Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp review

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp review: I agree. I’m a bit of a hypocrite about this Remake, Remastered, Definitive Edition. A remake announcement “what the heck bro!” I scold the other, “oooooo super, let’s go out and play!” she goes crazy.

But you’ll appreciate that updating a game that’s outdated like The Last of Us and renewing a game that hasn’t had a sequel for 15 years will have different effects on the player.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp review / Nintendo Switch

In 1988, Nintendo’s strategy RPG game Gameboy Advance, known as Famicom Wars during the NES era, met with the players again under the name Advance Wars (Advance Wars & Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising) and the last 2 games released on Nintendo DS (Advance Wars). : Dual Strike & Days of Ruin) remained silent for many years. On the other hand, the developer of the game, Intelligent System, has had great success with the Fire Emblem series recently.

Overhauled and updated for Nintendo Switch, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, where GBA’s exquisite turn-based strategy games Advance Wars & Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising meet in one package, was a package I’ve been waiting for for a long time. Due to thematic similarities, the revamped version, whose release was delayed a lot due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, ends a 15-year longing!

As in almost every turn-based strategy game, on a chessboard-like, square battlefield; Again in Advance Wars, we have a playground where each unit stands out with a different ability, similar to chess pieces. Its structure, which seems plain, simple and even shallow in the opening time and the first few missions, reaches a level that will satisfy and challenge the player in the following hours.

Here, I have to underline an important detail insistently, vigorously and seriously. The hallmark of the Advance Wars series was that it offered the deepest gameplay possible on a console with limited hardware like the GBA. I mean, it would be pointless to compare these games with a strategy game on the desktop console, especially on the PC. Advance Wars offered such impressive depth of gameplay on limited hardware that Julian Gollop, the father of the X-COM series, stepped up and said, “How did you guys do it on this handheld console, I’ll do it too!” He developed a game called Rebelstar: Tactical Command for GBA.

The story of the game

Combining the two games together, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp has an attractive story presentation with its colorful, fun, quality-drawn animations accompanied by a nice interface. This colorful and lively presentation was supported by vocalizing some important dialogues.

As I mentioned in the Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp preview article, the story serves more as a tool than a purpose in Advance Wars. It’s simple and fun to follow. Although it is a war-themed game, it is not a game that describes the war with a harsh temperament. In the war that started with the occupation of the lands by its neighbor, Blue Moon, you lead the army of the nation called Orange Star with different commands and accompany the events that will take place in the story.

Looking at the map structure, it is easy to understand that Blue Moon is a Russian region and Orange Star is a Eastern Europe. And Nintendo made this game 20 years ago! For this reason, the game was postponed many times before its release and met with the players 2 years later than the expected release date.

The battlefield, which was depicted with sprite graphics in GBA, has been replaced by a 3D art design that “looks like plastic” in the renewed package. I wonder if we are caught in the wind of nostalgia or if the old graphics were more impressive, I opened it and took a look at the old graphics. Advance Wars has done a successful job according to its period and the limits of the equipment it came out with, and even the small details that will make sense of the wars have not been overlooked.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is an improvement that seems cheap compared to what the original did for its era. Small details are still there, but my eyes could not digest the general visual style even after hours. I wish HD-2D was used instead of this visual style, which is Square Enix’s way of updating the graphics of old games.

I like the update on the music. For example, Andy’s Theme, one of the iconic pieces of the series; Like 20 years ago, it is lively, impressive and reminded me once again when rock music was the crown jewel.

Because it was made by the developer of Fire Emblem, Advance Wars is simply viewed as a variation of Fire Emblem. Whereas Advance Wars shares some similarities with Fire Emblem as a genre, the battle rules, mission design and victory conditions are completely different. On the gameplay side, while maintaining the basic dynamics, improvements have been made to ensure ease of access. The guide, which you can access at any time, helps you refresh your memory by providing every detail about the rules and details of the game.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, Advance Wars is a strategy game that seems to have a simple gameplay, but manages to be interesting with its structure that evolves and changes with the mission design and victory conditions in each chapter. In the battlefield created in squares, geographical location and even the regions you capture have a great impact on the course of the war, as well as the abilities of your units. For example, if you fight your tanks on a flat, unprotected land, you come face to face with the enemy without any additional defense.

On the other hand, when you enter the forest areas or the city, additional defensive power is written to the house for your tanks and it is difficult for your unit to be destroyed. Or you can attack the enemy from a point that is difficult to target by taking your infantry to the top. For example, while the personnel transport vehicle can move 3 squares in the field, its transportation increases to 6 squares on the asphalt road. All these details are delivered to the player with a successful interface. In each square of the map, you can see which region has what advantages or disadvantages.

Supply plays a key role on the road to victory in Advance Wars. All your vehicles and infantry have a certain amount of provisions, fuel and ammunition. These are spent while traveling and attacking during battle. You can resupply by waiting for a few rounds in cities that you can capture with vehicles such as personnel transport vehicles that provide resupply so that your vehicles are not out of combat, or only by infantry. The provinces you capture also allow your units to regenerate.

Military units coexist in a certain number depending on their type. For example, when an infantry unit starts a war, it becomes a team of 10, or a helicopter unit consists of 5 vehicles, or a grenade launcher is represented as a single unit. Units whose energy decreases as they take damage begin to lose.

10-unit infantry drops to 5-6 in a single attack; even in the war system, where the rock-paper-scissors system stands out, you can eliminate that unit in one turn with the right attack method. There is no cure for the unit deleted from the map, but your lost units are waiting in your buildings and regain their strength with ammunition and fuel supply, as well as reinforcements.

Advance Wars manages to be an attractive strategy game with what it has. In some maps, you are asked to achieve victory with the units you start the war with, in some sections, you can expand your army depending on your resource money limit with production factories in each round. Since some maps are foggy, you may suddenly come face to face with the enemy in a way you did not plan while advancing.

In one, you achieve victory by completely deleting the enemy units from the map, and sometimes you gain victory by capturing the headquarters of the enemy, which is stronger as a unit. In another, the aim is to capture 12 regions located on the map before the enemy. With the ever-changing scenario and new units and battle rules added to the game step by step, Advance Wars does not lose its tempo and attractiveness until the end of the game. In Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, even deeper content awaits players with unit diversity and map variability.

In turn-based games, waiting for animations after a point can feel like a waste of time. The renewed package in this area offered many different options. It is possible to turn off the animations of your own units, the animations of the enemies, and the animations in different categories such as war or capture within these animations one by one. The one-click battles acceleration mode has also been brought to Fire Emblem. It is also possible to fast forward the matches by holding the trigger button.

The renewed package is a mode where you can design and share your own maps; it has local co-op and another mode where you can compete online so you can play side by side with friends, spouses and friends. You can open music albums, art designs and similar collectibles from the in-game store with the currency you earn as you win in the levels. Or if you want to test yourself in different difficulties after the story mode is over, you can bury your hours in the War Room mode, which you will definitely be satisfied with.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is the first important step taken against the “possibility of returning” of the series I’ve been waiting for. Good job done by today’s accessibility standards on games in GBA; Basic gameplay dynamics are preserved.

After 20 years, it is impossible to say that this renewed version has the same impressiveness as the original games. But Advance Wars is a fun production suitable for a portable console structure that you can dive deep into wherever you take your Nintendo Switch.