T.A.C. Heroes: Big Red One for Nintendo DS: Gameplay and Review

T.A.C. Heroes: Big Red One is a turn-based strategy game for the Nintendo DS about the US 1st Infantry Division in World War II. The ESRB rates it E10+, and WorthPlaying dates its release to 31 March 2010.

Overview

The Big Red One is the nickname of the division, and the game follows its combat in two campaigns that can be played in any order. WorthPlaying says there is no unifying story and no single soldier to follow, only a general account of the unit’s battles, against Italian and German enemies.

The 1942 campaign has 16 battles that run from North Africa into Europe. The 1944 campaign has 21, starting with D-Day and ending with the close of the war. The ESRB’s description mentions that players can seize enemy positions and capture officers, using grenades, pistols, bombs and artillery against units and vehicles.

Not to be confused with Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, a separate 2005 shooter on other consoles.

How it plays

Battles take place on a hex grid. Every soldier has action points, and higher ranks get more of them. On each turn the player picks a soldier and a command: move, with rocks and barriers limiting the route, attack by gunfire or melee, throw one grenade per turn for area damage, set an aggressive or defensive tactic that trades movement for bonuses, or use equipment to call in an air strike, heal the wounded or loot bodies.

Surviving soldiers rank up or gain attribute bonuses after each match. WorthPlaying notes the design borrows from older strategy games, with fixed starting positions, all-or-nothing attacks that ignore terrain and a fog of war, and sees those choices as a way of keeping the system simple.

Controls use the touch screen like a computer mouse, with the d-pad, shoulder buttons and face buttons also supported.

Reception

WorthPlaying’s Brian Dumlao reviewed it on 31 May 2010 and scored it 5.0 out of 10. He thought the game could have been a decent budget title and saw the simple rules as a possible bridge to deeper turn-based games. Gunfire and explosions look fine, he wrote, and the soldier portraits in the menus are a humorous touch.

The faults were technical. Graphics are basic and stiff, music is compressed, effects turn to white noise and enemy voices sound like bored soldiers. The main complaint was the touch controls, since panning the camera after choosing an attack can fire at the spot touched, which can lose matches. Multiplayer repeats the campaign setups. He said it would be hard to recommend unless found very cheap.

Release and credits

WorthPlaying names Hoplite Research as developer, a studio it links to handheld conversions of Myst, and Storm City Entertainment as publisher; the ESRB also lists Storm City Entertainment. WorthPlaying gives 31 March 2010 as the release date, while VGChartz lists 16 March 2010, and both are reported as sourced.

Can you still play it?

A DS game card runs on the Nintendo DS, DS Lite and DSi, and the Nintendo 3DS family plays it in DS mode. The Wii U and Switch do not read DS cards, and standard DS cartridges are not region-locked. The sources checked describe a cartridge release only. Nintendo discontinued the 3DS family on 16 September 2020, so a used card is the route today.