Battalion Wars

"World's Best Game - Multiplayer = Battalion Wars"

The Advance War franchise has been hugely successful over the past few years but the good people at Nintendo began to realize that it wasn't accessible to everybody because it was basically a game of chess with lots of guns and let's face it, spontaneous violence is a lot more fun. So on September 19th 2005, Nintendo released Battalion Wars a real time version of Advance Wars for the Gamecube, and we were not disappointed.

STORY

The story of Battalion Wars has been basically lifted from a WII history textbook and that of Advance Wars; you play as the commander of the Western Frontier and are initially at war with the neighboring Tundran Territories, from here on there are all numbers of contrived reasons that result in you rampaging across the Dune Sea, Xylvania and the Solar Empire. Your enemies will usually be the Xylvanians though you fight the Iron Legion as well. The Characters are quite funny sometimes and most of the mission names are slightly renamed versions of old movies (i.e. Bridge on the River Styx = Bridge on the River Kwai)

In short, while slightly amusing, the story's only purpose is to hold the game together while you have a lot of fun and for that: 7/10

CONTROLS

The controls are initially a huge pain in the rear end but fortunately the game starts you off with fewer troops, which require less managing. As you progress you will begin to find that the controls are actually quite a good extension of yourself and will serve you well. The use of the C-Stick does make the controls a bit awkward sometimes but nevertheless: 8/10

GAMEPLAY

Here's where Battalion Wars really starts moving, the gameplay is fast-paced with a huge variety of units ranging from the lowly grunt to the almighty Strato-fortresses, the gameplay involves lots of death and violence but somehow Nintendo has managed to put a light hearted spin on it without making it too childish. If this is the category you look at when you buy a game then this is the game for you: 10/10

GRAPHICS

The graphics are the of the level to be expected from a later second-gen game, they are slightly cartoony but the units are easily distinguishable from each other and the terrain serves its purpose well, the mini-map is colorful and every nation's units look different. They are not magnificent but certainly make it a pleasure to blow things up: 8/10

SOUND

The game has the standard semi-symphonic music that can be found on any RTS, with a tense version, a victorious version, and an adrenalin version. When units are selected they sometimes say generic tough guy lines like “don't get mad, get even”. Some of the characters have really good accents that are so extreme that you begin start speaking like them yourself, on the other hand there are the screeching voices of some of the female characters get incredibly annoying and make you want to smash the screen (namely Ingrid and Betty). All in all it's not bad though not memorable: 6/10

Battalion Wars is one of the better games out there, it has a diverse range of units, characters and terrain for you to sink you teeth into, the only thing this game lacks is a multiplayer but that can be expected in the upcoming sequel. It is a light-hearted and incredibly fun war game that will keep you entertained for hours: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/06