It feels weird to finally have Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp in my hands. The remakes of two classic Game Boy Advance strategy games were originally set to launch last year, but were pushed back to an unknown time (now known to be April 20, 2023) following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. One of the first enemies you face is a fairly obvious parody of Vladimir Putin whose ultimate ability allows him to cover the battlefield with a blanket of immovable snow, so it’s hard to blame Nintendo.
History has told us that you don’t mess with Russia in the winter, but otherwise what we’ve got here is a fairly harmless and achingly wholesome interpretation of war that has far more interest in cute anime characters than bleak global politics. No innocents are ever caught in the crossfire, and even defeat from your harshest opponents is met with a playful tap on the shoulder as you’re invited to throw yourself at scenarios time and time again. Which you will, because this remake is just as hard as the series has always been. Or maybe I’m just a dumbass.
Re-Boot Camp compiles the original game and its sequel into a single package. You are actively discouraged from jumping into Black Hole Rising until wrapping up the first entry, with Advance Wars eager to deliver its narrative in a concise, logical way that prevents us jumping all over the place. It’s pretty thin on plot though, at least going off the sixteen or so quests I’m allowed to talk about in this preview. You play as Andy, Max, Sami, and several other Commanding Officers of the Orange Star Army. As the ‘good guys’, your job is to step through several countries fighting battles by air, land, and sea in the name of justice.
Advance Wars is a deceptively simple turn-based strategy game where your objective is either to eliminate all enemy units on the field or take over a certain number of territories. You perform the latter by marching infantry units onto neutral or hostile territory until you reign supreme, or by unleashing strategic bouts of firepower onto foes by using a curated selection of tanks, planes, boats, and infantry. Learning what each of these things do and putting them into practice is simple at first, but Advance Wars is incredibly punishing if you put a foot wrong or fail to take into account very real logic when pushing forward.
Several levels are defined by bridges and rivers, and failing to position a tank or similarly heavy unit on the road will create multiple points for your enemies to penetrate as baddies quickly filter into your territory and lay waste to everything. But if my tank was there, it could have taken a few turns worth of punishment as I placed artillery cannons and rocket launchers atop nearby cliffs, or flown a few scant infantry units behind enemy lines to sneakily secure bases.
There’s ample trial and error to it all, and frequent stages would have me hitting my head against the same manner of defeat again and again until I took a step back and considered where exactly I was going wrong. The game provides hints too, often discouraging my rash pursuits and instead recommending I retreat to the mountains or let the enemy come to my own position instead of seeking them out. Each level is different, and the rock-paper-scissors way in which units counter one another means brute force is impossible even on easy mode.
Other stages are matters of endurance, where you are expected to maintain select positions on the map while continually spawning new units to take over territory and keep enemies at bay. I developed a habit of entering a level, screwing up a few times, and then settling on a strategy that would see me victorious. Many stages are themed too, with dialogue and map design giving a relatively good idea of what the game expects of you. The best strategy can also depend on what Commanding Officer you decide to play as, each of them having their own abilities.
Andy is an enthusiastic all-rounder, and can imbue his units with extra health and a boost of attack power for a single turn. Max is a brute, and can offer additional movement options and damage to every single tank unit for the same duration. Sami is my personal favourite. She’s cute, and has a skill that gives infantry units extra movement and a much faster capture rate when it comes to enemy territory. Extra COs can be unlocked away from the campaign, but seem exclusive to custom levels and challenge stages. There’s also a neat little shop filled with songs, art, and map pieces you can fool around with. It’s a light yet welcome little extra.
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is a fun yet familiar delight so far, faithful to the original games while enhancing its visuals to not only feel current, but imbued with an extra dose of personality that alleviates the otherwise bleak subject matter. It’s fun and challenging while understanding the appeal of strategic mechanics with little interest in holding your hand.