy a generator. Also it contains juicy amount of health and ammo pick-up. First new megacrate contains Laser Cannon which is upgraded version of laser rifle. Second ones contains Super Dam Buster which is grenade launcher that perfect to take down the megamech off-screen but the grenades travel slowly and bouncy. You have to be careful here and area where that jump booster takes you to. Because Megamech will most likely jumps and stomps at you, render you squashed for a duration then blast you with all its weapons. To prevent this, you have to time your escape right. Or jumping around that areas. It's not 100% effective but better than do nothing.

 

I have destroyed the 3rd generator and some turrets. I forget where the 3rd Megacrate lands. Oh it's in the north of me. Got it! It's long time that i play this game. So you have to excuse me to pause the game and enter the map mode. I can't remember everything. -_-

  

From 3rd Megacrate i got Pulse Rifle. I can destroy turret more easily with it. What did you mean it isn't a Pulse Rifle? It shoots deadly green plasma. Such hi-tech weapon. You don't agree with me? You probably play too many Aliens game or Dead Space, huh?

The fourth megacrate contains flying saucer with deadly homing laser. I can fight the Megamech in close distance....for awhile. If it took fairly amount of damage, it will divided into a dozen baddies (that's evil alien race with square shape, the enemy of buddies) and surround you. If that happens you must retreat until they reform back to be The Megamech.

 

Should you manage to break the Megamech for the first time, this Megacrate will lands here. It contains Pulse Cannon. It's upgraded version of Pulse Rifle.

 

To be honest Pulse Cannon isn't good to fight the Megamech off-screen. But with proper distancing and strafing you can shred its health safely. Unlike boss fight in other game where the boss is getting hard to beat if you make progress. In this mission, you will be rewarded if you make proper progress especially with better weapon to deal with turrets and eventually the Megamech itself. Pulse Cannon only shoots larger green plasma straightly with no real gimmick/feature. But it deals big damage with minimum ammo cost (1 ammo per shoot only). It's powerful enough for this mission.

 

I think this spot is the best area to engage the boss. Aim straight at that direction the shooting while backwalk slowly to teleport, come back to this place slowly and repeat the process. That's the strategy.

For finishing the final boss, you will be rewarded with this short video. The president of the Buddies talks to you (in 4th wall breaking manner): "So you won the game. What do you want from me, a medal or something? Get outta here!" Yes, you don't get satisfying ending scene or sort like that. At least to me, it's humorous enough. Speaking of CG movie in the game, here's my favourite:

 

This quite parodies an early part of Terminator movies. A Cyborg enters a tavern and triggers bar fight. Then a local tough guy threatens him with shotgun. The Cyborg grabs his shotgun and also his sunglasses. The movie ends with the Cyborg rides a bicycle toward the horizon while ringing its bell. Yes his badblood-ness is spoiled by his own ride. If you want to see all the CG movies, you can see them here.

 

Team Buddies (2000) is rare mixture of Real-time Strategy and Action Shooter. Some people say the A.I of team-mates is bad that they need to be babysitted. I can't deny that. But, think this way: the A.I may not fit for Action Shooter game. But it's perfect for RTS game. Like in Warcraft series or Age of Empire series, the unit that you have finished trained/built, won't automatically do something so smart, right? Yes there's rally point auto-command and the unit will automatically counter when it's under attack. But to do beyond that, it needs your command. That's basic thing in RTS. The same case goes to ally's A.I in Team Buddies. By default, the allies will follow you foolishly. So give them command if you get irritated by that behavior. Build order only within single button, you see! As for battle order it's quite complex. You have to learn about it from VR training. I have to admit that the allies fairly often build improperly or get themselves killed. But IMO the basic mechanic works quite well. The musics are techno, funky or club-y which is related to true nature of the Buddies and they're great. The graphic are good for its time. The single player missions are mainly to unlock multiplayer content. But they feature interesting crate contents, special mechanism, or objectives. The multiplayer game has well variety. You can put CPU as your opponent there. The flaw on Skirmish mode: you have to obliterate all other buddies or you all lose. That sounds not fun. There's also low reliability of most of the grenade weapon and power orb gun to use in combat. It also has imbalance between weapon of different tier. Making light-tier weapon next to useless.

2003-2018 is bleak era of my gaming experience. No PS 2. No Xbox. No Dreamcast. No Wii. So, at that time i played PS 1 games over and over again including Team Buddies. Thus my judgment may sounds bias about this game. So you can guess my recommendation (Which is: you must play it!). But you have to mind about swears and stereotyping speeches in this game regardless its tone that bright and colorful. If you can't tolerate that, i won't force you to play this game. I'm not your parent.

Lastly i like to say thank you very much to you, readers who are willing to read my senseless ranting that i called articles. And i humbly apologize if i write something that not into your liking or offend you. I hope i can write more in future. Bye for now!