Yeah I get why: Tears of the Kingdom, Xenoblade 3 Future Redeemed, Pikmin, etc, I got them all too.
Before we got the Fire Emblem series in the West, Nintendo and Intelligent Systems gave us Advance Wars, a series of military-themed turn based strategy games for the Game Boy Advance. This was likely many people’s first experience with turn based strategy, as the developers took extra care to make sure players knew everything they needed to know before really getting stuck into it. But over time, sales and interest gradually declined until the series fell into hibernation for a decade and a half.
In that timeframe, Fire Emblem had blossomed into a top tier mainstay franchise for Nintendo. There was always a little bit of hope from fans that Advance Wars would see their beloved series come back. But it seemed like Nintendo and IntSys were fully committed to Fire Emblem instead, [as they went on record stating they couldn’t figure out how to make FE’s relationship mechanics work for a new potential Advance Wars game](https://www.eurogamer.net/whats-keeping-nintendo-from-making-a-new-advance-wars).
But then at E3 2021, the same broadcast that revealed Tekken’s Kazuya in Smash Ultimate and Metroid Dread, came a franchise revival that nobody was expecting. We all thought Fire Emblem basically killed Advance Wars by this point, but clearly Nintendo trusted developer WayForward enough to hand them the keys to the franchise. It was originally scheduled to come out in December 2021, but the world had other plans and thus it was delayed all the way to April of this year. Anyways Advance Wars is *finally* out and in the public’s hands, so I’m gonna convince you why you absolutely should check this one out if you were ever interested in it!
**Loads of Content to Chew Through**
Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp features two full campaigns that will take you anywhere from 40-50 hours to see it all. On top of that, there’s an entire challenge mode called the War Room that has basically an entire campaign’s worth of extra maps to take on. And all of these maps give you a ranking based on your performance much like Bayonetta or any other Platinum game; the better you perform and the less units you lose, the better your rank at the end of each mission. These alone will last you a very long time well after the credits roll, especially if you wanna go for all S ranks. And I haven’t even mentioned the fact that you can even design your own maps and share them online with friends!
**Tons of Worthwhile Unlockables**
As you play through campaign or War Room missions, you’ll earn coins that can be spent in the Hachi shop to extend your play time. These include extra maps for War Room and multiplayer, music and artwork for the in-game gallery, and more playable characters for modes outside of the campaign! You’ll also unlock two special secret characters by clearing every single hidden mission in both campaigns as well, so that’s an extra incentive to go the distance. And just as an aside: isn’t it nice to actually unlock stuff in a game through your hard work and perseverance for once? Rather than have to way several months for “[exciting free content updates](https://youtu.be/29qaA3suXBk)” which oftentimes was just stuff that should’ve been included in the base game to begin with?
**No Romance or Relationship Fluff**
As amazing an experience as Fire Emblem Three Houses was, many fans and newcomers quickly grew tired of the large hub area you wander around in. This applies to a lesser extent in Fire Emblem Engage as well, since the hub area is much smaller in size. You were also encouraged to interact and talk to as many of the characters as possible in both games in order to see them grow and develop as units on the battlefield and as characters to get attached to. But plenty of folks out there don’t want to do that and just want to get on with the gameplay; they want to test out their skills and strategies against uncertain odds, not faff about and throw tea parties with questionably aged anime tropes. Luckily for those folks, Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp cuts out all the fat and just gives you a constant stream of tactics levels to test your skills. No character building or any romance stuff to be found here. That fact alone I’m sure is enough to get certain people to check this game out.
**My Favorite Soundtrack of the Year!**
Dude. Dude. This soundtrack. My god.
The original two games already had some of my favorite music on the Game Boy Advance, but WayForward knocked it out of the park here! And unlike the originals, this is a dynamic soundtrack as well, so you’ll get to hear different takes on each character’s theme depending on what’s happening.
If you weren’t interested in playing this game before, just take a listen to some of these tracks:
[Nell’s Theme](https://youtu.be/U-g0N1hqIKo)
[Sami’s Theme](https://youtu.be/ktubFQi4rk8)
[Eagle’s Theme](https://youtu.be/T5JMbk1spXY)
[Grit’s Theme](https://youtu.be/wO9htA3VXqk)
[Sensei’s Theme](https://youtu.be/24bM5zbKBbI)
[Lash’s Theme](https://youtu.be/V8rsIExfnEY)
Oh, one more random tidbit since I’m talking about the game’s audio: the main character Andy is voiced by Ash Ketchum. Like straight up. They even do their Ash Ketchum voice as well. It’s brilliant.
**Addressing the Common Criticisms…**
The two biggest complaints I see people have of the game are the new 3D graphics and the online multiplayer. I’ll start with the latter since it won’t take long I feel. The online is indeed restricted to friends only, which I understand people’s disappointment with, but I kinda get why random matchmaking wouldn’t work for this game. The meta would stagnate super hard if there was ranked online play, as certain characters are inherently better at tasks than others. And if this were to remain a faithful remake, the balance should not be changed. I completely understand, but there’s more than enough offline content elsewhere to sink your teeth into.
The other big complaint I see is with the new 3D art style in general. Pretty much everyone I saw at least agrees that the Shantae-esque 2D character portraits are an absolute delight to watch, but the in-game 3D models for the soldiers and vehicles and whatnot is a bit more mixed. As for me, I just never really saw the big deal about them. In fact in certain areas I feel the game benefits from this new visual style, such as the explosion effects from aircraft vehicles or the fact that I can zoom out and see the entire map without the screen becoming an incomprehensible mess of pixels. And being real, in the heat of the moment I’m not focusing on the graphics themselves; I’m focusing on how to win the match and plan the best course of action. Not to say people aren’t justified with not vibing with a game’s art style, just that I was able to look past that and enjoy the game. Same with the price too. If you’re waiting for a sale that’s totally fine, I’ve done that before as well with games I wasn’t confident with. Plus if people are willing to overlook Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s gloriously shit graphics and rampant technical problems for the asking price, I think they can accept this art style too haha.