Nintendo fans were shocked during Nintendo’s E3 press conference when, out of nowhere,Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Campappeared on the scene. This revival was a pipe dream for many, who feared that thesurge inFire Emblem’s popularitymeant that developer Intelligent Systems would no longer want to work on it. That has been the case for the last decade, but now Nintendo has hired the beloved indie developer WayForward Technologies to remake the first two games in partial 3D. Fans have been celebrating wildly ever since, even though they do have some questions and concerns.
One thing everyone noticed right away is the new visuals. WhileAdvance Warshas always been fairly simple in appearance, its artwork is surprisingly diverse and detailed when accounting for the many units, factions, COs, and backgrounds. This new title is doing its best to look as close to the originals as possible, but it still had to change things for a modern release. All of the sprite art is gone, replaced by vector images for commanding officers and 3D models for troops. Some fans don’t like the new look, while others don’t mind it and are waiting for more details. There’s a lot of other beloved elements inAdvance Wars, and fans are hoping thatRe-Boot Campcan get them right.
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Advance Wars' Iconic Music
When discussingAdvance Wars' presentation, fans would be remiss not to mention the old games' stellar soundtracks. The composers who have worked on them in the past are Taishi Senda for1, and Yoshito Sekigawa for2. Both of these composers have worked onvariousPaper Mariosoundtracks, so their track records are very impressive. Every commanding officer has their own theme play whenever it’s their turn, which adds a lot of personality to the action.Re-Boot Campneeds to get this aspect right, and judging by the trailer, it’s well on its way.
Advance Wars' Important Multiplayer
Another major aspect of the originalAdvance Warswas its excellent multiplayer. Competitive scenes sprang up for most of theAdvance Warsgames,Dual Strikebeing the exception, and the multiplayer options available definitely contributed.Advance Warsdodged the need for aGame Boy Advancelink cable entirely by making it so that up to four players could play on a single system together, taking turns commanding their armies. This was an oddity, but a very appreciated one by aspiring wargames everywhere. Online play has already been teased forRe-Boot Camp, so this series staple should already be the best it ever was.
Advance Wars' Gameplay Details
With that being said, there are still some nitty-gritty gameplay details that fans are anxious to hear about. One is in regard to how enemy AI is going to be treated, as it had some infamous quirks that were easily exploited, separating skill at single-player and multiplayer matches. Another much more pressing matter is that of thedivision betweenAdvance Wars 1and2in the reboot. They will no doubt have separate campaigns and mission sets, but their mechanics are another matter. Will both games use the mechanics present in2, necessitating some redesigns in1’s missions? And for that matter, will there be a distinction between1and2’s multiplayer modes, or will there be, again, just a mode for2? It’s unclear at the moment, and theAdvance Warscommunity is keen to hear more.
The Balancing Debate for Advance Wars
One final concern is the game balance in general. While the competitive community managed to work out its own rules and regulations to ensure that everyone was having fun and playing on a somewhat even playing field, that still didn’t fix the matter of there being dominant strategies. A number of COs, units, and playstyles were overpowered compared to others.Naval unitswere infamously overpriced and segregated for no good reason, and producing a massive number of cheap infantry units could drag a game into infinity. Some fixes would be appreciated, but they would also send fans into an uproar. It’s up to WayForward how it handles this, and forAdvance Wars' sake, it needs to be careful.
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camplaunches on August 02, 2025 for Nintendo Switch.
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