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.
by Asad_Farooqui
37 Comments
i don’t feel like the game is overlooked at all?
I don’t want to sound like that guy, but I thought it reviewed very well and is the best selling game in the Advance Wars series, or something like that?
I would have loved to get it when it was originally apposed to be released. Then they delayed it and I lost all interest. Now I’ll wait until it’s convenient. Nintendo shouldn’t have delayed this game for two years.
They want full price for a remastered game from 20 years ago. I vote with my wallet on business decisions like that.
I’m excited to get it, I’m just personally waiting for it to hit $40 before I bite since my backlog is so long already. Maybe Black Friday will be my time
I have 90 hours of playtime only completing the 2 Main Campaigns. And when I feel like playing I always go to War Room or I can start the Advanced Campigns (If I feel like suffering).
The game still has the CO Power Activation crash though, not a big deal on Single Player because the game auto-saves each turn, but it makes multiplayer a gambling if it goes on for too long. It should be patched out ASAP.
I got the game and it should be overlooked until it’s like $30 or $40. It got nowhere near the enjoyment I did out of any other $60 release from Nintendo and I grew up with the game. Game is still great, but unless it comes up that there will be seasonal updates, matchmaking, and other cool online features it just isn’t worth the high price tag.
Too expensive. Waiting for a price drop.
I don’t think it’s necessarily overlooked; it’s just a more niche game.
I have no doubts it’s a great game. It’s just way too expensive. I enjoyed playing the GBA (and later DS) games in the franchise but $60 for this is too much for me.
Will consider at $30.
I want Advance Wars: Days of Ruin re-released so badly. It was my favourite and I’d love to see it again. If there’s any success for 1+2 Reboot Camp, I’m pumped
This is a collection of the Advance Wars GBA games
Trust me when I say its not because they are overlooked, they are already popular, just that the reboot camp is quite literally a repackage of the gba games so theres no point in talking so much about it
Its well reviewed and all but it dropped in a busy season. There are a crazy amount of AAA titles out there right now. Plus it’s a bit overpriced imo.
We also have to remember that in Japan the series is basically dead. From my understanding the reboot games never even released there, the last game to release in Japan was back when Dual Strike came out in 2005 which sold very poorly.
The series has never sold well and it’s definitely more niche than other Nintendo franchises. But I agree it’s a series more people should play. Hoping we get a brand new entry at some point.
Love Advance Wars, I own all but this remake (and Famicon Wars)
This is too expensive for two old, remastered Gameboy games. Pikmin 1+2 is two Gamecube games for less. The price makes no sense to me.
Even on market price, I could probably find both originals and a gameboy advance for cheaper. Nintendo could charge $100 for pikmin and it would still be “worth” it over tracking down the originals.
My major issue comes from the fact that you can’t save a multiplayer campaign, my friends and I used to have long drawn out campaigns over multiple sessions. You were allowed to save them on the Gameboy, you should be allowed to do the same in this.
Overlooked: No
Overpriced: Yes
>Before there was the Fire Emblem series, Nintendo and Intelligent Systems gave us Advance Wars, a series of military-themed turn based strategy games for the Game Boy Advance
This is weirdly phrased, both series came out on the NES.
I can’t stand the visuals.
Too expensive. Should be like 40 bucks.
I really don’t like the new art style 🤮
And its price point.
I’ll grab it when it becomes cheaper because OG advance wars were awesome.
If you like Advance Wars you’ll probably like Wargroove.
The art style makes me feel like im playing with lego characters or something.
I personally think the game looks ugly. And thars why i stayed away from the reboot
They never should have delayed this game. What a terrible time to release it
I blame the super long delay of the release.
I was super stoked to get it back then but now I’m just whatever on it.
I mean the people who love Advance Wars bought it. They suggested it to everyone. At the end of the day though the devs did the bare minimum to charge $60 and Nintendo’ed the shit out of the online so no one should be the least bit surprised if it feels underappreciated or swept under the rug by bigger titles.
It took to long to come out, War Groove filled the gap! It doesn’t help that War Groove is REALLY GOOD too!
My problem with it is that it looks worse than the original. I’d rather just play the GBA version.
The artstyle does not help
I can’t justify buying a game I already own on GBA/DS, I consider it inferior due to the art style tbh. I loved the pixelated look of the older games and can’t find a reason to buy them twice
Not only that but they’re easily download able as ROMs if I ever want to play through them again on my phone
Ok? Do you really need others to continuously praise the game for you to enjoy it? These posts are so dumb.
I’d gladly buy it at the $30 price point
Lol this is an amazing ad. I wonder how much Nintendo is paying the Media Agency to come up with this “organic content”?
Not overlooked lol, you can gush about your fav game all you want you don’t have to frame like an underdog.
Sounds like advertising
Not only is OP wrong on several points, but this game, its delay, and its eventual release all received significant attention from this community. OP’s use of “criminally” underrated is completely unjustified.