Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp Review: Gameplay Impressions and Videos for Switch

Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp is an excellent turn-based strategy package perfect for newcomers and returning gamers.

This is a robust package featuring Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, which were released on Game Boy Advance in 2001 and 2003, respectively. After originally being set to release last year, it's fitting this remake is releasing in 2023 because it's already been one of the best years for remakes and remasters after the successful Dead Space, Metroid Prime Remastered, Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe and Resident Evil 4.

For many gamers, this will be their first time finally getting a chance to play these top-rated Game Boy Advance classics, and both games more than live up to the hype.

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Gameplay Impressions

After missing out on the series on Game Boy Advance, it doesn't take long to understand why the Advance Wars games have been held to such high regard for two decades. These are timeless games with incredibly intuitive and easy-to-understand gameplay reminiscent at times of the Fire Emblem and Command & Conquer series.

Although thin on story compared to the Fire Emblem series, for example, the Advance Wars gameplay is every bit as thrilling and engaging. Even if one were to tone down the difficult to the casual setting, the missions feature intense, brain-teasing encounters. The turn-based nature of the gameplay allows for an enjoyable, relaxed experience because there's no time element putting pressure on the player. For gamers who enjoy turn-based games, both Advance Wars games feature near-flawless gameplay.

As each campaign progresses, missions essentially become open-ended puzzles in how many different ways a gamer can approach each scenario. There's a plethora of variations and permutations to take into consideration while trying to accomplish the goal to complete a mission. For example, there's different Commanding Officers (CO) to choose from, a large number of units to build, plus different terrains such as buildings, mountains, forest areas, air, sea and, of course, the dreaded Fog of War that limits vision.

The campaigns are awesome, featuring fantastic level design and challenge. For the most part, almost every mission in each campaign requires a great deal of strategy and thought; it's not as simple as brute-forcing through the enemy like a gamer might be able to do in other strategy games. Facing off against different COs who have their own unique personalities, tactics and special skills keeps the campaigns fresh. The campaigns especially open up when given full control to decide which units to build, which exponentially increases the strategy element of the games. It's reminiscent of games like Command & Conquer as gamers decide which units best fit their play style or approach to the mission.

The missions themselves are impressively creative while somehow having simple parameters to win, especially as the game mixes up units. The player will need to think outside the box and utilize each unit's capabilities in order to win. Every decision is critical because unit positioning and money management is vital to success or defeat.

The Advance Wars 2 campaign is wildly varied with non-stop unique encounters and mission terms. There is more personality to the characters and story itself compared to the first game. It's everything a gamer could want from a sequel, and it even feels like Advance Wars is just a setup for Advance Wars 2 because of how much more variety there is with each map and mission.

As far as remake packages go, Re-Boot Camp has almost everything a gamer could ask for. The user interface is intuitive, the tutorial system is extremely user-friendly for onboarding and the remade graphics are beautiful with a smooth art style. There's notable quality of life inclusions, such as the ability to reset a turn, fast forward the enemy's action and even turn off the visual battles, all of which will surely be implemented by the speedrunning community. The biggest gripe would be the lack of option to redo a singular move instead of having to reset the entire turn, but the desire to have that option is likely a result of recently playing Fire Emblem Engage in January.

Perhaps most importantly, there's several game modes to create infinite replay value. Beyond the amazing campaigns where gamers will attempt to secure the highest score possible and "S" rank each mission, gamers can play against the CPU in challenge maps in the War Room, against other gamers locally in the Versus mode or online in the Online mode. There's also the Design Room, which allows players to create their own maps to share and battle in. It will be exciting to see what gamers create, especially after the success of the Mario Maker gamers. The campaigns are fully fledged games, but they almost serve as a tutorial of sorts for gamers who want to test their skills against other people.

Overall, Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp runs smoothly on the Switch with no hiccups or issues over tens of hours of gameplay. The art style looks excellent on the vibrant Switch OLED screen. As usual with a Nintendo product, this is another polished release.

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Conclusion

Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp is a must-own game for any fan of tactical strategy games but also serves as a fantastic entry point for gamers looking to break into the genre. The gameplay is the star of the show, managing to provide a mix of thrilling, intense decision-making in a relaxed, pressure-less setting through two campaigns. It's truly a timeless strategy game that will forever be engaging, and the number of game modes allows for seemingly infinite replayability.

Nintendo continues to meet a high bar of expectations and, perhaps most importantly, continues to deliver varied experiences to enhance the Switch's library. At this point, gamers can only hope that we eventually see the top-rated DS games Advance Wars: Dual Strike and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin also make their way to Switch in a similarly awesome package.

In a year already filled with plenty of top-tier competition for remakes and remasters, Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp is sure to be remembered as one of the best in the category not just of 2023, but available on Nintendo Switch.