Before Fire Emblem became Nintendo’s premier turn-based strategy game, there was Advance Wars. The game was first released in the United States on September 10, 2001, and has since become a cult classic. The long-awaited release of Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp by WayForward has reignited the franchise, and it is better than ever before.
The game’s turn-based battles on grid-based maps are similar to those of the more popular Fire Emblem games. Players build and command military units across land, sea, and air. The game is composed of slow and methodical battles, similar to chess matches, where players have a set number of units and shared goals. The battles in Advance Wars are rarely dull or predictable, thanks to the variety of variables to consider, such as terrain, fog of war, and the special abilities of commanding officers.
Players need to be mindful of striking distances, movement ranges, terrain advantages, and the strengths and weaknesses of individual units. The absence of frenzied resource gathering in the game is unique. Cities give players funds each day to spend on new units, and factories and airports offer reinforcements. The strategic depth of the game begins to show as players progress through the battles.
The COs, cartoonish characters with passive strengths and weaknesses, add another layer of complexity to the game. They can unleash special abilities once they have charged them up. Re-Boot Camp introduces each CO at a comfortable pace, starting with an inexperienced young CO who can repair units magically and a beefy, confident veteran who can give his units an attack boost. The game’s questionable AI makes its share of lunkheaded mistakes, but the two difficulty modes—Casual and Classic—make it accessible to players of all levels.
WayForward and Nintendo have improved the look of the first two Advance Wars games dramatically. The cel-shaded, pleasantly cartoonish COs and the plasticky toys they fight with can be jarring, but the animations that accompany COs unleashing their special powers, while nicely animated, slow down battles to an annoying degree. The overall polish and presentation of the game is hard to fault, and the charming personalities of the game’s commanders have only improved.
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is an expansive package. It includes two full story campaigns spread across dozens of missions, online multiplayer battles against friends, local multiplayer, and a War Room where players can play and replay individual scenarios. There’s even a custom map designer with a dead-simple set of tools for creating and sharing homemade battlefields. For newcomers, it’s a massive amount of content; for returning Advance Wars fans, it’s a highly polished way to replay dozens of familiar scenarios.
Nintendo’s decision to delay the release of the game in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year was a wise one. The toylike soldiers exaggeratedly stomping cities into submission and cartoon characters being wiped out by artillery fire feel disconnected
