Army Men for Game Boy Color is the first handheld entry in the series. It is an adaptation of the first entry for PCs, with several of the original's levels being adapted for simpler gameplay.

Players control green plastic soldier Sarge in combat against the tan army. The game consists of 27 missions spread out over 2 campaigns (Desert and Arctic, two out of the original game's three), each made up of three maps with four to five missions per map. While the maps are rough approximations of the original game's, all mission objectives are completely different. A boot camp mode that explains the controls is also available.