We sit at the nexus of video game remakes. Everything old is new again, no license goes unturned, and hell, if you’re the Ark developers you’re just going to turn off the original game’s servers and fire up some slightly shinier ones. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp brings Intelligent Systems’ perfectly tuned tactics title into the HD era, upgrading the visuals and adding a smattering of modern features along the way, but – and this is a question asked in the gentlest of tones – why?
Let’s start with what Advance Wars is. While Fire Emblem has utterly stolen the tactical limelight from its less fantastical sibling, it was originally Famicom Wars’ turn-based take on real-world conflict that set Intelligent Systems on the path to strategy gaming. Advance Wars then perfected the grid-based tactics, becoming one of the Game Boy Advance’s biggest hits and indelibly linked with Nintendo’s on-the-go system. While we then had a sequel – the campaign for which is included here – a glorious Nintendo DS entry in the shape of Dual Strike, and the slightly weird grittier attempt in Days of Ruin, we haven’t had a true Wars game since then.
In some ways, Re-Boot is late to the party. Advance Wars has already been privy to the HD era when it launched on the Wii U’s Virtual Console back in 2014. This brought with it the ability to stretch the original’s iconic visuals across our huge modern TVs as well as the Wii U gamepad, and whilethis is an absolutely personal preference, they continued to look just as lovely at 1080p as they did on the Game Boy Advance’s 240×160 screen. Sadly, with the recent closure of the Wii U’s eShop the only legitimate way to buy and play the originals is to buy a cart and console to play it on.
Since the game was plucked from the Game Boy Advance, the originals featured 16-bit pixel-art designs and they had to do a lot with a little. Each unit managed to evoke character, they’re all immediately identifiable, and they’re also undoubtedly cute despite the limited space to work with. Advance Wars Re-Boot has changed them, and after our preview session, I’m still trying to work out how I feel about it all.
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp – let’s just call it Re-Boot from now on – is certainly shinier. Light glints off the top of the softly-limbed soldiers’ helmets as they bumble their way into battle, and everything, from tanks to choppers, has a modern solidity that the original’s artwork did not. Enemy units are now also much clearer to differentiate from your Orange Star ones, emphasising the different factions going into battle, and there’s some really nice anime-styled cutscenes and character art that make Re-Boot really feel like a modern release. Do they have as much character as the originals? It’s difficult to say, though they’ve definitely grown on me as I’ve spent more time with them.
The tactics are fundamentally what it’s all about though, and Re-Boot is as perfectly tuned as it ever was. If you’re a returning player that may mean the opening feels a little bit on the easier side, but newcomers will likely enjoy being eased into the game’s straightforward charms before it really starts to put some pressure on you. Intelligent Systems originally crafted a chess-like conflict, and you have to get to know each unit’s strengths, weaknesses and movement abilities before you can master them. Following each encounter you’re then given a rating, bringing your own strategic weaknesses into stark relief, and giving a perfect reason to return to maps you’ve already beaten.
The other reason to return is so you can earn more currency to spend in the shop. Here you can use your hard-won loot to unlock multiplayer maps, in-game music, and some lovely artwork to peruse when you want to take time out from moving tiny tanks around. While Advance Wars was generally a fairly solitary endeavour, Re-Boot makes sure that its tactical battling can be done with friends, allowing up to four armies to meet in local multiplayer, or you can take things online with 1v1 duels against anyone around the globe. There’s the added bonus of being able to craft your own maps and then share them with your friends, proving to them that you are in fact the smartest, and that they will then rightfully quail in the face of your military might. Probably.
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp has been a long time coming, and as remakes go there’s been very little space for WayForward it to innovate or reinvigorate the formula, simply because it was nigh-on perfect the first time around. However, Re-Boot Camp is going to make the series accessible to a whole new generation of players, and anything that generates fresh interest in Intelligent Systems’ other series is alright in my book.
