Battalion Wars (Gamecube)
Real-time Strategy//Arcade style//Advance Wars inspired
Battalion Wars caused quite an intrigue when it was first unveiled, though at the time it was to be part of the sublime and hugely successful Advance wars franchise, (known as Famicom Wars in Japan) which naturally caused a great deal of excitement among Nintendo fans. The idea of 3D Advance Wars multiplayer seemed almost to good to be true...and it was. In a ludicrously absurd move, Kuju decided Nintendo had it all wrong with their turn-based strategy angle. Instead, it was decided to make the jump to Real time strategy, a genre infamous for its poor compatibility with the consoles. This was the fundamental mistake behind the contrived shambles Battalion Wars was to become.
So what exactly could be wrong with a naturally mediocre console RTS, that makes Battalion Wars instead a BAD console RTS?
I'll sum my first point up like this. As with any other Real time strategy, units can be selected and controlled individually, so in the case of Battalion Wars, you might for example take control of an infantry soldier in third person view and move him along a trail. Obviously, at some point you're likely to encounter an enemy. Say you take the obvious option of firing on this enemy unit. With your knowledge of the world in general, you would think it reasonable that, should you fire a stream of bullets at an enemy, they would be far too slow to simply run ahead of your line of fire. This is not the case in Battalion wars. Clearly, no one would assume such a game would be highly realistic, but surely such a flawed mechanic was bound to twist the gameplay? This means that even if controlling a heavy tank it is extremely unlikely even the most skilled player will be able to dispatch even a single infantry rapidly, as they will simply strafe to one side and evade ALL you fire. I think I've made my point. In fact I think in this case the point makes itself.
A second blow; Allied AI is appalling. Ultimately,you will have to control everything on your own, if left to their own devices, your infantry have a habit of getting themselves killed in such ways as stepping under advancing tanks. This is not in the least bit amusing 20 minutes into a level you can't complete without them.
Strike three; even the presentation is somewhat lame. In particular, Battalion Wars suffers from some of the worst cases of Voice acting I have ever heard. Irritating in the extreme, but with the clear aim of being 'zany' and 'random'. It falls flat, failing to be in the least bit amusing.
The perspective is all wrong. The only successful aspect of Battalion Wars are the Graphics, by far the least important aspect of any Video Game. Though there's the odd low resolution, Nintendo 64-esque texture, the artistic style definitely has a certain charm about it, though you'll barely notice it in such a broken game. A real shame and disappointment to all the Advance Wars fans.
As a Final note, the 'Teen' ESRB rating is farcical in the extreme, no one above the age of 4 could derive entertainment from such a game.
'Surprisingly Poor'
3.4
[Copyright Matt Britton 2008]
