The game was released on (and we aren't joking about this) September 11, 2001, with it releasing in Europe a month later on October 19, being available on the Playstation 2 and the Game Boy Color. And yes, the two versions of the game play differently from each other.
Portal Runner contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Vikki may be an Army brat and freelance journalist/photographer, but she always carries around a bow.
- Alien Invasion: In the last few stages of the game, the Martians usurp Bridgette as the villain and start attacking the other worlds.
- Aliens Are Bastards: The Martians attack other worlds and start mindlessly blasting everything in sight.
- Aliens Speaking English: The Martians speak English.
- All There in the Script: Merlin's name is only revealed in the character descriptions.
- Androcles' Lion: The first thing Vikki does upon her arrival in the dinosaur world is tend to Leo's injuries and find some food; this is enough to get Leo's loyalty in return.
- All Animals Are Dogs: After Vikki bandages his wounds, Leo thanks her by licking her face repeatedly. He does this again after saving her from a dinosaur attack.
- Animals Lack Attributes: Justified in the sense that Leo is a toy lion figurine in a toy world, and not many toy companies include "those" details when manufacturing animal figures.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: The dinosaurs in the dinosaur world. Justified, though, in that they're supposed to all be toys, and toys are rarely accurate in the first place.
- Ascended Extra: Vikki Grimm is a supporting character in the Army Men series. Here, she is the protagonist.
- Badass in Distress: Vikki and Leo are both captured during the Medieval world. While Vikki is simply left in the dungeon, Leo breaks free on a search to rescue her.
- Bag of Spilling: Vikki can hold nearly unlimited arrows, but they do not carry over from one level to the next. Even if she's depicted using them in a cutscene.
- Beast of Battle: There are a few levels that are played entirely from Vikki riding atop Leo. Other levels typically have Leo following alongside Vikki and acting independently.
- Boss Arena Recovery: Boss arenas typically include a few health and arrow powerups which respawn over time. Regenerating powerups are also found across the game as a whole, frequently for puzzles that require special arrows.
- Bottomless Pits: While they're not strictly bottomless (one of the dinosaur levels features a fall which isn't far enough to actually be fatal, but is treated as a Bottomless Pit anyway to prevent Sequence Breaking), if it's not within jumping distance, it's probably lethal.
- But Now I Must Go: When the heroes make it back to the military world, Leo cannot follow them back to the army base, as he is revealed to have a family of three lion cubs he is looking after. Vikki tells him she's gonna miss him. It is possible however that she could return to the cave to visit him in the future if she decided to.
- Cave Behind The Waterfall: Present in the first level. It's relatively well-hidden behind the waterfall spray, but Vikki even Lampshades it as the player ventures inside.
- Convection, Schmonvection: Even as a plastic toy (which the Army Men franchise in general often melts with flamethrowers) Vikki has no trouble coming mere inches above hot lava with nothing but a Fur Bikini to protect her. (And even if she falls in, it's just minor damage.)
- Corridor Cubbyhole Run: There's one in almost every world: A hallway with rolling gumballs in an early level; a cavern passage with steam vents; a Medieval hallway with an array of arrows shooting down from the ceiling, and a futuristic passage with (lethal) balls of pure energy travelling from one end to the other.
- Crate Expectations: Found primarily in the Medieval world. A few arrows (or claw swipes from Leo) will demolish them, typically revealing health or arrows.
- Cutscene Boss: While Vikki readies her assault on the Martian Emperor, Sarge and Leo fight off Rage and a brigade of Martians in a cutscene.
- Descending Ceiling: One of Leo's puzzles in the Medieval world dungeon is to hit four switches and then make for the exit before a spiked ceiling kills him.
- Difficulty Levels: The game has four of them, three being "Easy", "Normal", and "Hard".
- Easier Than Easy: The "Dream" difficulty level makes Vikki immune to all enemy attacks - only environmental hazards or Bottomless Pits can kill her.
- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Pteranodons in the Jurassic world shoot fireballs at you.
- Enemy Mine: Bridgette works with the heroes when the Martians turn on her.
- Fall Damage: Vikki has this. Depending on how far the drop is, it may kill her or just take some of her life.
- Fanservice: The game's cutscenes like to emphasize Bridgette's voluptuous body. Also Vikki in her prehistoric level outfit. She even lampshades it, exclaiming "Whoa! Check me out!"
- Fisher Kingdom: Vikki's outfit changes with each world she traverses, from her default green army fatigues to a zebra-hide skirt and bikini in the Dinosaur world, to a silver-green jumpsuit in the Space world.
- Follow the Money: Gems are frequently arranged in midair to help the player align jumps from one platform to another.
- Floating Platforms: Every level has (at least) one platform with a lion's head on it, which is often the reward for solving a minor puzzle. Other platforms include floating leaves and chessboard tiles.
- Freelook Button: It's mapped to the Circle button by default. Doubles as first-person targetting for Vikki, but even Leo can use it to look around.
- Fur Bikini: Vikki spends much of the game in a white striped bikini and skirt.
- Gravity Screw: Near the end of the penultimate level, one puzzle involves climbing to the top of a huge spherical room and disabling its artificial-gravity generator, which subsequently enables some spectacularly high and far jumps between the platforms.
- Lethal Lava Land: The final prehistoric level involves Vikki and Leo reaching an exit portal located on the side of an erupting volcano.
- Level-Up Fill-Up: Vikki and Leo's HP are refilled whenever the player collects enough gems to earn a new Hit Point.
- Little Green Men: All Martians are green, and most are quite small, though there are some large ones.
- Love Potion: In a non-"potion" example, Brigette commissions futuristic Martians to create a love ray, which she promptly uses on Sarge.
- Loyal Animal Companion: The only character Leo appears comfortable around is Vikki.
- Magic Mirror: Merlin made one for Bridgette. It's a small mirror that can be carried around.
- Misbegotten Multiplayer Mode: The multiplayer mode in this game is two-player PvP only and the players can only play as one of Vikki's four costumes and Brigette, who plays exactly like Vikki, on select maps that are pulled from the main game.
- Motive Decay: Rage is Brigette's loyal hench-bot, yet he continues to aid the Martians after they betray her with no explanation.
- Ms. Fanservice: Both Vikki and especially Bridgette can be considered this.
- No "Arc" in "Archery": There is no apparent limit on the range of Vikki's arrows.
- Not the Fall That Kills You…
- One-Hit Kill: A few environmental hazards are instant death if you contact them. Others (even hot lava) simply inflict damage.
- 100% Completion: Collecting at least 80% of gems within a level unlocks images in a bonus image gallery (generally of various scenes, called "vista points", within each level). Getting a perfect score across the entire game unlocks a few extra images of Vikki in the gallery.
- Orcus on His Throne: Outside the Army Men world (which at this point is firmly under Green Army rule), Brigette Bleu has grown a bit bored of her status as queen of various other toy worlds (particularly the Medieval world).
- Panthera Awesome: Leo, obviously.
- Raptor Attack: Jurassic Park-styled raptors are the main enemies of the dinosaur world, and they come in different sizes.
- Ray Gun: The Martians carry these as weapons and also make a love ray for Bridgette.
- Rise to the Challenge: In the volcano level, there is one puzzle that involves a cavern flooding with lava - fortunately, the player has safe footing on a platform that floats atop the lava, so it's unaffected as the player raises the lava level. Played straight with Vikki's rescue in the Medieval world, where the player must hit various counterweights on a platform to keep Vikki's cage away from rising poisonous goop.
- RPG Elements: For every 10,000 points the player acquires, Vikki and Leo both acquire an extra Hit Point on their Life Meter.
- Panthera Awesome: Leo is a Loyal Animal Companion who proves to be a valuable ally. Averted with the demon lions.
- Power-Up Food: T-Bone steaks are found in a few levels; they are generally placed on ledges to give Leo enough speed to jump across.
- Prehistoria: The dinosaur world.
- Puzzle Boss: The tree in the Dark Forest.
- Save-Game Limits: You can only save your game between levels, and the game utilizes only one save file (per memory card).
- Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: Found primarily in the Medieval world dungeon; one hallway in particular has several rows of spiked cogs spinning across that the player must avoid.
- Spin-Off: A spinoff of the Green Army Men games focusing on Vikki Grimm.
- Spread Shot: "Trident" arrows are picked up primarily in the Medieval world.
- Stationary Boss: The tree in the Medieval world's dark forest, as well as the Final Boss. Rage also blocks the portal back to the Medieval world, requiring te player to defeat him with Leo.
- Take Your Time: Averted in the prehistoric world. While gathering eggs for Leo, if you take too long, a raptor will attack him while you're gone, and you will have to hurry back to save him.
- Timed Mission: One puzzle in the dinosaur world involves searching a canyon for eight key stones (within eight minutes); another level requires traversing the level to find the exit portal within ten. Both are played with Vikki riding atop Leo.
- We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: When the Martians start invading the other worlds, the Martian leader says that they come in peace...while the other Martians are blasting everything in sight. Lampshaded by Sarge, who states "Doesn't look so peaceful to me."
- Wedding Deadline: Vikki arrives just in time to stop an entranced Sarge from saying "I do" to Brigette.
- When Trees Attack: The Great Tree in the Dark Forest is an evil sentient tree that shoots fireballs at you.
- Wizard Classic: Merlin appears as a character you save. He dresses just like a stereotypical wizard, he uses magic, and he's fairly wise. He later communicates with Vikki through a Magic Mirror, telling her how to stop Bridgette.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Bridgette had Merlin create a magic mirror for her, than imprisoned him in a giant chess arena to be killed by her knights after she no longer needed him.
