This might be one of the most difficult reviews, I've done so far since reviewing Fire Emblem Engage. Because I have so many mixed feelings about WayForward’s remake of Advance Wars(AW) 1 + 2. Full of ups and downs. And yet, I'm still not satisfied after ruminating for over a week. But in the interest of not having to stare at my google docs page for more time than necessary, this will be the final time I have to type this out after overhauling my thoughts several times. So here goes.

Let’s talk about the huge disgusting tank out of the way. I completely agree with all the reviews panning the games under three stars. The biggest, glaring fault must be the unfaithful 3D representation that takes out the rugged and lil dirty look from the Gameboy Advance(GBA) era. You can see in Vee’s review with pictures and greater detail. To add oil onto this fire truck of a situation. I also found the ‘Vtuber animation style’ coined by TyphoonSwell. Accurate as well. And I couldn’t stop musing on the matter during my playthroughs. The shiny visual style Wayforward recreated under is a persistent style that continues well into the 2nd campaign. Which slowly increased my dislike for the visuals. As someone who enjoys remasters and remakes. This one aspect disappointed me. Since there are other games that I feel do remakes or remasters justice. Like Bluepoint Games with Shadow of the Colossus. Crash Bandicoot trilogy by Vicarious Visions and Spyro trilogy from Toys for Bob. These developers I believe faithfully recreate the original experience under modern lenses. Here I don’t see that as much. Graphics-wise. Granted it could be worse, making a remake that could not run well, plagued with bugs and glitches galore, sound effects not correct and voice sync is off. They could’ve made too many changes to the remake which I would equate to a re-imagining such as Final Fantasy VII remake. I’m grateful in some ways Wayforward didn’t completely butcher AW 1 + 2. Probably in a worse timeline they did. But, I can take a small measure of satisfaction, they didn’t completely massacre it like my favorite RTS Warcraft 3: Reforged turned out at launch…oof…

Voice acting are another issue. Each character is voiced, but after saying their first lines, no voiceover(VO) follows. With the rest of the sentences unvoiced. I’m not sure whether this is a bug or simply the development team ran out of budget to properly voice all the lines. But to me, the result is a jarring mess when I expect lines to occur as I read their text dialogue. Either go all out on the voice acting or take it out altogether. Don't make me expect something that isn't there. Furthermore, I feel it's worth noting. NocturnalFudj had the same issue as well. I'm glad I am not alone in experiencing this.

Additionally, The bundle has been delayed too long by Nintendo due to a war that occurred last year in Europe. And I cannot for the life of me wonder how much of it was seriously a delay when the product hasn’t changed drastically to the point you need to delay for over a year since the announcement. Other games with similar development delays & changes due to world events are Metal Gear Solid 2 experienced major changes to the ending and hell even Grand Theft Auto III was changed with the color scheme, art, etc. affected. GTA III was delayed three weeks while the former did not experience a delay. And yet here we are for AW 1+2 reboot camp needing a year to make what substantial changes? The story starts with an invasion! Oh. My. God… My facial expression is the most exasperated I could make. Big sigh

Last critique. I wish there is a rewind button to fix slight errors or you make a big tactical mistake. Previous Intelligent System titles such as Fire Emblem Engage and their predecessor Fire Emblem: Three Houses had a rewind mechanic as well as another strategy RPG, Tactics Ogre: Reborn. So I don’t suppose it's too hard for Wayforward to add it in just in case you mess up. It's pretty brutal having to do an hour plus during a mission and fail. Making the player have to restart from the very beginning once again. It’s soul-crushing. And while there is a ‘reset turn’ button available. It only resets your current turn. So you have to play very carefully and make sure each decision counts before moving. 2nd I wish an enemy range button existed. This way you can see the total number of enemies possible attack range. I had to select every unit to triple-check that I can get the most out of my unit's distance without being attacked in return. And finally, I wish the 2nd and 1st embraced deeper or extra radical mission objectives. The 2nd improves on the victory parameters. However, I did see a bit of copy and paste in the endgame where you have to destroy yet another pipe or cannon. This wouldn’t become so egregious if we had diverse mission objectives; Surviving for an ‘x’ amount of turns, escorting ‘x’ units to a corner of the map, and mixing up the destroyed objectives with extra interesting encounters. Stopping a big Neotank before it escapes. Or eliminate a wave of enemies while protecting your base. Defend your bases and allies against naval and air assault while contending with enemies at your flank. Ok, that might be a bit too brutal. But hopefully, you get the point.

Moving on. I never got the chance to try the Advance Wars series on the GBA in my younger days. So when the announcement of AW 1+2 was being remade, I became very excited. I’ve heard AW over the years as another franchise Intelligent Systems developed. And as a casual Fire Emblem fan, my reaction was something along the lines of “Ooooohhh modern Fire Emblem? But not really.” So this is a newcomer’s perspective.

For those who don’t know Advance Wars is a turn-based strategy title set in a fictional world where multiple colored-named countries fight using modern warfare except think of it comparatively to toy warfare. In the first campaign, you play Andy, a commanding officer(CO) in the Orange Star nation under the leader of Nell. In the beginning, there was peace until the Blue Moon nation(led by Olaf) attacked. That’s the main start for the plot to roll around. For the second campaign, I won’t say since the campaign selection is covered until you beat the 1st AW(But you can jump right into the 2nd with no problem). A great way to keep things spoiler-safe for newcomers.

In early missions, you can blaze on through pretty fast once you know what each unit can do and what they’re effective against, similar to chess. Forget notions of weapon triangles from Fire Emblem and embrace different unit compositions. Where an anti-air unit can be very effective against a foot soldier haha. Most missions will have you defeat all enemy units or capture the headquarters. There are other win parameters as well, but I won’t go through the whole list. You control a variety of units from land, sea, and even air. I found the diversity in my army to be a good thing, because I could choose any soldier or vehicle in my command for the right situation. I could choose a medium tank over the tank(Yes there is a difference in tanks). Or the battleship to replace my submarine. Although these units are costly they can be worth the price if used effectively. The inverse can also be true. Sometimes you don’t need to pay so much money to create a unit to take down a medium tank. A combination of baiting the enemy to key locations to a road that has zero defense is better than fighting, when they have the terrain advantage, acting as if they’re stationed on a tree tile. The trick is to use the most of the units you're given. Enough to damage them in the most crushing manner and as a result cripple their combat capability. So using soldiers as fodder, artillery from behind, a combination of sea, and air vehicles, and using a mix of mechanical infantry can turn the tide of battle in your favor. Hell, I love using the APC vehicle which is a supply unit and functions as a fast storage vehicle to carry my foot soldiers across great distances as bait. Which will the A.I. target? Surely not the tank?! They fired at my APC vehicle!

Honestly, playing around with these units and building them when certain missions allowed me to is great. A decent spread of map variety here. You can fight in open plains with roads, navigating through a mountainous region with a forest nearby. Once you throw water and rivers into the mix, the difficulty gradually increases as you unlock new powerful additions to your forces, new terrain to consider, and new enemy units into the equation. A nice pace to steadily nudge players along bit by bit and teach and reward them. A fair balance, whereas other titles throw you off the deep end. And ask you to climb a tall cliff. Reminds me of my time playing Starcraft and Warcraft back in the day and recently Wargroove. A fantasy strategy turn-based indie similar to Advance Wars. Feels good to head back to familiar roots here with AW and see how the franchise has gone off to inspire indies to the same degree Warside and Empires shall Fall Both titles are currently in development.

Gameplay-wise, for those who have never tried a turn-based title. Advance Wars starts with you the player controlling a set amount of units. You start a turn by moving and attacking any force on a map. Once you use all of your vehicle and infantry's actions you can end your turn. Then the opponent's forces will advance. The process repeats until either side wins. However, there is a cool gimmick to this. You and the enemy leader can activate their respective abilities. For Andy, once his meter fills up you can repair all of your unit's health +2 & +10 to firepower and defense. Olaf’s ability changes the whole battlefield to snow, increasing movement costs for all units except his own. Olaf’s forces gain +10 in firepower and defense. New COs’ abilities are different. Capable of adding substantial adjustments to the battlefield than changing numbers. If used at the right time they can change the fate of a battle in your favor. So use them when you're in a pinch. Just be careful, the leader can use their ability to inch closer to victory. These mechanics largely stay the same in the 2nd campaign. With extra CO abilities because of new commanders and a greater map variety with large cannons and pipes. AW 2 is pretty neat. The sequel I feel is better since they expanded on victory objectives. They can range from destroying a large cannon, multiple small cannons, and even a small pipe behind a big cannon. Missions take a bit longer to complete than in the first installment, but overall I found it better than their predecessor due to the map variety and mission objectives. Also, the villains are more menacing in the 2nd game than the first. An improvement over the first installment. Very refreshing to beat them mercilessly, who assumes they can beat me? Tsk tsk tsk. Don't underestimate the kid with a big wrench.

For AW 1. My experience is a positive one, despite the harsh critique I stated earlier. Took me over eighteen hours to complete the main story. Enjoyed fighting on various maps and utilizing a good spread of my units. There’s a lot of strategy involved and even when the fog of war maps came in, the difficulty didn’t waver in the slightest. In the old versions, the A.I. could cheat. Here that’s not possible anymore. Which is a cool tidbit to learn about. Plus, I found the usage of CO powers an awesome way to spice up the gameplay beyond commanding your troops. They provide a fair way to tussle against the enemy commander while supplementing your forces. Granting a layer of strategy to expect. Should I activate my ability now? Or wait until they use theirs? These questions will undoubtedly pop up as hypothetical scenarios of where to place your forces on land, sea, or air. Or if you need a bit of a boost to your forces in a dire situation.

For AW 2. My experience was still positive. Took me over twenty-six hours to complete the main story. And I believe it is a better sequel than the first with better villains to fight. And new commanders to choose from. Also, the player can choose to progress in a non-linear fashion by choosing different factions to start in the middle of the game. Start missions from Yellow Comet or Blue Moon and Green Earth are pretty wicked choices instead of always commanding troops from the same nation again and again. The difficulty is a bit increased, but as a sequel, I feel they function fine for the new changes to the gameplay. Not too much to be rage-inducing while not being too easy on classic difficulty. Moreover, your CO power is upgraded. If you wait a while, you can activate a supercharged move. This is a great way for players to reward those who patiently wait for their meter to increase or for those who immediately use their CO power once available. The choice is yours.

I want to say one last thing before I head out. Since this review is getting too long for my tastes and I apologize for that. I don’t want to make a review to put you off the game. I’m merely stating my experience and hope my review helps you in some fashion to understand another piece in the pie for AW 1 + 2 discussion in general. Despite the harsh critique I said in the beginning. I think the bundle is fine for anyone looking for other turn-based strategy goodness. Solid enough to hold your hand, but enough to keep you on your toes. The plot is decent. I didn’t expect anything amazing. Those who expect a simple story will be left with some measure of satisfaction upon completing either of the two campaigns. And a main cast I found to be endearing at times. Andy’s straightforwardness despite being a loveable dork. To the overprotective Kanbei for his daughter Sonja. Grit and even Eagle I like as well. The music is good. My favorite would be the Orange Star National Anthem. For some reason, I’m receiving Fire Emblem vibes from the track. Orange Star Theme I love how upbeat it is. And if I was isekai’d into the Wars World, I would immediately travel and enlist in their nation. The gameplay is all right, despite the critique I said earlier. I believe the mechanics are optimal enough to grasp as long as you can remember what each unit does and what they're effective against.

I also want to plug in a useful website to offer some helpful tips for anyone. Looking to play AW 1 + 2 These tips helped me immensely, so I feel more people should know about it just in case. I failed horribly in the first mission since I was operating with a Fire Emblem(FE) mindset. Despite the fact, FE & AW were made by the same company.

So, if you’re looking to try out Wayforward’s take on Advance Wars. I think Re-Boot camp is fine to play for newcomers or the original versions on the GBA. I sincerely hope the bundle sells enough, so we can see a new entry for fans in the series. And perhaps we can see Dual Strike and Days of Ruin come ashore in the future. Remade properly. Hopefully, the developers learn their lessons here and improve. But the future is uncertain, so we’ll see if that bears fruit.


Score for AW 1: 7/10
Score for AW 2: 7.5/10
Score for bundle: 7.25/10
Final note: I played both games on classic difficulty.
An option to play on ‘Casual’ is available.