• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
  • Do you have audio editing experience and want to help out with the Famiboards Discussion Club Podcast? If so, we're looking for help and would love to have you on the team! Just let us know in the Podcast Thread if you are interested!

StarTopic Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp |ST| AW, here we go again!

Finished the AW1 campaign. I wasn't expecting a full on animated cutscene for the ending.

In general I'm finding the game WAY better than I expected. Higher production values than I was assuming, more extra content bits here and there. This is an absolute treat.
 
Dcubed said:
The HD Rumble integration is superb in this game!
Click to expand...

Oh it's sublime! Noticed it straight away during the intro video. You can feel the tread of tyres as your tank moves, too. It is so neat and it is subtle enough not to be fatiguing. I have only played docked with a Pro controller but I might try playing with the Joy-Cons and the original grip tomorrow.

Everything is so polished. WayForward are the way forward for this series, for sure. 👏

Yes, there are a few niggles, e.g. Grit can increase his indirect attack range during his CO power but you then cannot see his original range when holding B during your turn--this makes it tricky to judge where you can safely move your units as his bonus will expire on his next turn. (I'm probably not explaining it well.)

Also some of the music is a little exhuberent, especially late a night... Wish it were possible to adjust just the music volume. It's a wicked soundtrack though, don't get me wrong!

I'm actually loving the art style and I'm now fully sold on it.
 
Tangerine_Cookie said:
Finished the AW1 campaign. I wasn't expecting a full on animated cutscene for the ending.

In general I'm finding the game WAY better than I expected. Higher production values than I was assuming, more extra content bits here and there. This is an absolute treat.
Click to expand...
Wow I'm only about to start it right now, you blazed through the first game huh? Any tweaks? How did they handle the branching maps?
 
0
Addictive as hell.

Made me drop live a live with no regrets. I was on the last story, but nope. Advance wars is great.

I really dig everything about this game. And the music is chef kiss.
 
Could someone who owns the game detail what Casual Mode changes? I've struggled to find much information online.

This genre typically isn't for me, but I know the franchise is beloved and I'd be willing to give it a shot if the difficulty could be considerably scaled down. I've read that the game can be a little difficult, so as someone who isn't a tactics gamer and generally prefers hassle-free experiences unless it's a game/genre I really like, I'd probably need Casual Mode to transform the game into something meant for casual players with a casual interest.
 
Quick impressions from my first 1.5 hours:

Love the new animations, voice work etc., but I’m really torn on the game board presentation. If they had just given us an option to resemble the old presentation or a toggle between the new and original graphics I’d be cool with it.

I dislike that you can say “I’ve played Advance Wars before” and still have to do the tutorial, but whatever it is only once and subsequent explanations you can skip.

I wish all of the content was unlocked from the start since I’ve poured hundreds of hours into Dual Strike especially, but whatever again.

Advance Wars is still the absolute best and everyone needs to play it.
 
I'm struggling to discern, is the game pretty much merged across the board for stuff like Versus or can you swap between Advance Wars 1 and 2 mechanics anywhere outside Campaign?
 
0
It sure is Advance Wars, I might actually finish it this time by just doing the final battle on casual difficulty and do the rest on normal (if casual difficulty does anything to make that fight more manageable, because Idk what that difficulty means exactly).

The music arrangements are pretty good, on the other hand the graphics are pretty weak, I don't mind the style is going for on paper, but it needs a lot more polish in its lighting and detail to be aesthetically pleasing, closest thing I can think of rn is something akin to Link's Awakening, the somewhat distracting framerate hiccups on top of the simplistic looking style bothers me as well.

It's also a shame that despite it only being voice clips and not full VA, that they didn't bother to dub it in latam spanish.
 
0
Pineapple Pizza said:
Oh it's sublime! Noticed it straight away during the intro video. You can feel the tread of tyres as your tank moves, too. It is so neat and it is subtle enough not to be fatiguing. I have only played docked with a Pro controller but I might try playing with the Joy-Cons and the original grip tomorrow.

Everything is so polished. WayForward are the way forward for this series, for sure. 👏

Yes, there are a few niggles, e.g. Grit can increase his indirect attack range during his CO power but you then cannot see his original range when holding B during your turn--this makes it tricky to judge where you can safely move your units as his bonus will expire on his next turn. (I'm probably not explaining it well.)

Also some of the music is a little exhuberent, especially late a night... Wish it were possible to adjust just the music volume. It's a wicked soundtrack though, don't get me wrong!

I'm actually loving the art style and I'm now fully sold on it.
Click to expand...

To be fair, that’s always been the case with Grit in every AW game; so that’s not specific to this remake. You've always had to do a bit of guesswork on the receiving end.

BTW, another awesome little touch. So I checked the option to say that I've already played AW before, and I purposely screwed around in the last training mission to fail; in order to see if you still get special dialogue... Turns out that Nell actually acknowledges your failure and passes you anyway! (Not sure if she'd let you pass if you select that you haven't played AW before mind you). But it's not just that...

FuTnPc_aYAEwUHt



Hachi makes fun of you for screwing up the training mission too! :D
 
Last edited:
This game has made me drop everything else i was playing like a melting potato.

This bodes poorly for my Splatoon 3 catalogue.
 
As someone who really only started playing strategy games with Mario + Rabbids and then jumped in on Fire Emblem, this has been very interesting so far. I'm having fun but I feel like I also suck?? I was demolishing everything in casual so I bumped it up, I'm still winning but it's definitely taking me longer than it's "supposed" to to win. One map I literally got a 0 for speed :eek: Any tips?
 
blondkayvon said:
As someone who really only started playing strategy games with Mario + Rabbids and then jumped in on Fire Emblem, this has been very interesting so far. I'm having fun but I feel like I also suck?? I was demolishing everything in casual so I bumped it up, I'm still winning but it's definitely taking me longer than it's "supposed" to to win. One map I literally got a 0 for speed :eek: Any tips?
Click to expand...
Oh wait till you unlock hard mode and the rearranged levels, now those are some real puzzle boxes with optimal solutions
 
blondkayvon said:
As someone who really only started playing strategy games with Mario + Rabbids and then jumped in on Fire Emblem, this has been very interesting so far. I'm having fun but I feel like I also suck?? I was demolishing everything in casual so I bumped it up, I'm still winning but it's definitely taking me longer than it's "supposed" to to win. One map I literally got a 0 for speed :eek: Any tips?
Click to expand...
The best way to ensure you get a high speed score is to prioritise grabbing the enemy HQ. If you see the enemy HQ standing slightly apart from their main force that's basically the game inviting you to make a grab for it.

Aside from that, pick your battles wisely. Don't just send in the Medium Tanks full steam ahead with no plan to give them cover or retreat. Best strategy I find is to try and lure enemies to attack lesser units (such as APCs or infantry) then blast them with artillery or tanks. The cheaper units can be wasted, the more expensive ones need to be preserved to go for the jugular.

Anyways taking my time with this but just got to Kanbei's first mission and forgot how insanely broken he was as a CO. Managed to do the first mission in under 8 days as per the Sonja mission requirement at least. But the more I play the more impressed I am with the tweaks WayForward have made. I always liked the Wars cast, but they've achieved a new level of charm in this remake.
 
MisterSpo said:
One QOL touch I feel is missing: getting to see a mission layout before choosing which CO you want to use.

Otherwise, having an absolute blast.
Click to expand...

You can at least see the layout in the War Room. I just did Spann Island with Andy and it took forever, but I'm beginning to really find my footing again. I still got an A rank so that map is definitely a bit attritional.
 
zhou said:
Hey, are you able to save during a ‘run?’ I guess I just mean mid-battle save, lol.
Click to expand...
The game autosaves in both Campaign and War Room, so it'll be at the start of your latest turn when you reload the game. Haven't tried versus yet.
 
MisterSpo said:
The game autosaves in both Campaign and War Room, so it'll be at the start of your latest turn when you reload the game. Haven't tried versus yet.
Click to expand...
Cool, thanks. I have never played an AW game and was thinking of grabbing it but I am getting a puppy soon, so the feature of being able to suspend battles in the campaign is a great one for me. I am also hoping the game isn’t too hard, lol.
 
Man, the first experience was rough...As in, wow, this game can be hard for newcomers, but after the first few missions I think I'm starting to get the hang of how to handle the units and when to push forward or hold the position. It's really satisfying, I can see why people fell for the series so hard when it originally came out!
 
I've just encountered a bug. The joys of day 1 eh? Nothing game breaking but the music and sound stopped and I had to restart the application completely to get it going again. This was caused when I was playing music in the gallery then went to view a cinema. I've not been able to replicate it. All sound was just muted. At first I thought the cinemas had no sound but when I went to restart the music it was silent. Kinda odd but no biggie.

Loving the artwork.
 
Oh my God they turned Sonja into a badass. I love the keyart of her when she's smugly explaining her plan with her glasses shining. Say what you want about the graphics but WayForward knocked it out the park with the character portrayals, and the amazing remixes help matters as well
 
Pineapple Pizza said:
I've just encountered a bug. The joys of day 1 eh? Nothing game breaking but the music and sound stopped and I had to restart the application completely to get it going again. This was caused when I was playing music in the gallery then went to view a cinema. I've not been able to replicate it. All sound was just muted. At first I thought the cinemas had no sound but when I went to restart the music it was silent. Kinda odd but no biggie.

Loving the artwork.
Click to expand...
That happened to me as well, same exact flow. I went to the Switch’s Home screen to make sure my Bluetooth didn’t die and I heard the menu noises. Weird glitch.
 
0
So, I ended up picking this up to serve as my small burst play sessions as we get ready for our puppy’s arrival. I have never played AW before so these are my initial thoughts - roughly 2 hours in:

  • A ton of content. I was looking at Hachi’s shop and there were already a ton of War Room maps. Not to mention, there’s two full campaigns here and local multiplayer and a gallery full of collectibles
  • The game looks okay. The art style is not my favorite and I don’t have any nostalgia towards the original. The animations are nice
  • The game has a ton of depth. Look, I am playing on Casual for now and once I feel better about everything - I’ll move up to Classic. That said, there are a ton of systems to remember - which is a pretty cool thing! The strategy is definitely here! I captured a HQ by surrounding a tank that was closest to my transported units with my own tanks and let my units capture away.
  • The CO’s are fun and using their Power is satisfying. It’s a neat system

Overall, I am happy with my decision to use a voucher on this. I’ll grab Zelda when life slows down a bit with the new dog but this seems like the perfect game to chip away at. I like that you can immediately replay missions. I need to review the unit types more and get comfortable with their offerings. I haven’t even attempted War Room because I am not familiar enough with the systems at play here.
 
It's incredible to see this underrated franchise get some modern love. Been pining for some new AW content for a long time but never did I think we'd be seeing it's glorious and bombastic return 15+ years later. Great to see the game so front and centre across many mediums and platforms too.

So many seemingly minor improvements, easter eggs which make a big difference to the presentation and the overall experience more enjoyable.

Things like cherry blossoms flowing out of the CO bar for Kanbei's CO Power, same for snow with Olaf, fleshing out Clone Andy, the throwback to Famicom Wars via the AW1 map theme, Sensei parachuting out of the copter in his CO Power, just to name a few.

Overall pretty pleased with how it has turned out, no online multiplayer(at this stage) is a disappointment, the art sytle will take time to get used to plus a small amount of the voice over work and themes leave a lot to be desired. Some lack punch and a point of difference to one's character, like Drake and Max gives me Joe Swanson from Family guy vibes, but those are pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. Overall the themes and voice work is on point. Getting strong Ash Ketchum vibes from Andy too haha :unsure:

Fingers crossed there's some additional content, improvements coming but I won't hold my breath.
 
Having an awesome time with Advance Wars 1 to the extent I really just don’t want to finish it too quickly. I think it’s a combination of me being better at Advance Wars at this point having sunk hundreds of hours into Dual Strike and the maps being easier, but I’m flying through the game as I’ve already reached Green Earth. I think I’ll probably beat it tomorrow and then open up, but not really start the second campaign. I want Neotanks asap before I enter the War Room properly.
 
0
Man, what a great game.
Now I understand why some people have bad times with fire emblem…. Advance Wars is all about gameplay.
It’s the closest to a board game on a console I have ever experienced.

I played a lot of dual strikes on DS, but I was never this engaged. I really recommend this game.
 
S ranked everything up to choosing Sami's Green Earth missions; one S rank, 2 A rank, and B rank for the last of the four. Ooph.
 
I'm up to
clone Andy mission, and I feel like keeping the Green Earth units under CPU control is a missed opportunity here. Not least because the CPU immediately puts the bombers with easy reach of fighters...

edit - and one day 2, wastes the final surviving bomber to attack a lander instead of a battleship. Eesh.

at least the clone Andy redesign is pretty great!
 
0
Super Nintendo Chalmers said:
no online multiplayer(at this stage) is a disappointment,
Click to expand...

FYI, and so other people don't get the wrong idea, there absolutely is online multiplayer, and a pretty great online system that utilizes the Switch OS-level invite feature.

I think you meant to say there's no online matchmaking, which, given how often people simply quit the moment they feel they've lost the upper hand, is fine with me.
 
Super Nintendo Chalmers said:
It's incredible to see this underrated franchise get some modern love. Been pining for some new AW content for a long time but never did I think we'd be seeing it's glorious and bombastic return 15+ years later. Great to see the game so front and centre across many mediums and platforms too.

So many seemingly minor improvements, easter eggs which make a big difference to the presentation and the overall experience more enjoyable.

Things like cherry blossoms flowing out of the CO bar for Kanbei's CO Power, same for snow with Olaf, fleshing out Clone Andy, the throwback to Famicom Wars via the AW1 map theme, Sensei parachuting out of the copter in his CO Power, just to name a few.

Overall pretty pleased with how it has turned out, no online multiplayer(at this stage) is a disappointment, the art sytle will take time to get used to plus a small amount of the voice over work and themes leave a lot to be desired. Some lack punch and a point of difference to one's character, like Drake and Max gives me Joe Swanson from Family guy vibes, but those are pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. Overall the themes and voice work is on point. Getting strong Ash Ketchum vibes from Andy too haha :unsure:

Fingers crossed there's some additional content, improvements coming but I won't hold my breath.
Click to expand...

You should be, it is indeed the very same voice actor (Veronica Taylor).

Notsowise said:
Best tip one could get is that Max is the best character for the beginning of the game. He can most npcs with one attack.
Click to expand...

Best tip is that Max is generally, flat out, the single best character in AW1 outside of the unlockable "boss" characters (Nell, Hachi, Sturm - who are all intentionally unbalanced). There's a very good reason he got hit hard with the nerf hammer in AW2 (where he's still good, just not utterly busted like in AW1).
 
Last edited:
I feel the AI is a bit cheat-y when it comes to fog of war. Just doing Sami's Debut against Eagle and I don't how his bomber was able to spot my tank a country mile off and attack in the same turn. There was nothing else around me to give away my location and the vision rating is only 2 for the bomber. I'm on the map and it's the only unit I need to defeat to clear the stage. Sneaky sneaky. grumbles

Edit: unless you are visible when standing on a city occupied by the enemy?
 
Pineapple Pizza said:
I feel the AI is a bit cheat-y when it comes to fog of war. Just doing Sami's Debut against Eagle and I don't how his bomber was able to spot my tank a country mile off and attack in the same turn. There was nothing else around me to give away my location and the vision rating is only 2 for the bomber. I'm on the map and it's the only unit I need to defeat to clear the stage. Sneaky sneaky. grumbles

Edit: unless you are visible when standing on a city occupied by the enemy?
Click to expand...

Yes, you're visible on enemy cities.

It used to be that the AI in Advance wars 1/2 cheated and just had infinite vision for anything that wasn't in a reef or forest, but going by Reddit, it's looking like they fixed it for this remake, so they have vision like a human player would
 
Really pleased to see there's a CO choice for the final mission, though it means I pushed through the tougher Sami Green Earth missions (thinking I needed to do that to unlock Eagle) for no real reason.

Debating what combo to use out of Max, Eagle, and Kanbei.

One QOL feature I hope made it in is the option to clear the alternate missions you skipped once you've beaten Sturm; there's the handful of Green Earth missions, plus an early mission against Olaf, that I missed and I wouldn't want to repeat the whole campaign multiple times for them.
Linkstrikesback said:
Yes, you're visible on enemy cities.

It used to be that the AI in Advance wars 1/2 cheated and just had infinite vision for anything that wasn't in a reef or forest, but going by Reddit, it's looking like they fixed it for this remake, so they have vision like a human player would
Click to expand...
Yep, Reboot Camp respects the Fog of War rules. Just did the AW1 Green Earth missions and it all played out following the FoW rules.
 
Linkstrikesback said:
Yes, you're visible on enemy cities.

It used to be that the AI in Advance wars 1/2 cheated and just had infinite vision for anything that wasn't in a reef or forest, but going by Reddit, it's looking like they fixed it for this remake, so they have vision like a human player would
Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks. And it makes perfect sense! Got an S rank! Woop. Though lost 15pts for technique... Like being a sitting duck in enemy territory. 🤣
 
0
Getting to the end of the first game's campaign. Maybe I'm misremembering, but I feel this game does a much better job highlighting important plot points than the original. You definitely get the sensation that things are not what they seem from the get go.

bellydrum said:
FYI, and so other people don't get the wrong idea, there absolutely is online multiplayer, and a pretty great online system that utilizes the Switch OS-level invite feature.

I think you meant to say there's no online matchmaking, which, given how often people simply quit the moment they feel they've lost the upper hand, is fine with me.
Click to expand...
It can't be stressed enough that playing Advance Wars with randoms is horrible. If you can get a group of likeminded people together for some matches then it's infinitely better, but I wouldn't touch online random matches with a 10 foot barge pole. Thankfully the Advance Wars Community is really good at organising stuff like that, so provided Nintendo can give them the tools they need, they should be able to keep the online componants going for longer. A campaign maker ala Wargroove would be a neat touch.
Pineapple Pizza said:
I feel the AI is a bit cheat-y when it comes to fog of war. Just doing Sami's Debut against Eagle and I don't how his bomber was able to spot my tank a country mile off and attack in the same turn. There was nothing else around me to give away my location and the vision rating is only 2 for the bomber. I'm on the map and it's the only unit I need to defeat to clear the stage. Sneaky sneaky. grumbles

Edit: unless you are visible when standing on a city occupied by the enemy?
Click to expand...
Yes if you are on a city controlled by the enemy before you can capture it yourself, that unit is visible (otherwise you could get infantry to conquer it and your enemy would be none the wiser, which is sneaky sneaky)
 
bellydrum said:
FYI, and so other people don't get the wrong idea, there absolutely is online multiplayer, and a pretty great online system that utilizes the Switch OS-level invite feature.

I think you meant to say there's no online matchmaking, which, given how often people simply quit the moment they feel they've lost the upper hand, is fine with me.
Click to expand...

Galgavias said:
Getting to the end of the first game's campaign. Maybe I'm misremembering, but I feel this game does a much better job highlighting important plot points than the original. You definitely get the sensation that things are not what they seem from the get go.


It can't be stressed enough that playing Advance Wars with randoms is horrible. If you can get a group of likeminded people together for some matches then it's infinitely better, but I wouldn't touch online random matches with a 10 foot barge pole. Thankfully the Advance Wars Community is really good at organising stuff like that, so provided Nintendo can give them the tools they need, they should be able to keep the online componants going for longer. A campaign maker ala Wargroove would be a neat touch.

Yes if you are on a city controlled by the enemy before you can capture it yourself, that unit is visible (otherwise you could get infantry to conquer it and your enemy would be none the wiser, which is sneaky sneaky)
Click to expand...

Seriously, I feel all the people asking for matchmaking didn't live through Days of Ruin's meta of "Your rival drops after 3 turns of mech spam".

Yes, matchmaking would be a neat bullet point, but this is the kind of game where the actual random matchmaking experience would be miserable. They'd basically have to design a separate game aimed at that.

And given the circumstances of this remake/reboot, maybe they didn't want to sink a significant amount of money into doing that for a game that might flop anyway.
 
Finished the AW1 campaign. Had a great time.
fun animated cut scene for the ending!

Not sure when I'll start AW2... 19 days till Tears of the Kingdom is pretty decent, but I might pick up Chained Echoes. I was also thinking of clearing all the War Room maps on AW1 rules before starting the AW2 campaign; then I could do War Room again after that with AW2 settings and COs. I've done the first 4 WR maps and S ranked them, but who knows?

Anyway, it's a great remake. Really glad we finally have it.

Edit - also curious to now how the last mission grade is determined.
I only got a B rank, including a really low 57 points for Power, despite routing Sturm. Maybe because I finished on Eagle, and he contributed the least? Not sure.
 
Gingerbread Man said:
How does the remake handle secret missions? Can I go back and unlock them without replaying the whole campaign?
Click to expand...
From what I've read
the secret Olaf mission is unlocked by default, and you always fight Sonja after Kanbei. You can do the alt Blue Moon and Green Earth maps after finishing the final battle, and Rivals is unlocked by doing all the extra maps after you finish the game so I think you can play at your own pace, no need to worry about replaying the whole thing.
 
Metroid said:
From what I've read
the secret Olaf mission is unlocked by default, and you always fight Sonja after Kanbei. You can do the alt Blue Moon and Green Earth maps after finishing the final battle, and Rivals is unlocked by doing all the extra maps after you finish the game so I think you can play at your own pace, no need to worry about replaying the whole thing.
Click to expand...

This is a really great change, IMO. Changing it to a "perfect your save file!" type of game rather than redoing the campaign is far more in line with modern standards.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top Bottom