The Advance Wars series was dormant for nearly two decades as Nintendo shifted its focus away from the Game Boy family of systems. During the 20-year hiatus, developer Intelligent Systems achieved newfound success in its long-running Fire Emblem series with mainline titles and spin-offs alike. The return of Advance Wars seemed unlikely, but the Nintendo Switch console provides the perfect opportunity for Nintendo to revisit some of its older franchises. In 2023, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp finally brings the turn-based strategy RPG franchise back to prominence by Shantae developer WayForward.
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is an addicting and challenging remake with several improvements and vivid HD visuals. Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising are combined into one title with several features, online and local multiplayer, and numerous bonuses to unlock. The remake is filled with whimsical charm and incredibly fun content while catering to both newcomers and faithful Advance Wars fans. In a year filled with major Nintendo Switch releases like Fire Emblem Engage and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is another delightful detour to consider.
Conflict on Wars World
Players begin their journey in Wars World a by receiving a player ID tag, starting the first campaign, and completing the tutorial given by Orange Star commanding officer Nell. The tutorial is fairly concise and introduces the basics such as moving units, taking over cities, and engaging in combat. The first game’s primary setting is Cosmo Land, a continent that is quickly engulfed in conflict by the Blue Moon nation led by commander Olaf. The Blue Moon army made its way deep into Orange Star territory, and it’s up to Nell and Andy to drive Olaf’s forces out. As players progress through battles in the main story, the true nature of the conflict begins to unravel. Andy is joined by new friends and commanding officers that lend their aid to the Orange Star cause, and these heroes are even more vital in the second campaign.
Although wars are prevalent in Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, conflict is treated like friendly competition in many instances. The colorful visuals and toy-like appearance of the playable units drive this point even further. As a result, the story is fairly simple due to a lack of depth that some would expect from traditional strategy RPGs. However, the story’s directness works in a favorable way for Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp since it presents many interesting characters and fun battles throughout the entire playthrough. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp’s catchy soundtrack and wonderful sound design greatly complement the setting, cast of characters, and overall gameplay as well.
Mastering War Strategies
Battles are won by fulfilling certain conditions, capturing the enemy headquarters, or defeating all enemies in Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp. Conditions and other options may be viewed by pressing on an empty plot of land or a unit that already made their turn. Players may choose between Casual and Classic difficulty options, and a Challenge difficulty may be unlocked by finishing the campaigns. Although Casual makes the game easier from the get-go, it’s a great option for those want a steady and manageable difficulty increase as the campaign progresses onward. Classic and Challenge caters toward strategy RPG fans that enjoy managing each possible unit to the best of their abilities in a war of attrition. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp includes a Reset Turn feature, but it’s not the Rewind function that Fire Emblem fans come to know and love in recent entries.
Players have access to ground, aerial, and naval units depending on the map in Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp. These units have their own strengths and weaknesses, and players must consider their attack and movement range as well. For instance, a recon vehicle can easily mow down several infantry units, but the recon vehicle may be targeted by nearby mech infantry units with rocket launchers. Moreover, commanding officers have their own bonuses in combat, which are introduced throughout the story. Over the course of a battle, a commanding officer will build up a meter for their CO Power, which unleashes powerful abilities for a turn upon activation. Once a battle is won, the player is given a grade with S being the best possible grade to achieve based on speed, power, and technique.
Advanced Content Suite
Alongside the two main campaigns, players may enjoy a variety of modes in Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp. Coins may be accrued by completing campaign battles, and players may spend these coins on battle maps, collectibles, and much more by heading to Hachi’s Shop. Hachi’s Shop is refreshed with new items after every battle, so it’s worth visiting from to time. Newly acquired maps may be used in battles against the CPU in War Room or local players and CPU in Versus Mode. Music, collectibles, and other extras may be viewed by visiting the Gallery.
The Design Room is a returning feature that received multiple upgrades in the remake. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp players may design their own maps and share them with friends locally or online. A total of 50 maps may be saved on one Nintendo Switch console, which includes shared maps. Unfortunately, online play and map sharing is restricted to friends only. As a result, players cannot compete against each other or share maps with others unless they are on a friend list. These online limitations are one of the only real downsides about this excellent remake.
Recreating the Portable Experience
Advance Wars is a colorful and beloved series on the Game Boy Advance, and the same sentiment applies to this faithful Nintendo Switch remake. Although sprites are no longer in use, the vibrant visuals and incredible tunes exude the charm of the original Advance Wars in a new way. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is a beautiful game on a large display, and it’s especially true on the Nintendo Switch OLED screen in portable mode. In addition, character designs are one of the most memorable aspects of the remake since they’re very unique and personable.
The game’s performance is almost perfect on Nintendo Switch with a few hard crashes experienced during my playthrough. Fortunately, autosave functionality in Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is brilliant, seemingly saving after every turn. After experiencing a crash during the final battle of the first Advance Wars story, the game saved my exact location before the crash as quick save. The quick save allows players to continue from their last action after leaving the battle, so progress right before the crash was successfully retained. Avoiding crashes altogether would have been ideal, but safeguards like this are greatly appreciated while playing on the version 1.0 release.
After the War
From start to finish, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp should take around 40 hours or so to complete on Casual difficulty. After completing the Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising campaigns, players may spend their hard-earned coins to unlock bonus content. This bonus content includes the aforementioned Challenge mode, more COs, maps, Gallery illustrations, and music tracks. There’s plenty of replay value for those willing to complete the campaign on the hardest available difficulty. This is another opportunity for completionists to earn any remaining medals for their ID tag as well.
A Well-Rounded Re-Boot
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is an excellent, faithful remake that radiates the same Nintendo charm that players can expect from first-party Nintendo Switch games. Despite having limited online functionality and a simple story, the strategy RPG provides a lot of engaging content that will keep players busy for tens of hours. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp’s engrossing combat, charming characters, and great soundtrack easily make this one of 2023’s hidden gems on Nintendo Switch.
Disclaimer: Nintendo provided Final Weapon with a review copy of Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp for Nintendo Switch.
