Advance Wars 1 (Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp) (Switch)

 

It ain't nothing but a heart-breaker
(War) Friend only to The Undertaker
Oh, war it's an enemy to all mankind
The thought of war blows my mind

Another remake, the first GBA remake I can think of (well, beside the Ace Attorney-games). I've played all of the Advance Wars game released in the west (not finishing them all, but one day maybe). As traditions with this game it was off course delayed. First to fine tune some parts of it from its originally release in December 2021 so it was moved to March or April 2022... and then the Ukraine-Russian War started. Kinda ironic since the original was supposed to come out the week after 9/11 back in 2001 in Europe and they delayed it to the spring of 2002 instead. Well it's finally out and it was a breeze playing through the first game again. 

Story is that Orange Star, a country pretty much appearing like USA/Europe is suddenly attacked by Blue Moon by CO Olaf, a country modelled after... Russia.... Oh Boy! Orange Star only have you, the player, as an Adviser freshly sent from HQ to learn the works with Commanding Officer Nell. After some tutorial levels she hands you over to Andy, a relative new CO as you start to push back Olafs assault and push him out of Orange Star territory. During the journey Andy stumbles upon a pluton of Green Earth Soldiers (modelled after Germany I would argue, with the WW2 hats and blitzkrieg tactics) led by CO Eagle that after taking a beating accusing Andy for some war crimes. 

After that Andy gets reinforcements with CO Max, the strongest CO of them all, but lousy in indirect battle. Both of them push Blue Moon back to their own land so they continue hounding Olaf and his second in command Grit. After beating the Blue Moon army they meet up with Sami, the infantry specialist CO of Orange Star. They are again attacked by Green Earth and... for some reason heads over Yellow Comet (Japan pretty much) and constantly gets attacked, all the while the cutscenes tells us that they also have been attacked by Andy in the past. After beating Kanbei and Sonja it's over to Green Earth and meeting with Drake and Eagle. And during the battles it is revealed that there exists a clone of Andy that have attacked the other nations while Blue Moon was lead to attack Orange Star to keep them busy. All this is orchestrated by the Black Hole Army lead by Sturm, who likes to throw meteors on my most valued troops. You defeat him and all is well.

The new coat of paint is rather nice, although the pixel art has its charm, and the small changes too characterisation they made for some of the CO doesn't add up to me. Also, the quality of life improvements are wonderful. Restarting just a turn makes it so easier if you just did a wrong move (although it can be used to save scum through Fog of War maps). The casual mode (which was the mode I played through it in) is rather nice with a bit more soldiers and getting rid of fog of war in some maps (although I feel it makes it easier for the AI as well since I can't hide as well). And finally, the ability to pick and choose missions after finishing the campaign instead of having to replay the whole thing as well as getting rid of some of the criteria to unlock certain CO:s, as well as being able to chose the CO for the final battle however you want. No more playing X turns on the Kanbei missions to unlock him at the final mission, or playing Max stages to get Grit or Andy against Drake or Sami against Eagle. 

The biggest problem I have is that everyone said this was pretty much a 1 by 1 recreation of the original. Lo and behold my surprise that they cut out most of the tutorial levels. Now, some might say that it went on too long and that the tutorials still pops up when appropriate, but the story and the ability to delve into the POV of the Adviser gets lost. What do I mean? Well, the tutorial levels is where you work together with Nell for 14 missions. She is your CO, she lambast Olaf for his betrayal and gives hint on the relationship between the two and all that. Olofs overconfidence and blunders that he shows throughout the story. And Nell talks to you, congratulate you for your tactics and how fast you can beat certain stages like the mission Dogfights and Air Defence. Now, you pretty much disappears after the first missions. It could be that they wanted 1 and 2 feel like the same game and the advisor roll disappeared in the sequel and I didn't like it then, and don't approve of it now. It felt more immersive in the old game and it's sad it disappears. If they continue like this I hope they don't remake Fire Emblem for the GBA that released in the west since it will feel worse there. But overall it's a fun game and just nitpicking with my preferences. 

Advance Wars (part 2)

Well this took longer than expected, but better late than never, right? Let us begin with the GameCube game, Battalion Wars:

Released in 2005 I missed out on this game since I still lived at home, it wasn't until 2008 I bought it I believe. Didn't play it much since I went of to the US at the time and I also bought Super Mario Galaxy at the time. The problem when you get older is that you don't have time to play them, or if you are unemployed you don't have any money to play them. I also had to import it from Germany which is another problem with games, if you don't get it around release date, there is a big chance it's gone forever. Story is you follow an American look-a-like army as they fight a soviet stand in, but wait ze evilz german attack both and you must join up. Gameplay is a RTS-game with you taking control of any of your troops and lead them against the enemy. I wasn't that good, but with practice maybe, sadly no tv or the game near me. Sold enough to spawn a sequel.

Battalion Wars 2, or BWii (get it? For the Wii?) released in 2008 in Europe. As you can guess I got this one before the original one. You begin repelling an invasion on the Japanese by the British as they search for a super weapon. Afterwards you explore a similar action years before, but with the Americans and soviets. Then you switch perspective as the British fight back the Japanese and that is as far as I got. Some mission were you needed to clean a statue and giving air-support to the cleaning team. I couldn't steer the god damn plane with the Wii control. And now onward to the latest game in the series:

For the DS, Advance Wars: Dark Conflict (or as in the states, Days of Ruin). Another one I didn't finish, I'm just at the end as well if I remember correct. Much darker than any other game in the series. Not much to say that the story of the single campaign is interesting in the human extinction and humanly engineered pandemic. Sadly I missed the original CO:s, none of them appear other than in the multiplayer (I presume, I can't check and it was a couple of years since I played it). Yeah, much shorter list and not much about any of the games due to me not finishing them. 

Advance Wars

A while ago I discussed the Fire Emblem series of games and I thought since I didn't play any DnD this weekend I might write about the sister series, Advance Wars (or inofficially named as Nintendo Wars). So let us begin with the first game I played in the series, Advance Wars released in 2002 in Europe.

First playthrough was a disaster due to poor planning and not grasping when to charge and when to attack. After a while to when I got the hang of it it went very well. As with the first Fire Enblem there  was a tactitian introduced to make it easier for newcomers to relate and those first mission as you are guided by Nell of Orange Star as you fight of an invasion by Olaf of the Blue Moon are really good. Then the real campaign starts as you are assigned to lead Orange Stars army to counter the invasion with the newly deployed Andy as your commanding officer. This task take you across the world battling the Blue Moon, Yellow Comet and Green Earth until you find out that the one behind the hostilities is none other than Sturm of the Black Hole. You defeat him and all is well. The graphics are great and colorfull while the music is energetic and pumps you up for battle. One of the best turn-based strategy games and a great first introduction for the series. Then came a follow up in 2003.

Already you can see that the CO:s characters doesn't look that great. The story continues with the Black Hole Army invading all countries and it's up to all lands to unite against this threat. The tactitians role is gone which I must admit makes it a bit none personal. Some new CO:s for every army and one or two new units to play with. Not much to say other than I prefered the design of the first game. This game was followed by a DS game concluding this trilogy.

Advance Wars: Dual Strikes (get it? Dual Strikes? DS?) and the story this time is that the good guys have had enough and form an alliance to attack the Black Hole at their own soil while the enemy is divided by the old CO:s and new ones when Sturm was supposedly killed. This is also the first game where you don't have Andy as your first CO, but some new kid named Jake. Can't say I'm a fan of his. Again, the design of the CO aren't that good, colors feel washed out and I just don't connect with all the new CO:s. Also a new tag system is introduced where you can use two CO:s and their powers or even attack twice in one turn as well as a couple of new units. The series then shifted over to the gamecube with Battalion Wars, but that has to be for another time. Until then.