Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp review — slick remake of a strategy classic

Before Fire Emblem games claimed the crown as Nintendo’s best turn-based strategy game, there was Advance Wars. September 10, 2001 — advance wars was a sequel to the series that originated on Nintendo’s NES, but seemed completely at home on the then-new Game Boy Advance. It was ideal for nature.

But Advance Wars fans haven’t seen a new entry in the series since 2008’s. Advance Wars: Days of Ruina Nintendo DS game that took the series’ cute and colorful combat in a darker direction.

Thanks to WayForward, developer of Shantae and River City Girls, a new generation of Nintendo fans will (somewhat awkwardly) Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot CampThe Switch duology revives the charming, cartoonish roots of Advance Wars, offering the most polished versions of the first two GBA games.

Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp Like the more popular Fire Emblem games, consists of turn-based battles on grid-based maps, where players build and command military units on land, sea, and air. Players strategically move infantry, tanks, planes, submarines, and battleships to dominate cities and factories as part of international conflicts. Missions often play out like a game of chess, where players (and their opponents) have a set number of units and share a goal: wipe out enemy forces, capture a stronghold, or some other map-specific victory. meet the conditions. Combat in Advance Wars is slow and methodical — but rarely boring and predictable, thanks to many variables to consider such as terrain, fog of war, and commander (CO) special abilities .

Unlike some strategy games, there is no frenzy of resource gathering. Cities provide players with funds to spend on new units each day, and provide reinforcements if factories and airports are present on the map. Instead, players should pay more attention to attack range, movement range, terrain advantages, and strengths and weaknesses of individual units. For example, tanks are very vulnerable to bombers, but those planes are vulnerable to anti-aircraft units. Infantry can easily move through forests and mountains and capture structures, but they are no match for tanks and helicopters. Short-range units should be placed out of range of artillery and rocket launchers. Submarines can be a powerful stealth her unit, but being able to go underwater and out of sight means eating up fuel. As you plunge further into Advance Wars battles, its strategic depth begins to emerge.

Adding another layer of complexity to the game is the CO. In other words, cartoonish, archetypal characters who have passive strengths and weaknesses and can unlock special abilities when charged. reboot camp We introduce each CO at a comfortable pace, starting with Andy and Max, an inexperienced young CO who can magically repair units, and Andy and Max, who are confident veterans who can give their units offensive power. increase. Enemy COs that can be played in later missions or in the competitive mode of the game include Olaf’s Blizzard, which is a movement-inhibiting blizzard, and Eagle’s Lightning, which basically gives him two turns in one hit. , has even more powerful abilities. Some abilities can feel overwhelmed or unbalanced, Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp It’s not particularly difficult. You can often limp your way to victory. There are two difficulty modes: an easy casual setting and a more challenging classic setting if you find your enemies are pushovers. The game’s shady AI is sure to make heady mistakes, just like it did in the early 2000s.

Image: WayForward/Nintendo

WayForward and Nintendo have dramatically improved the look of the first two Advance Wars games, turning the battlefield into something akin to a tabletop war game where action figures and brightly colored toys fight bloodlessly. However, there’s a disconnect between Sel’s comfy, shaded, cartoonish CO and the plastic-like toys they fight. The animation that accompanies the CO unleashing special powers is nicely animated, but slows down combat to an annoying degree. This is a very beautiful update to his two decades-old games, and the commander’s charming personality in the game has only improved.

Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp Extension package. Includes two full story campaigns spanning dozens of missions (although only his first one). advance wars campaign is unlocked from the start), online multiplayer battles with friends, local multiplayer, and a war room where players can play and replay individual scenarios. There’s even a custom his map designer with a very simple set of tools for creating and sharing homemade battlefields. For starters, it’s a huge amount of content. For returning Advance Wars fans, it’s a highly sophisticated way to recreate dozens of familiar scenarios.Hundreds of hours played advance wars and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising On my long commute 20 years ago reboot camp It felt like revisiting a classic remastered movie — I knew every move, every beat, but it was a comforting replay nonetheless.

The new Advance Wars, like the original, arrives at a strange time. Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp indefinitely. But toy soldiers exaggerating cities into submission and cartoon characters being wiped out by artillery fire feel disconnected from the real-world warfare that put Nintendo on hold in 2022. .Current city military war game. If anything, the return of Advance Wars feels like a link to a simpler era, made better by homage and age to a long-ignored, still-great franchise.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is Released April 21st nintendo switchThis game was reviewed using a pre-release download code provided by Nintendo. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.