Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp has certainly been a long time coming. When it was first announced back at E3 2021, it was originally planned to be released in December of that year, but was pushed back to April 2022 due to fine-tuning. It was then delayed a second time due to world events, and there was no news for the next several months, leaving many to speculate whether we would even see the game’s release. While the events that led to its delay have unfortunately not yet come to a conclusion, the game will finally be released more than a year later than planned, with Nintendo filling the April gap between March’s Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon and The Legend of from May. Zelda: Tears of the Realm. The game is a remastered collection of Advance Wars (2001) and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (2003), both originally released on the Gameboy Advance. After spending a significant number of hours playing my way through the first game’s campaign, I can safely say that this will be exactly what people have come to expect from the Switch remaster, with all the positives and negatives that come with it. that.
Advance Wars’ main game mode is the campaign, which takes place from the perspective of Orange Star and the various commanders (COs) who serve her. Neighboring Blue Moon State has begun invading Orange Star territory without warning after many years of peace, and it’s your job to guide the Orange Star COs as they defend their territory and try to figure out what’s going on. While there will be brief dialogue between the COs between missions to explain the next objective and introduce new characters, the story primarily serves as a means of gameplay. Players looking for something similar to Fire Emblem in terms of storytelling depth won’t find it here, as the game is focused on gameplay.
That gameplay is what sets Advance Wars apart from the crowd, despite being over two decades old now. Unlike many strategy RPGs, where your battle forces are made up of characters you meet throughout the story, Advance Wars features a variety of generic unit types, such as infantry and tanks. All units have 10 hit points to start with, and each time they fight, both sides will (usually) lose hit points. The fewer hit points a unit has, the weaker its attacks are, making them less useful each time they attack. You can recover a unit’s hit points by placing them in a building you control, but it’s a slow process that’s often not worth the time it would take. The emphasis is more on strategically using your units to do as much damage as possible, rather than conserving them throughout the battle.
All units have strengths and weaknesses relative to other unit types that determine how many points they lose in combat, as well as some limitations. Most units have limited ammo and will not be able to attack unless resupplied, and vehicles will also need to be refueled or unable to move. Not all units can target other types of units; for example, submarines can only attack other units at sea. There’s a lot to take in and consider when planning your strategy, though thankfully the game doesn’t expect you to memorize the details. Highlighting any unit will display its stats, and like many other strategy RPGs, selecting any enemy unit will display its movement and attack range.
Terrain also plays a big role, as it determines your unit’s effectiveness and range of movement. For example, hiding in forests and cities can reduce damage taken, and fog of war can interrupt your unit’s turn if you try to move into enemy-occupied space. Vehicles such as tanks have reduced mobility when off-road and cannot cross mountainous terrain, forcing them to move on it. Many maps also feature buildings that can be captured to generate income that can be used to create more units. Capturing an enemy’s main base will result in an automatic win, and of course, enemies can also use buildings if they capture them.
Advance Wars has a lot of quality-of-life improvements that have become standard for the genre, making it a much faster and more enjoyable experience than it was on the Gameboy Advance. In addition to info windows showing your unit’s stats, you can also fast-forward animations or turn them off entirely. You can undo the current move if you make a mistake, but unfortunately, you can’t go back further than the start of the current move, nor can you undo individual actions. The game also has a very helpful tutorial that you can access at any time, and every time a new unit or game mechanic is introduced, you’ll be asked if you want to view the accompanying tutorial or skip it.
After completing the campaign walkthrough missions, you will unlock other game modes offered by Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp. The first of these is the Design Room, which allows you to create your own custom maps using any terrain or units from the game, which can be uploaded and shared with other players online. Versus and Online allow you to play with up to 4 players on one and multiple consoles, with the ability to play with three other players locally on one console a significant inclusion. The War Room gives you a deck of cards to play with any of the COs you’ve unlocked from the campaign, and more can be purchased through Hachi’s Shop. You can also buy tracks and artwork from Hachi’s Shop to fill out the in-game Gallery, using the coins you’ll get while playing campaign missions.
Advance Wars takes full advantage of the now outdated Switch hardware by adopting a simpler visual style very similar to the Link’s Awakening remake, with a toybox aesthetic that makes units and scenery look like traditional plastic toys. However, commanders have a more detailed animation style and dynamic animated cutscenes when they unleash their power in battle. It gives the game the feel of a Saturday morning cartoon. The overall effect is a visual style that will evoke nostalgia in those who played the Gameboy Advance originals. The game also has partial voice acting, both to its credit and its detriment, since there’s so little dialogue here that it could (and some might argue should) be fully voice acting, but it still gives each character a little more personality when you hear each of them speak.
Despite being a very faithful remake of a more than two-decade-old game, Advance Wars stands out for its unique (and often punishing) approach to strategy RPG gameplay, where the emphasis is more on strategy than story. Beyond the expected quality-of-life improvements, the focus in bringing these titles up to a more modern standard has been to exploit their multiplayer potential, rather than expanding single-player content. While this will appeal to a certain demographic of players, as there’s huge potential here thanks to the map editor and the ability to play multiplayer with a single copy of the game, it’s a decision that may not appeal to others, especially those used to more player-centric experiences. narrative like Fire Emblem: Engage. Be sure to stay tuned here on iGamesNews for our final review before Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp launches for Switch on April 21st, 2023.
A review copy of Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp was provided by Nintendo UK. A full review of the game will be published in due course.