Battalion Wars [GC]

Vehicles and Missions
Every bit as thrilling as controlling and directing soldiers, if not more so, is taking command of the various vehicles in the game. Every tank, jeep or battle station in Battalion Wars roars to life with unique physics. Some of the vehicles move with a sense of speed and bouncy physics not unlike the Warthog in Bungie's Halo games, which is pretty impressive. Battle stations nudge along at a snail's pace and crush anything they come into contact with. Bombers turn round stiffly in the air while fighter jets are much more maneuverable. Simply learning the intricacies of each craft, and then capitalizing on them, is half the fun.

Kuju has provided players with a wide variety of landscapes to explore and the worlds in Battalion Wars are oftentimes impressively large. Mountains that loom in the distance can be navigated to in some instances. Roads lead into far away hills. There are broken bridges that can only be manipulated with certain vehicles -- gamers will actually need to jump them, which is pretty entertaining. The list goes on. The selection of world types is disappointedly limited -- really only four, which range from forests to icy regions, deserts and eventually Xylvania, a stylized gothic wasteland. But Kuju has done a lot with the locales all the same, serving up a host of different mission objectives, from guarding towers to using bombers to knock out enemy structures. There are even a couple of levels that revolve around racing a jeep through unpredictable mountain roadways as quickly as possible, or destroying enemy satellites before a time limit runs out, and these help to keep players guessing.

Battalion Wars sports a decidedly cartoony look that we find appealing. The title's levels are filled with landscape curves and decorated with vegetation such as grass and trees. Soldiers animate fluidly and land vehicles skid and bounce in every direction. There are even some extra bells and whistles. The game utilizes an extremely impressive particle effects system so that when vehicles explode they erupt into chunks of fire that showers the landscapes. Water transparencies add flair to the surrounding oceans. And the game runs in both progressive-scan and 16x9 widescreen modes, which is sure to please gamers with appropriate high-definition sets. Kuju's game doesn't always impress in screenshots because frankly some of the world and character textures in the game are on the low resolution side and therefore lack detail. But it makes up for this drawback in motion, where it runs for the most part at a steady 30 frames per second.

Although the game only features 20 missions, they should last most players a reasonable amount of time and there is a reason to re-play them. Kuju has developed a grading system for each stage and only gamers who gain top scores for each mission will be able to unlock up to four additional levels. It's one thing to scrape by a level with a C grade. It's another thing entirely to score an A or better.

We don't normally consider what games are missing when we review them, but most players will expect that Battalion Wars comes complete with a multiplayer mode and the sad truth is that it doesn't, which is disappointing. This omission is doubly unfortunate because the game began its life as a sequel to Advance Wars, which has a proven multiplayer offering, and because it originally featured one, but the mode was later axed.

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