GENRE
	Strategy
	DEVELOPER
	Kuju Entertainment
	PUBLISHER
	Nintendo
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-2
	WI-FI ENHANCED
	Yes
	DS COMPATIBLE
	No
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Don't let Battalion Wars 2's cute and cuddly visual style mislead you -- the game takes its action very seriously. While the thought of learning to command naval ships, aircraft bombers, chunky tanks, flamethrowing infantry and bazooka-wielding grunts, among other military units, sounds daunting, Kuju Entertainment has succeeded in making its real-time strategy title a blast to play with its easy-to-learn, and fun-in-practice, combat mechanics.

visuals

Very little has changed visually between the inaugural Battalion Wars title for GameCube and Wii's sequel to it. It's still got that deceptively cute visual style that echoes what you might see on a Saturday morning cartoon or anime series, which works again in BWii because it's executed well. Environments are spacious with nice touches like thick grass in open fields. Water bodies look particularly nice, as lakes shimmer and waves rollick to great effect.

Military vehicles keep up with the cartoony visuals seen elsewhere in the game, as units like tanks look as their real-life counterparts do, only smushed together as though they were made of shiny clay. Infantry units look the part, and you can easily tell the difference between different infantrymen by the weapon they carry, whether its a sleek rifle or a hulking rocket launcher.

Despite all the action that can accumulate on your television screen, Battalion Wars 2 never shows a hint of slowdown, although this is made up for with the fairly limited draw distance. Refreshingly, there are quite a few cutscenes in the game, all well done and well animated.

audio

The sounds of war are here in full effect: the whirring of helicopter blades, the blast of a bazooka and the monotonous rattling of a tank closing in on your position all sound great, and fairly realistic in contrast to the game's visual style.

Each of the commanding officers piping in your ear during the game bark from a large repertoire of orders and suggestions, and cutscenes all include voice overs. The voice acting is terribly overacted at times and a tad theatrical the rest of the way, but you'll laugh at how comical it is more than you'll come to hate it.

gameplay

The battle mechanics of Battalion Wars 2 and its predecessor share much in common with the Advance Wars series on the Game Boy platforms and Nintendo DS. Almost every military and naval unit in the world makes an appearance in BWii, from your anti-aircraft vehicle to the equally important standard infantry grunt. Each unit has a distinct advantage against one or two other units, like the aforementioned AA vehicle having a leg-up on all air units, but is equally susceptible to another unit's firepower. To continue with the anti-aircraft vehicle, the constant salvos of a bazooka infantry unit make quick work of an AA.

Throughout the single-player game's six campaigns, you'll lead the military forces of a handful of different nation forces, completing different objectives and missions while hopping between--and controlling--any of the military units under your command. If you'd rather have a bird's eye view of the action, you can assume the role of one of your air transports. If you'd prefer to stay low to the ground, you can switch on the fly to a flamethrowing grunt or a light tank. It's important to keep in mind that you're still an integral part of the battlefield: you assume all the powers--and weaknesses--of your unit, which means you can wreak havoc on your own while making all the important strategical decisions.

Whichever unit you decide to take the reins of, the entire military roster is still under your command. Commanding your comrades in arms is a simple affair, as you select a group of units with the Wii Remote directional pad and direct them accordingly. There's a certain satisfaction that is acquired when you know you've directed the right group of units toward an unsuspecting enemy force weak to that type of firepower, as its just plain fun to see your comrades down the enemy forces efficiently, provided you've mastered the strength/weakness mechanic of the game, of course.

AI follows your command effectively, and units show little problem in pathfinding, a problem that can plague even the best real-time strategy games. It's a shame that there aren't more options to dictate to your minions, as a withdraw or retreat option would have been most beneficial. It's still possible to easily redirect your forces if you've misplaced them by ordering them to another point on the map or follow your position, but a retreat command would have saved a lot of good virtual men and vehicles from an untimely death more effectively.

Wii Remote and Nunchuk controls enhance the game, as the Wii Remote allows you pinpoint accuracy in lining up your foes for whatever weapon you have in your arsenal. The Nunchuk handles all of the player movement, with the analog stick moving your character around, a thrust upward making your unit jump or rise, and a twist to the side initiating a barrel roll for most units. It's all done well and the Nunchuk recognizes your movement's effectively. As with most real-time strategy games on consoles, problems can occur in trying to target the correct building or enemy unit when dozens of men and vehicles are on the screen. Wii's pointer controls help somewhat with this issue, but it still pops up in this game, which can prove frustrating when you're dealing with a very specific time limit during a mission.

Disappointingly, Battalion Wars 2 offers no skirmish or random mission generator modes. The option is there to replay previously completed missions, whose replayability is enhanced with the game ranking your command effectiveness in order to get you to play missions again to achieve the highest scores possible, but a skirmish mode for pick-up games against the CPU would have been a legitimate option for extending the life of the game.

multiplayer

Thankfully, the lack of a pick-up mode is somewhat made up for with the inclusion of online multiplayer via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. A cooperative mode teams two players against the computer, while the objective-oriented Assault charges one player with completing objectives much like in the single player campaign mode, with the other left to keep the objectives from being completed. A skirmish mode is also included, pitting two players against one another in an all-out battle for supremacy.

Online affairs are pleasingly lag-free, although it's sad to see that there is no customization allowed for any of the multiplayer modes. The units you'll start out with and the map layouts are all preset, limiting the fun that could have been had with online multiplayer.

Battalion Wars 2 does make use of Friend Codes, so get your pen and paper ready to jot down those alphanumeric strings. Local multiplayer via splitscreen is not an option in the game.

overall

Battalion Wars 2 is a refreshing title that might get lost in the holiday shuffle with more marquee titles like Super Mario Galaxy in the spotlight. The game could stand to be fleshed out in the areas of multiplayer and including something for single players to do after the campaign is through, but what Battalion Wars includes out of the box is still quite fun to play. Action fans might be turned off to the strategy elements of the game, and strategy fans vice versa, but don't be so quick on the draw: BWii is an engaging game with enough action and strategy to satisfy fans of both genres. Just don't be fooled by the cutesy graphics.

8.0/10