To the Frontline

As a fan of the SRPG genre, Advance Wars was a series that I’ve heard much about over the years. It was mostly in the context of how great it was and how people would love to see a remake or a new entry in the series. With the release of Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, I had the perfect excuse to finally check out this much lauded classic and see for myself if it deserved all the hype.

Why can’t we just get along?!

MSRP: $59.99
Price I’d Pay: $49.99
Platforms: Switch
Played: ~25 hours

The curtain opens to Cosmo Land, home to multiple warring nations. Andy, a commanding officer for the Orange Star nation is tasked with defending his home from hostile invaders but not everything is what it seems as the other nations do not see themselves as invaders, but rather as allies of justice, defending their own homes.

Advance Wars is decidedly light on story but it was just enough to keep me interested to see what would happen next. The various different commanding officers like Andy, Max and Sami did much of the heavy lifting, bringing some personality and stakes to the story. Their personality shone through, not just in their dialogue but in their unique CO powers. As a mechanic, Andy was able to repair all the units on the field which allowed him to turn the tides on a losing battle in a single turn. Another CO named Hawk had the incredible power to allow his units to move for a second time which was just as game-changing as it sounds. Despite there not being too much dialogue, using the various different commanders injected some much needed variety into the experience.

Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each unit is crucial to success.

In terms of the fundamental combat, it’s relatively simple with maps being formed by a series of tiles that are maneuvered for positioning. There was a rock-paper-scissors aspect to the combat with certain units being more powerful against other types but there were pros and cons beyond that to keep things interesting. For example, while the infantry was the weakest unit in terms of fighting power, they could traverse through some terrain that tanks could not and more importantly, capture bases to create powerful defensive positions and generate resources.

Capturing non-essential bases was well worth it for missions that allowed for building my own units.

Tanks were powerful and could move along far distances on even terrain but ammo and fuel were not infinite so it became important to make sure that they had the support that they needed to perform at their maximum. It became apparent on some of the more difficult stages that while I could initially be aggressive to take the first attack to enemies to lower their power, if I didn’t move with my supporting units, my attackers became easy pickings for the enemy. While some of the maps allowed for building my own units as reinforcements were constantly created by the enemy, I felt these maps dragged on a bit too long and often became a war of attrition. I was more interested in maps that only allowed for a handful of units that I had to command expertly to complete the objective. While new units and COs are introduced regularly, I felt the overall flow of combat felt pretty basic and repetition began to set in quickly.

The objectives in the first Advance War title felt overly simple with it always revolving around destroying all the units or taking over a capture point which made the game feel repetitive as one map blended into the next. Luckily, the sequel did a much better job of introducing more interesting and varied objectives. Which makes sense as the sequel is supposed to improve the original but playing the two titles back to back made me realize just how much worse the original’s campaign was in comparison.

Additionally, there were some multiplayer elements like being able to build my own level and playing against other players but it was rendered largely useless due to the lack of online matchmaking and as I didn’t know a single other person that owned this game, I couldn’t even take it for a spin to see if actually worked.

It’s not my fault for not having many friends. It’s clearly society’s fault. RIGHT?!

While not quite living up to the “Advance” moniker in its title, Advance Wars provides a satisfying SRPG experience with its solid strategic combat and a wealth of content- making it a worthwhile addition to the library of any die-hard SRPG fan.

Fun Tidbit: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the game’s excellent OST. Each of the COs had their own theme songs that felt perfect for their personality and some of the boss battles featured some fantastic arrangements of familiar tunes.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.