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Advance Wars, reboot camp!


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Oh my god, NOOOooo...

 

Advance wars reboot camp is finally out for switch. Man I loved the advance wars game on gameboy advance. I actually ordered this game over a year ago (with one of those generic "end of the year" release dates) and a couple weeks ago it finally came in. A few weeks shot already, and probably a few more to go to unlock most everything. I say most, because bitd I played the original for YEARS, and still didn't unlock everything. I think Nell was the only thing left as of the time my copy got stolen, and at a max of 15 (I think) possible coins per level, the 2000 she cost wasn't attainable by me. I even looked for a game shark code bitd, but at the time there wasn't one. May be one since then, but with my original copy gone I doubt I'd bother now lol.

 

First the bad. This is NOT a sequel, or continuation, or anything like that, the story is slightly tweaked, but this is the exact game of advance wars (and advance wars 2) from back in the day. If your looking for new, or didn't care for the originals, then this will do little for you.

 

And oddly, the map graphics seem to be a bit of a step down from the originals. Mountains and trees look a bit goofy.

 

Played one bitd? Unfortunately you can't just jump into 2 right away, you have to complete the first game first. I get that, but skipping one could be nice.

 

Now that's out of the way, the good. Its advance wars. If your a fan like I am of the originals, this game is great! The power (super power on 2) are animated, and high resolution redrawn representations of the original. There is intro and outro videos too. While the story is largely the same, its been tweaked a little, and even has some voice (but still largely requires reading) the attack scenes are animated too.

 

Build your own map! One of the joys bitd was making your own map. Of course, gba carts had limited storage, so you could only make 3 at a time (you could cheat a fourth map in the mix, but that involved starting a game, saving it, and then not overwrighting it to save a new game) the switch has unlimited (well, depending on the memory you add, more or less unlimited) maps. I don't know exactly how many you can make, but I've made a dozen so far, and the counter goes up to 50. Will it stop at 50 or keep going? I don't know, and probably won't make that many myself. And the map size is now variable. It still tops out at a grid of 30x20, but you can vary size down to 15x10, and anywhere between.

 

And of course, hachis store. Yeah, more or less the same as the original games, but the store front is now in the over menu. Basically, play either game, or war room, and all the money goes into a centralized store. If it is possible (within reason) to unlock everything, I should be able to do it this time. There's also a lot of unlockable extra goodies, artworks, the various story bits and powers, as well as each characters soundtrack. Should keep even a hardcore fan busy for some time.

 

Online. I usually hate online, being a substitute to couch co-op usually in modern games. This one does it right. You can do single system, just pass the controller (or system) around, use wireless to "gamelink" to local systems, or go full online. Even your map creations can be uploaded to other consoles, so you should have access to new fresh multiplayer maps till the end of time.

 

Anyhow, great game, I'm about half way through black hole rising, and about 86% done with the first game. Looking forward to seeing other peoples thoughts (and brutal maps lol) for this game.

 

Final thoughts? So...when will advance wars reboot 2 come out so we can have the DS sequels on switch too?

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35 minutes ago, Video said:

Oh my god, NOOOooo...

 

Advance wars reboot camp is finally out for switch. Man I loved the advance wars game on gameboy advance. I actually ordered this game over a year ago (with one of those generic "end of the year" release dates) and a couple weeks ago it finally came in. A few weeks shot already, and probably a few more to go to unlock most everything. I say most, because bitd I played the original for YEARS, and still didn't unlock everything. I think Nell was the only thing left as of the time my copy got stolen, and at a max of 15 (I think) possible coins per level, the 2000 she cost wasn't attainable by me. I even looked for a game shark code bitd, but at the time there wasn't one. May be one since then, but with my original copy gone I doubt I'd bother now lol.

 

First the bad. This is NOT a sequel, or continuation, or anything like that, the story is slightly tweaked, but this is the exact game of advance wars (and advance wars 2) from back in the day. If your looking for new, or didn't care for the originals, then this will do little for you.

 

And oddly, the map graphics seem to be a bit of a step down from the originals. Mountains and trees look a bit goofy.

 

Played one bitd? Unfortunately you can't just jump into 2 right away, you have to complete the first game first. I get that, but skipping one could be nice.

 

Now that's out of the way, the good. Its advance wars. If your a fan like I am of the originals, this game is great! The power (super power on 2) are animated, and high resolution redrawn representations of the original. There is intro and outro videos too. While the story is largely the same, its been tweaked a little, and even has some voice (but still largely requires reading) the attack scenes are animated too.

 

Build your own map! One of the joys bitd was making your own map. Of course, gba carts had limited storage, so you could only make 3 at a time (you could cheat a fourth map in the mix, but that involved starting a game, saving it, and then not overwrighting it to save a new game) the switch has unlimited (well, depending on the memory you add, more or less unlimited) maps. I don't know exactly how many you can make, but I've made a dozen so far, and the counter goes up to 50. Will it stop at 50 or keep going? I don't know, and probably won't make that many myself. And the map size is now variable. It still tops out at a grid of 30x20, but you can vary size down to 15x10, and anywhere between.

 

And of course, hachis store. Yeah, more or less the same as the original games, but the store front is now in the over menu. Basically, play either game, or war room, and all the money goes into a centralized store. If it is possible (within reason) to unlock everything, I should be able to do it this time. There's also a lot of unlockable extra goodies, artworks, the various story bits and powers, as well as each characters soundtrack. Should keep even a hardcore fan busy for some time.

 

Online. I usually hate online, being a substitute to couch co-op usually in modern games. This one does it right. You can do single system, just pass the controller (or system) around, use wireless to "gamelink" to local systems, or go full online. Even your map creations can be uploaded to other consoles, so you should have access to new fresh multiplayer maps till the end of time.

 

Anyhow, great game, I'm about half way through black hole rising, and about 86% done with the first game. Looking forward to seeing other peoples thoughts (and brutal maps lol) for this game.

 

Final thoughts? So...when will advance wars reboot 2 come out so we can have the DS sequels on switch too?

It really doesn't let you play 2 immediately? Not a big deal I guess. As someone who owned the original one and never played two, I might have been inclined to start playing 2.

 

Either way sounds like a good remake that I will need to get.

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I still have my original GBA title and the Nintendo power advance that went with it that covered the game so I could get around the insanely illogical wants per turn on some stages more than others.  I guess the guide would carry over which is a plus, but unless I really wanted AW2 because paying $40+ for that these days isn't happening, this would be a smart buy I guess?

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8 hours ago, Video said:

Played one bitd? Unfortunately you can't just jump into 2 right away, you have to complete the first game first. I get that, but skipping one could be nice.

Yes, you can start the second campaign first, even though Nell advises against it.

 

7 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

It really doesn't let you play 2 immediately?

Yes it does. Believe me, I reviewed the game professionally.

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Interesting. Admittedly I didn't actually try to start the second game, it says complete the first campaign to unlock. Ill stick the game in a different switch to try to verify later (I doubt our copy is different than your review copy, its version 1.0.0 )

 

Forgot to mention, after beating the game, it unlocks a "challenge" mode. Harder mode, but how? I've not played it yet. Maybe units cost more, or property gives less money (you can adjust cities to give less money in multiplayer) or maybe fog of war on all levels? That would suck lol.

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2 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Yes, you can start the second campaign first, even though Nell advises against it.

 

Yes it does. Believe me, I reviewed the game professionally.

But do you have 600 years of professionally reviewing experience?

 

But seriously that's good to know.

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8 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I still have my original GBA title and the Nintendo power advance that went with it that covered the game so I could get around the insanely illogical wants per turn on some stages more than others.  I guess the guide would carry over which is a plus, but unless I really wanted AW2 because paying $40+ for that these days isn't happening, this would be a smart buy I guess?

Depends. On the switch version you have the burger king kids club type of visuals and it is not a true handheld experience like the GBA was.

 

In many ways the original is better and in this time of inflation shelling out 40$, maybe keep the money. I mean you have the original and if you dont see yourself playing through that one, this is not much better and arguably worse.

 

 

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Even though I have both games for those GBA, I was interested in this when it was originally announced but now that I see it has those weird 'mobile game' style graphics and doesn't seem to add anything new I think I'll just play my original games through my GB Player on the Cube.

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That's about where I was.  When they put it off being pandering weenies playing off the russian war as an excuse it seemed pretty fake, disingenuous at best, as I'm sure looking how it is no one was going to suffer mentally from its existence.  Call of Duty is most definitely is not.  And then seeing what the final product was and them having done I guess nothing since I last looked at it months before release I saw little value in it unless something really convincing happened.

 

Personally I know it'll cost people because LRG are scum, but Tiny Metal got a Switch physical release.  If you're into that style of game, grab that, looks, sounds, seemingly plays better, has a lot of content too, and it's a system exclusive.

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1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

That's about where I was.  When they put it off being pandering weenies playing off the russian war as an excuse it seemed pretty fake, disingenuous at best, as I'm sure looking how it is no one was going to suffer mentally from its existence.  Call of Duty is most definitely is not.  And then seeing what the final product was and them having done I guess nothing since I last looked at it months before release I saw little value in it unless something really convincing happened.

 

Personally I know it'll cost people because LRG are scum, but Tiny Metal got a Switch physical release.  If you're into that style of game, grab that, looks, sounds, seemingly plays better, has a lot of content too, and it's a system exclusive.

I've heard good things about WarHroove too. 

 

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8 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

But do you have 600 years of professionally reviewing experience?

 

But seriously that's good to know.

I knew it would sound weird to brag about that, but what I meant is when you're reviewing a game for a website, you tend to check a lot more things.

 

5 hours ago, Tanooki said:

When they put it off being pandering weenies playing off the russian war as an excuse it seemed pretty fake, disingenuous at best, as I'm sure looking how it is no one was going to suffer mentally from its existence.

I found it weird too, but there's a lot of "invasion" going on in the game.

 

6 hours ago, Tempest said:

Even though I have both games for those GBA, I was interested in this when it was originally announced but now that I see it has those weird 'mobile game' style graphics and doesn't seem to add anything new I think I'll just play my original games through my GB Player on the Cube.

The new game doesn't add a lot indeed, unless you want to play online obviously, but that being said there's a new feature that's very useful: you can restart a turn if you screwed up. And if you think you can easily do without it, just play the original games for a while and you'll see. 😉

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37 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

I knew it would sound weird to brag about that, but what I meant is when you're reviewing a game for a website, you tend to check a lot more things.

 

I found it weird too, but there's a lot of "invasion" going on in the game.

 

The new game doesn't add a lot indeed, unless you want to play online obviously, but that being said there's a new feature that's very useful: you can restart a turn if you screwed up. And if you think you can easily do without it, just play the original games for a while and you'll see. 😉

I think if they would have released it when planned, there would have been people calling them insensitive too.

 

Restart after a screw up is always a nice touch.

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Well, got my @$$ hhanded to me on the last level I played, so I stuck the cart in a virgin switch to try it.

 

Thanks roots.genoa, I stand corrected. Despite being greyed out with a title "this is yet to be revealed" or some such, you can indeed start black hole first if you want to. It does post a message about maybe spoilers , but if your a weirdo that played only the first one bitd, you can skip the first story and start the second one first.

 

I don't recall the second story giving away many relevant plot points or anything, the two games are pretty well self contained, so starting the second first should give no real problems. The second game is a bit different than the first, some units are a bit different on power. You now have "neo tanks" (heavy tanks) there are unpassable walls, called pipe on some levels, with seams to get through,  super sized bases in three flavors, a base that builds a (maybe) random unit each turn, a giant cannon that will shoot the most powerful in range unit for 5 points of damage at the beginning of each turn, and a giant missile, I assume the level fails if you don't defeat it fast enough. There's also a one use missile silo anyone can use, that damages all units in an area, including the player who launches it, so you need to be careful what you shoot.

 

As for if the game is worth it? Well, the two original games were $30 each, and (ill have to check my Amazon account to be sure) this one is $50 so if you didn't get the games bitd, I'd say worth it. The overall games take around 30 hours to beat, longer if you do alternate paths and try to unlock everything. It is an rts type game, which is kind of dated, but to me, despite the cheesy over world visuals, I think its well worth it, but to each their own.

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Here's Tiny Metal, some game play if anyone is curious:

@MrBeefy Yeah that would fit the mold too if someone were interested, and if you went for it that translated release of the old Famicom Fire Emblem they sold that ridiculously worthless boxed but no game in it set exists too.

 

@roots.genoa Yeah I know, it still was flimsy of a reason because lots of invasion games were out there, some in far more PTSD capable detail that didn't look like a 90s cartoon redone in CGI.  I go between wondering if it was simply pandering or they had some critical issues with a game as basic looking as that they wanted something convenient to delay it with to not look foolish

 

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I *might* get this if it goes on sale for a good price.  The undo feature would be nice since I just don't have the time/patience to deal with bad rolls of the dice anymore.  Back when I needed a game to last me several months I could deal with losing everything I'd work on for the last 45 min and just start over, but now...

 

Having it on the switch would also allow me to suspend the game whenever and come back to it.  This has been the best modern feature of various remakes to me.  I have too much going to on to have to wait until I find a 'save point' or finish the current battle so I can shut the game off.  Now I can just hit suspend and stop the game whenever.  This has made playing a lot of older RPGs a lot easier since my free time comes at random times and is constantly interrupted.

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What am I missing here?  I'm replaying the original AW2 on a GBA and I can save at any time, including in the middle of a turn, and just reload the save at a later time.  This lets me either undo a bad result or just pick up a game where I left off at a later date.  Not as versatile as an Undo, maybe, but the difference is minor.

 

Given that I already own the whole series, I'll likely pass on Reboot.  Maybe if they actually make some new AW content, then I'll bite.

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7 hours ago, Video said:

if your a weirdo that played only the first one bitd

thanks for calling me a weirdo 🙂

 

7 hours ago, Tempest said:

I just don't have the time/patience to deal with bad rolls of the dice anymore

There's almost no randomness in AW anyway, but what happens often is you move a unit then realize you should have moved another one first. And actually, it allows you to "cheat" in maps with fog of war.

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6 hours ago, krslam said:

I'm replaying the original AW2 on a GBA and I can save at any time, including in the middle of a turn, and just reload the save at a later time.

I didn't play AW2 back in the day but, iirc, you can just suspend a game and resume later, but you can't save a game at a specific point and reload it later (and you still can't on Switch).

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I don't think the switch saves at all. I mean, allows you to save. I've had it crash mid game before and when I restarted, I had to restart that level from the begining. Once you finish a level, it auto saves, and of course, its switch, so I can pause andput it to sleep and come back later, but I've not seen a save option anywhere.

 

I've not messed with undo, but I could see it good if say you select a unit and hit wait instead of capturing, attacking, or moving. I usually am not that precarious that a mistake will matter much, but it does happen.

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I found the fog of war infuriating in the original AW game on GBA.  I tested it repeatedly out of curiosity in the day and proved the games AI was cheating, only  *I* had the fog of war, they did not.  It made for a very very uncomfortable stage trying to figure where to place units so the enemy airforce wouldn't come in after a few turns and level everything.  Fake difficulty is a HUGE put off.

 

I've only ever played the first, and having to use the guide extensively after a point to not just waste my time put me off ever playing sequels.  That along with Fire Emblem are a love-hate thing because it's so utterly obtuse to the point it's like they want to sell guides for profit more than let you try and get creative in fights.

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8 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I found the fog of war infuriating in the original AW game on GBA.  I tested it repeatedly out of curiosity in the day and proved the games AI was cheating, only  *I* had the fog of war, they did not.  It made for a very very uncomfortable stage trying to figure where to place units so the enemy airforce wouldn't come in after a few turns and level everything.  Fake difficulty is a HUGE put off.

I hate it as well, but I really doubt the AI is cheating though (having played both campaigns recently, I'm quite sure about it). What makes it hard to deal with is that you don't know what your opponent see, so using the button to see where they can attack for instance doesn't mean anything.

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Maybe not, I just used the Nintendo power advance stage maps to test it a few times, and it seemed to come down on those stages to having zero freedom of movement.  The AI would adjust to various things, but if you went to specific map points you'd have an ability to beat them down enough to win, even on the training stage with that garbage against Eagle which sucked.  It could be the line of sight issue, but even some of our units have long range of sight too and it didn't seem to matter more than specific placement.

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I AM pretty sure original advance wars does cheat in fog of war. How many times I'm going through the woods slowly to avoid conflict, only to have a fat assed tank just show up next to me and shoot me up. WTF, that is indeed infuriating. This one does seem to have the computer at least fake like it has fog of war too. It sure surprised me when I was traveling and the computer slammed into me. I was thinking "wow, that never happens on the original" seems to work on subs too, the computer acts like it doesn't see you when dived and can now be used as a strategic blockade even on non fog of war levels.

 

I've got the final eagle level left and ill have finished the first campaign (and probably get the silver medal) then I can see what challenge is all about. You can play challenge mode as soon as its unlocked, but I wanted to 100% the game first.

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