Advance Wars Re-Boot Camp

[Zaxxon]

This one surprised me in Nintendo's E3 reel today. I am totally in. Loved the old AW games.

[Torfish]

Loved this game. I'm all in on the re-boot.

[Sudy]

I have fond memories of playing these while I was laid up with sciatica about 15 years ago. I think I got the first two (GBA) in a bundle I purchase with a DS from a fell forum member.

I didn't really care for how the difficulty ramped though. Stealth was annoying to fight against, and the latter levels were too puzzly for my tastes.

[Daehawk]

Had it for the GBA SP. Got lots of hand cramps playing it. Never got super far though and it became repetitive. Plus I got tired of missing so many enemies on attacks after a while.

[wonderpug]

Well, it's one of my favorite game series of all time so I'm in on day 1... but I wish it was more than just a remake of the two games I played the most. "Advance Wars 1& 2.... plus a third all new campaign!" would make me a lot happier.

[Zaxxon]

Well, it's one of my favorite game series of all time so I'm in on day 1... but I wish it was more than just a remake of the two games I played the most. "Advance Wars 1& 2.... plus a third all new campaign!" would make me a lot happier.

TBH this is my biggest disappointment with Nintendo's E3 reel. Lot of good stuff coming (eg BotW2), but the near-term stuff is Mario Golf, Metroid Dread (which I'm happy about), and a bunch of full-priced re-makes (eg Zelda Skyward Sword, Mario Party Superstars, Advance Wars Re-Boot).

Was really hoping for a 2021 release of either MP4 or BotW2, and I got neither. Expected that in 2020, but not for this year.

[baelthazar]

Well, it's one of my favorite game series of all time so I'm in on day 1... but I wish it was more than just a remake of the two games I played the most. "Advance Wars 1& 2.... plus a third all new campaign!" would make me a lot happier.

I wish it was a new game too, but it has been a LONG time since I played those, so I am happy to have an upgraded version. Instant buy for me.

[hitbyambulance]

will probably get it for my brother (who never played the originals) and the nephews for xmas

(really, i just want it for myself, but i don't have a Switch)

[Zaxxon]

Delayed from December to spring.

Disappointing, but my backlog, future game log, and spending log are all larger than desired at present, so I'll live.

[Zaxxon]

Delayed again, this time Putin's fault.

[Sudy]

I get it from a business sense, but it seems kind of shallow. There's frequently horrific conflict going on somewhere in the world. And it can probably be argued that Advance Wars glorifies war much less than, say, COD does. (Though I'm sure we'd also see delays from other big war games if any were being released right now. But, for how long? The conflict in Ukraine isn't going to be over overnight.)

On the flipside, I'd been thinking about getting back into Civ6 and the events in Ukraine definitely made me think of it differently. Especially the modern-era stuff. Maybe it's long past time to reevaluate how warfare is portrayed in games media. The majority of gamers have had absolutely no contact with these kinds of heartbreaking circumstances in the real world, myself included. (Though I know there are obviously big exceptions. Those are opinions that should be heard.) It's said that every war film is an anti-war film. Can you say the same about war games? I don't know. I honestly haven't engaged with most modern military games for a while now.

Anyway, I'm sure there's some nuance I may be missing here.

[Zaxxon]

I think it has more to do with a major faction in Advance Wars, Blue Moon, being modeled after Russia.

[El Guapo]

I think it has more to do with a major faction in Advance Wars, Blue Moon, being modeled after Russia.

It is silly, though - the game has nothing to do with the actual conflict, even if one faction is loosely modeled on Russia. They could be right to do this from a PR perspective to avoid "Tone Deaf Nintendo Releases War Game During War" or something like that, but it doesn't really make any logical sense.

[Isgrimnur]

Since when has logic been applicable to marketing and business decisions?

[Zaxxon]

No doubt.

Interesting digression: the original Advance Wars was released in North America on 9/10/2001. Other geographies were then delayed.

[El Guapo]

Also entirely possible that they wanted to delay it for other reasons but the headlines are much better if they do it due to sensitivity over war then if it's "this game still sucks and needs more time in development" reasons.

[Zaxxon]

This was finally released yesterday. I pre-ordered but haven't had a chance to fire it up yet. Any first impressions?

[wonderpug]

I’m having a lot of fun with it so far, about 5 missions into the campaign. The new animations and voices for the COs seem really well done, and the gameplay is the same as before (in a good way).

My only grimple so far is that I can’t figure out a way to preview the attack range of enemy indirect fire units. I can see their movement range, but I could’ve sworn there used to also be a way to see what squares they could attack. Even if I’m just misremembering, it seems like a modern convenience they should have added in.

edit: never mind! You just hold B to see damage range.

[Zaxxon]

I've just gone through the tutorial so far, but the nostalgia is strong.

[LordMortis]

Can I play it one handed? I never had a Nintendo before or played these, but Into the Breach looks like it pulled heavily from this and I loved that game. I even have ItB reinstalled as something I can play one handed when I get distracted from my time with Battle Brothers.

[wonderpug]

Can I play it one handed? I never had a Nintendo before or played these, but Into the Breach looks like it pulled heavily from this and I loved that game. I even have ItB reinstalled as something I can play one handed when I get distracted from my time with Battle Brothers.

I don't believe there's any touchscreen support, so you can't just use one hand to control things on the screen. The gameplay involves a lot of moving the cursor with the left stick or pad and then selecting things with the A button on the right, but since everything is turn-based there's no need to be quick with the controls and you don't have to simultaneously do anything with left and right joy-cons. You can use the shoulder buttons to select the next available unit, which can cut down a bit on the need to use the left controls.

As for comparisons to Into the Breach, this game is generally more strategic and less puzzly than Into the Breach, but there are definitely situations that come up that have a similar puzzly feel.

[LordMortis]

With the need for the right hand, I'll hold off for now. I can do limited right hand stuff now, but it's not fun and I'm not sure if it does more harm than good with my right arm being injured the way it is. Maybe I'll revisit in a few weeks and wishlist this.