Battalion Wars

By Kristan Reed Published 7 July, 2005

Can Kuju Advance to Go?

Nintendo got the message, then. When the Japanese giant first rolled Advance Wars: Under Fire into public view last year there were more than a few murmurs of discontent among the faithful when they saw Kuju's action-heavy interpretation of the classic turn-based strategy series. It's not that it was a bad game as such, but the bottom line was that it simply wasn't Advance Wars. If you can imagine turning Chess into a cutesy third person strategy-laced action adventure and then asking Gary Kasparov to express his righteous indignation, you've probably got some idea of the extent of the backlash against what Kuju was planning.

Evidently Nintendo backed down, and now Cube owners can instead look forward to a game that's merely inspired by Intelligent System's beloved series rather than attempting to radically reinvent it in the way that so many 3D reworkings have done over the years. Frankly, for every good 3D remake of a classic 2D concept, there are dozens of hideous aberrations that have killed the brand for good. One day we'll thank Nintendo for doing the right thing.

Backtracking on Advance

If you weren't aware of all that already, you might wonder what all the fuss was about. Battalion Wars, it turns out, is actually shaping up to be a decent addition to the Cube in its own right. Taking the basic premise of Advance Wars and sprinkling in elements of the original's gameplay and presentation, our early impressions are of a game that stands out on the Cube. Not only does it manage to bring the real time strategy concept to the GameCube successfully, but it does so with an intuitive control system and a refreshingly at-odds-with-the-subject-matter visual style.

But before we flesh out why we came to those conclusions, what's the game about? Well, so far Nintendo has revealed that the game is set in the "dark days" at the end of the 21st Century. "What started as a border spat between the Western Frontier and the Tundran Territories has snowballed into a terrifying global conflict", the blurb states.

Limping through the "seemingly endless war", a "despotic madman" called Kaiser Vlad (suitably evil, wouldn't you say?), is looking to turn the stalemate to his own nefarious ends and take control of both flagging nations.

Kaiser Chef

'Battalion Wars' Screenshot 1

Check out the boots on that.

Apparently, The Kaiser is hungry for revenge after his country was annexed during the war, and he's using his offshore funds to some "unholy science" in order to create "a terrible army of super powerful, gas-breathing, Chemical Shock Troops". E-Yikes. Launching a shock attack on the two superpowers, they're "seemingly helpless" against their new enemy. Faced with almost certain defeat, the two warring factions join forces to defeat the evil madman.

In the game itself you take charge of the Western Frontier forces, and it true Advance Wars-style you are initially briefed with some text-based chat by your leader General Herman, Colonel Austin and the ever-helpful Betty, who all chime in with mission briefings, objective updates and helpful intel in taking on the Kaiser's forces. As with Advance Wars, it's full of light hearted banter, and even has the same cutesy close-ups of their faces, complete with facial expressions and the like.

But that's about where the AW comparisons end, as the game itself plays very much like a zoomed-in real time PC RTS rather than a top-down, turn-based war game. The first thing that struck us was the flexible degree of control over your troops that lets you guide your merry platoon around just as easily as going it alone.

War has never been so much fun?

'Battalion Wars' Screenshot 2

Control over your troops is a breeze.

The fairly short-lived playable demo that Nintendo has been showing off since E3 puts you in charge of a ready-made band of soldiers including a posse of infantrymen, a few anti-armour troops armed with bazookas, along with a jeep, and a tank. You only have direct control of one soldier at a time, but your throng of killing machines do a decent job of following behind sensibly, and can be intuitively instructed to perform a number of moves.

Accessing each unit type is a breeze, and once highlighted (with the C stick) you can command them to take up attack positions, send them to a point on the map, or simply follow you. As we mentioned, the controls are slick and easy to get to grips with, and feature a lock-on to help direct your aim, while some exaggerated dive and roll moves let you perform all sorts of acrobatic craziness in real time.

Usefully, you can micromanage each unit, allowing you to jump into the shoes of any of your soldiers and carry on the fight. For example if you see that one of them is low on health (displayed via an icon bar) you can quickly switch to them and take them out of the heat of the battle if you so choose

Gung-ho

'Battalion Wars' Screenshot 3

"Highway to thaaaa Danger Zone!"

As you'd expect from any RTS worth its salt, you can approach the battle however you choose; a certain degree of stealth is certainly a wise option, but if you fancy storming in all guns blazing you can do just that if you feel the time is right to take the fight to the Kaiser's troops. Later in the game we're promised much more powerful units and vehicles, including the ability to take up multiple positions such as gunner and driver on the tanks and jeeps, while helicopters, airborne gunships, fighter jets, transport vehicles and more are promised. In terms of the soldiers' arsenal, expect: rifles, bazookas, flamethrowers, machine guns, mortars, rocket launchers and "many others" over the 20 odd missions.

Visually it's probably one of those you'll either love or hate, with a light-hearted cartoony style that deliberately favours exaggerated jumping movements that make the soldier look like they're performing under peculiar gravity conditions. If you took the character illustrations of Advance Wars and put them into a third person 3D game, they'd look a bit like this. Funny that.

Multiplayer antics were sadly absent from the demo at this stage, so we're unable to comment on what Kuju has planned at this stage.

So far we're encouraged by what we've seen of Battalion Wars. With so few interesting releases forthcoming on the Cube, Kuju's effort is shaping up to be a game to watch in the run up to Christmas. With the game's US release set for September 19th, expect to see a more considered verdict soon.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (32) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • rare_uk #1 7 years ago

    God this first impressions early - 07:30.

    This looks quite nice. Can't wait for a review

    Edit: Might be a reason for me to get a Freeloader
    Edited by 1 at 07/07/05 @ 08:11

  • Lutz #2 7 years ago

    Looking better that it did, that's for sure!

  • therev #3 7 years ago

    This actually sounds quite interesting.

    I think I'll cautiously look forward to it, while trying to remember that I'm rubbish at strategy games. (I'd be great if the enemy moved in exactly the way I always expected; my plans are cunning but inflexible.)

  • Ecanem #4 7 years ago

    Hmmm not a fan of strategy games.. at all.. could this still be fun? (going-in gung ho is more my (lack of) style..)

  • Genji #5 7 years ago

    Well, it's in real-time, so I'm out.

  • OldWormsFan #6 7 years ago

    /me wants now!

    GAME OF THE YEAR!

  • Baronen #7 7 years ago

    Mmmmmm... No thanks.

    /sticks with the ace GBA versions
    /looks forward to the DS version
    /
    /
    ///

  • OldWormsFan #8 7 years ago

    "/sticks with the ace GBA versions
    /looks forward to the DS version "

    Theres a GDA/DS version of Battalion Wars??? Where?????

  • Lutz #9 7 years ago

    I think he means the DS version of Advance Wars, which is in the pipeline. :)

  • Blerk #10 7 years ago

    Meh.

    /waves hand

  • OldWormsFan #11 7 years ago

    ...But this isnt advance wars, its Battalion Wars.

    So how can he compare?

  • Bezzy #12 7 years ago

    I like the sound of this a lot. Smart move on dropping the "Advance" part. Seriously. Double edged sword, that.

  • Chtulie #13 7 years ago

    When has a 2d to 3d transformation of a game franchise by Nintendo actually been anything less then stellar? Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Metroid Prime (maybe not by Nintendo directly, but they did keep a great level of control, once forcing Retro to start again from scratch when they didn't like it).

  • Kiigan #14 7 years ago

    Okay. So there was the big backlash online against the early footage we saw of this game - with the main reason being that all we wanted was a bigger flashier version of Advance Wars for GameCube, instead of a run-of-the-mill military action game. So in response Nintendo changes the name to Battalion Wars.

    Anyone else think that is a slightly weird response? Wouldn't it have been smarter to just give people what they want - that is, a bigger and better Advance Wars?

  • Neverness #15 7 years ago

    Looks vaugly like how I would imagine Cannon Fodder 2005 to be.

    Please be that good...

  • Tonka #16 7 years ago

    It's not the fact that it's in 3D that annoyed me. It's that they changed from turn based to real time. I think it's a good idea to drop the 'Advance' bit from the title. In that way they can do a 'proper' Advance Wars for the Revolution. It looks like they have done a good job with Fire Emblem for the Cube. So, something similar with AW would be nice.

  • hp_on_toast #17 7 years ago

    Have you seen the Edge preview Tonka? This game was designed and built by Kuju and had nothing to do with Ninty / Advance Wars until it was signed. Let's give possibly the most important UK indie studio the credit it deserves for coming up with something original and refreshing rather than bitch about some vague connection that doesn't really exist with another title on another platform.

  • Tonka #18 7 years ago

    I didn't mean to sound like I was bitching. And I didn't know that Battalion Wars started it's life as something other than a 3D Advance Wars. I'm actually quite interested in this title. What I meant was that I think it benefits from the new title and that, as you say, never should have been connected with the AW games in the first place.

  • Ninjamagic #19 7 years ago

    AYAYA CONGA

    AYAYA CONGA

    AYA CONGA

    (kicks back foot up)

    Oops, erm - OK Cant waiteth!!! Looks top

  • Bru-Man #20 7 years ago

    > Well, it's in real-time, so I'm out. <

    Well, it's in real time, so I'm in!

    EDIT - wierd, cut off the end bit then.
    Edited by 1 at 07/07/05 @ 12:35

  • Teeth #21 7 years ago

    Saw some of this running and to be honest it looks... great!

    Also I'm told the people working on it actually play it at lunch and stuff for fun off their own backs. It's got to be good if they're doing that.

  • OldWormsFan #22 7 years ago

    the *tanks* in the game smell.

  • hp_on_toast #23 7 years ago

    What? They're not playing Battlefield 2? Who would give up their lunchtimes to play a Gamecube game instead of BF2?!!!

  • Teeth #24 7 years ago

    See? It's that good.

  • Xerx3s #25 7 years ago

    " What? They're not playing Battlefield 2? Who would give up their lunchtimes to play a Gamecube game instead of BF2?!!!" - hmm, well, lemme see... An €A game over anything else.... Id rather shoot meself in the foot.

  • hp_on_toast #26 7 years ago

    You're right Xerx3sYe, heaven forbid that EA might actually publishing a good title. What next, Nintendo publishing bad games?

  • MoFo #27 7 years ago

    Also I'm told the people working on it actually play it at lunch

    Lemme guess, you heard that from their marketing departement? Oh well it MUST be true.

  • SauloChekotee #28 7 years ago

    "Highway to thaaaa Danger Zone!"

    Thanks mate, I sure needed a good laugh today...

    Yeah i'm late, so what^^?
    Edited by 2 at 08/07/05 @ 11:49

  • norf_london #29 7 years ago

    "the *tanks* in the game smell."

    snigger :)

  • Tweakmonkey #30 7 years ago

    Sounds quite promising now.

    /adds to watch list

  • Duckers #31 6 years ago

    I am HUGELY looking forward to this one (got it on my Crimbo list). Not quite sure what 'real time' means though. Looks good.

    Bear in mind that my opinion is coming from a guy who has never played any of the games in the Advance Wars series.

    It is DEFINITELY for the Cube, is it? I'd be hell disappointed if it wasn't. Haven't got a DS, ya see.
    Edited by 1 at 24/10/05 @ 14:34

  • firefly #32 6 years ago

    Anybody else thinking it's odd that they chose Battalion?

    Given that the series sprung from Famicom Wars wouldn't Cube Wars or something have made a little more sense?