

Air units complicate matters somewhat, with helicopters effective at taking out most vehicles but incredibly weak to anti-air defences.Īfter putting a handful of hours into A dvance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, these counters are second nature and so my time is now spent trying to suss out the individual missions and their unique parameters to snatch wins. Tanks can easily kill infantry but are less mobile and both will be messed up at long range by artillery, although will find victory much easier if they can get close. Infantry can capture buildings, scale mountains and cross rivers.
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In its simplest form, combat is a series of moving counters. Your units can heal at towns and build units from the latter locations. Infantry can capture towns, factories, docks and airfields. The combat in Re-Boot Camp is easy to get to grips with. Still, the highlight of Re-Boot Camp from an aesthetic standpoint is when a commander uses their special commander power, bellowing it out like an anime character as they steal the spotlight. The models are bright and simple, and serve to make the hideous loss of life more bearable through the magic of large brightly coloured models.Īdvance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp. However, given some time you’ll see it’s not all that different.

It’s a big step from the pixelly sprites of the original games, and is a change that put me off Re-Boot Camp at first, even if the spirit of the models is the same. The most obvious addition is the new art style, which replaces 2D art with 3D models viewed from the same angle. This is probably why developer WayForward (teaming up with publishers Nintendo on development duty) hasn’t changed too much at all, delivering the same feeling of the original game with a few additions. Wargroove, a spiritual successor, emerged in 2019 but it didn’t capture the same thrill of rolling bright orange tanks around a battlefield, painting the map to your colour while a 13-year-old general yelled things like “I haven’t even cranked the engine yet!” and “I can fix anything!”īig changes here, then, could have upset a lot of people. The series evaporated after 2008’s Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, leaving fans eager for more. Sadly, the series then vanished into the reeds in favour of Fire Emblem, no doubt because right-thinking gamers can’t get horny for tanks, so the relationship mechanics that were endearing fans to their Fire Emblem titles just weren’t applicable here.

I did little else but play Advance Wars on my tiny pearl blue Game Boy Advance SP that week and a lifelong obsession with Intelligent Systems’ lesser-known turn-based tactics franchise followed.Īdvance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp. Instead, it gave me an appreciation for Advance Wars 2, the game I was allowed to purchase on the drive up from the south coast with the understanding that I’d keep my mouth shut no matter what familial nonsense occurred.

Sorry if you’re from Wisbech, but I am not and the week I spent in a converted train carriage sleeping on a blow-up airbed listening to my family yelling at each other didn’t endear me to the place. One autumn my family decided in their infinite wisdom that we would go and holiday in Wisbech. This isn’t a problem for me, an unashamed Advance Wars fan. Here, the strategy feels no less pressing, but it’s easy enough to master as soon as you understand the rules you’re given. However, the game itself is very simple, and while it is tightly designed, it could feel a little constricting for players that expect their strategy games to be teeming with interconnected systems. READ MORE: Video game music wouldn’t be the same without Ryuichi Sakamoto.The turn-based rock-paper-scissors combat still feels fresh, and there’s something very satisfying This, despite the fact Advance Wars 2 is 20 years old at this point. Squint a little, buy into the nostalgia and suddenly Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp feels like a new game.
