GENRE
	Strategy
	DEVELOPER
	Kuju
	PUBLISHER
	Nintendo
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1
	CONNECTIVITY
	no
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When I played Battalion Wars at E3 I was confused by the radical departure from its progenitor, Advance Wars. I hesitated to give it another try upon its release, but in the end, the final release plays great. In fact, despite the change in genre from turn-based strategy to real-time strategy/action, they share more than a title in common: both games forgo graphical realism and real world feasibility to focus on play mechanics. Kuju, the title’s developer, has built a solid base for a brand new franchise. While past titles by Kuju were middling, Battalion Wars signifies that the developer can put together a solid title.

visuals

A number of FMV cutscenes adorn the proceedings between campaigns, and some in-engine drama unfolds during the briefing. They are of sufficient quality to convey pertinent information, but since the whole proceeding is lighthearted, skipping the cutscenes will not detract from your experience. Of course, you can’t skip the cutscenes unless you play the mission first, so you’ll see the campaign unfold regardess.

The engine is capable of handling a lot of onscreen action at one time. The number of different units on screen carrying out your orders is impressive. This scale makes up for the fact that most of the attacks are unspectacular and the death animations are limited. For my taste, I could have used a bit more draw distance, but jarring pop-up was not present.

Last but not least, you may notice that none of the soldiers are particularly realistic. This creative liberty is intentional, and frankly, it makes the game a better one for visual distinction. This visual style distinguishes it from the glut of other war games available.

audio

Sound effects convey the happenings of the battle around you. An enemy gunship buzzes overhead, but before you target it you hear your missle veterans unleash a torrent. It pays to have open ears in Battalion Wars. In addition, your troops will utter some chit-chat when idle, under attack or victorious. This doesn’t compensate for the lack of notifications elsewhere, but the HUD is rather crammed anyways, so this was the best way to do it.

Voice acting in Battalion Wars will never be called under-done. It is over the top in every scenario, and fits in with the rest of the theme. That said, the voices will undoubtedly irritate some, while amuse others.

gameplay

What makes Battalion Wars different from Advance Wars? Plenty. If you were hoping for a straight conversion akin to Fire Emblem, you would be shocked to find a radical departure. All gameplay takes place in real time, and your units of varying type all kowtow to your commands when you need them. You can order them to a location on the map, a specific target, tell them to defend or have them follow you around. The A.I. moves to your tune without any major hitches. Granted they travel in straight lines and will wander into enemy fire if you don’t manage to avoid that, but they never get stuck behind a tree or below a cliff. Indeed, sometimes the A.I. can be more effective than you are when dealing with your AA units.

You can control the various land and air units, and each controls fairly intuitively. The infantry and gunships fair the best, the latter drawing from Kuju’s previous experience. The vehicles, particularly the recons, are a little harder to use. They bounce around and you may get them stuck when the road is still relatively clear of debris.

The biggest gripe I have is the targeting system when lots of enemy soldiers line the field targeting a specific critical unit; it's annoying, and as a result, time critical objectives sometimes are botched. Also, some of the best units are under your control for only a short while. I want to haul the big guns out a bit more often then I can. Artillery units particularly are too seldom used.

All minor complaints aside, when a large scale battle erupts and you dodge and roll to avoid an enemy shell while your crew arrives on the scene to polish it off, fun is had. These moments litter the game, and once the learning curve is navigated there’s a lot of fun to be had. This is one title where every button and feature of the controller is needed, making it a bit more hardcore than the typical Nintendo fare.

multiplayer

Sadly, none. Which leads to my final thoughts...

overall

Battalion Wars is a good game on its own, but when viewed as a potential first step into a franchise it becomes even more interesting. There’s a lot of potential here, unrealized because technical limitations doom the game to single player only. Battalion Wars is a worthy purchase for many strategy fans and really deserves commercial success. In other words, if an online enabled Revolution sequel isn’t made, then that would be a big shame. The less than great replay value would be boosted considerably if this was viewed as training for a campaign of global scale.

Of course, we must not judge on what may be, but rather what is. What we have is a great little game endemic of Nintendo’s gameplay over everything mantra, more involved than most of the other holiday offerings. Average in length, but above average everywhere else, give Battalion Wars a go. It’s not a request, it’s an order.

8.0/10