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In the pantheon of timeless GBA games, Advance Wars is one of them I would immediately mention. It is up there with Final Fantasy Tactics, Golden Sun, (paid link) Mega Man Battle Network, Metroid Fusion, and Castlevania Advance. These are all the best non first party titles. Honorable mentions are Pokemon Leaf Green, Fire Red, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, Fire Emblem, Super Mario Advance and Mario Kart Advance. There are tons more, but these are the iconic ones.
Advance Wars helped normalize tactical strategy games on the Game Boy Advance when it was still building up a commendable library. I will explore the topic of the Advance Wars Reboot, Advance Wars: Reloaded.
Note: This is treated as a reboot for the (paid link) Nintendo Switch. I will make references to the older series, but my main focus will be on the (paid link) Switch version.
Synopsis
Imagine epic battles scattered across different landscapes, using varied terrain for tactical advantages or defense to create chokeholds against enemies and having the added bonus of specific commanders with powers to help boost your troops on the field. This is Advance Wars in a nutshell. It masters the rock, paper, scissors system, but adds more layers to this with a solid story. Different CO powers that all feel different enough to do multiple replays and the challenge of finding different strategies to win the main mission or finding a way to buy you time to run down the timer.
There will be some new elements added to this “reboot” of the game vs. what they kept as the core mechanics.
In this review, I will refer to the remake as (Reboot Camp) and the original series as (original).
Gameplay
Re-Boot Camp- the game is turn based. You are given a fixed number of units to command, a layout of the map, with different terrain and objects, as well as brief dialogue from the opposing commander. Your main protagonist is from the Orange Star Army and it doesn’t change often, except for specific missions that let you try out different characters. You take turns positioning your troops, tanks, artillery, planes or boats to line up for direct attacks on opposing units, guard certain areas or capture specific points for resources to make more units or capturing the HQ to end the mission.
As I mentioned earlier, this game makes brilliant use of the Rock -Paper-Scissors system. Tanks dominate infantry and recon units. Mech units (or rocket launcher troops) dominate infantry. Each head to head challenge gives you a percentage of how effective it is. For example, if you have a 12% chance to do damage, it’s likely it will round down and either do a little damage or none at all.
This system helps you devise strategy on where specific units need to go. I personally go after the heavy units first with either heavy artillery like rockets or bombers from the air or I use my smaller units to clear a path to capture critical resource points, like factories to produce more tanks or capturing airstrips to get fighters.
Also part of the gameplay is after X amount of successful attacks against your enemy, a meter will fill up and then you get to use your “CO” power. This equates to using a battlefield power to boost your units’ attack, defense, heal all of them if damaged, increase their view range for attacks or something else. The CO power depends on what commander you pick. The main CO I played as was Andy. His main ability is he heals all units on the field if they are damaged.
How does it compare to the OG?
Overall, gameplay is similar to the original. The core mechanics of the rock/paper/scissors system (or weakness/advantage system) have been kept intact as the foundation to propel you and the story forward.
I think Reboot Camp does a good job of honoring the original game and modernizing it for the switch. This is a change I’m okay with and it is newbie friendly for those that are new to tactical strategy games.
Sound
The soundtrack and effects in Reboot Camp retain that classic feel of the old series. This can be seen as a good thing or bad thing, but without directly playing the original games. I’d say the soundtrack is what I expected and wanted from the reboot. They don’t have to be direct translations of the original soundtrack, but I should be able to boot this game up and recognize immediately that it is Advance Wars.
There’s something charming about having the high pitched rhythm of the soundtrack to get you fired up to execute your full then before your enemy can devise something more sinister. Some other fans will have a mixed opinion about the soundtrack, but the only concern I have with it is the sound effects when you attack other units isn’t as exaggerated anymore. It is brief and to the point. This sucks away the magic of the first game as it gives more depth to each of these units getting hit.
How does it track vs. the Original?
The soundtrack is about the same or on the right level of variation compared to the original game. As mentioned above, the only drawback to the soundtrack is the effects when actively playing the game don’t seem to have much animated personality as the older games, when you would hear distinct explosions after setting your turn to go after enemy unit.
Features
In Reboot Camp
The game offers the standard campaign, a store to unlock maps and different characters, and a skirmish mode to just do free play or multiplayer online or with friends on the same console. I liked this innovation that you could play an entire co-op game with a friend and just trade off on turns.
The standard campaign is split up into 2 games. If you beat the first campaign, you unlock the second game and access to their characters. I read the game will randomly generate how likely it is to random generally.
You will also get graded A to S ranking. These rankings determine how fast, effective and decisive you were in battle. The higher ranking you get, the more coins you get to unlock in the bonus store later.
The main characters are diverse, yet they stay as they are. There are some characters I either haven’t seen before or the ones that stayed consistent, have new voice acting options to motivate you to ask questions and pass the class for college.
VS. The OG
Compared to the original game, the features are about the same. The War Room (or skirmish room) is there, there is an option to listen to the soundtrack, the store is open to unlock new characters, soundtracks, maps, and the campaign is split into their perspective entry. Luckily, this remake had the first 2, but it’s missing Days of Ruin and Dual Strike. This is a drawback, but having at least two solid entries of this game series helps take up all my time anyways.
Graphics
For Reboot
The best advantage of this remake is the graphics. The original advance wars stuck out to me because of how detailed, yet effective the details were on how they looked this game.
It is a mix of 3D and clear 2D style for direct battles. On the overworld map, it is 3D models. They work for this application but some are questionably bland. Like why remake a specific part of a game if you’re not going to take advantage of the 3D technology to clean up the sprites of the first game.
Vs The OG
the original game was clearly 2D with no 3D elements on the overworld map. This worked great for the original game series because our full attention was on little fliers.
Other Things
Another specific thing for this game vs. other tactical strategy games like Fire Emblem is there is no relationship building aspect of this game. To define what this is, after or between each mission, you have to talk to your teammates to get to know them more, give them gifts or figure out what their friendship level is to you. If you consistently built up your relationships , you would grant level bonuses to each character, as well as make them more effective in battle. The last entry of Advance Wars before this reboot was Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. It offered a post apocalypse take on this game. It was a darker tale in the series that had no connection to the main story.
The main reason why they halted the Advance War series after Days of Ruin is because they focused all their power on Fire Emblem games. I don’t consider this a bad thing. However the other drawback is Nintendo has a hold of some solid IPs they can use, but they pick a couple of niche games and start mass producing sequels. Then this causes an effect that ignores other IPs they have in their library. I wouldn’t mind seeing another Golden Sun series or sequel.
Overall I think both the remake and the original are about the same. The reboot camp is developed by WayForward, which has experience in making strong metroidvania games or niche action adventure games, like the classic The Messenger or the Beat’em up classic, River City Girls. The original game was developed by a company under Nintendo, called Intelligent Systems. They also worked on Fire Emblem. Choosing a different developer did not hold back the potential of this remake. I think as long as the spirit of the next game developer stays with a reboot, it can honor the legacy but also bring in some new ideas to build onto it.
Last thoughts
As a friend once said, the goal of a remake is giving it enough purpose and context on what the first game missed, with the limitations at the time. This new reboot of games expands a little bit, but I wish they could have done a little more to the graphical look of the units on the battlefield. The 3D units on the overworld map works, but the details are what make each of them pop up out of the screen. That said, I do welcome the voice acting and the color palettes of the full map, characters and units. The new additions to the game make it different enough to enjoy in the Switch Era, but it also makes me wish they could have added more from the earlier games. Any content from Days of Ruin would have been a bonus.
This remake should honor what the original company set out to create, while also pushing the game series forward to bringing in new fans, but give incentive for veteran players to pick up the game again.
For now, Reboot camp accomplishes all aspects in that for a reboot, it is fresh enough to treat as a new experience for me and wanting more.
I would recommend this game to veteran or new players of tactical strategy games or those that are familiar with Advance Wars
Charle Subketkaew is a passionate gamer, storyteller, and daydreamer. When he's not immersed in a fresh new video game, he also enjoys creating art, graphic design, spending time with friends, watching movies or anime, listening to a podcast or custom playlist, writing, collecting, working out, and scouting out his next weekend adventure.
He runs a design page and website, Fortis Ideas. This is an evolution of his design and media career over the span of a decade. He works with different creators in different disciplines on a multitude of projects to push himself to create new ideas.
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