Battalion Wars [GC]

Battalion Wars has a lot to live up to. It's from the same company that shook up handheld strategy gaming on the Game Boy Advance and now DS with their Advance Wars series. But Battalion, unlike Advance, is in-real time and third-person, rather than turn-based and isometric. After a name change, fans have settled down and began wondering what developer Kuju would do with such a different play style. Would it be strategic enough? Would it have the same charm? Would it be a must have, like the handheld versions? The answers are yes, definitely yes, and maybe.

Battalion Wars puts the player in the jack boots of a battalion level field commander in the Western Frontier Army. Your job is to oppose and defeat the nearby Tundran (a bunch of Soviet-style thugs) and then move on against the main event: the cold, calculating, and greedy Xylvanian Empire (which eventually threatens both forces). The story is paper-thin and really doesn't matter, but it still fits in with the game's simplistic charm. The good guys are you, the bad guys are outrageously bad, and there's no ambiguity about this armed conflict.

Battalion Wars is basically an action game with both strategic and tactical options added in. It's reminiscent of older forgotten games like Activision's Battlezone remake and Microsoft's Urban Chaos -- the player actively controls a unit on the battlefield and is able to give orders to the units around him. There's no limit to how often the player can jump into a friendly unit, and this is where the added strategy comes in. A player adept at taking control of the right units at the right time can succeed. A smart, skilled human trumps the artificial intelligence, even if the AI is as decent as this one. Above all, the game is challenging and replayable because no battle unfolds quite the same way each time and trying different strategies is a lot of fun. The last few levels of the game are extremely difficult, but up until that point the game never feels overly frustrating.

Mission objectives range from straightforward attacks, ambushes, and defensive actions, to more complex goal-oriented tasks. The mission maps are large and well laid out, often featuring hazards and defensive structures like pillboxes or sandbags. Small cover units can occupy and entrench against incoming attacks. There are 20 different types of units to command and control, ranging from air units like copters, to ground units like infantry and tanks. Each can be piloted and they're all useful -- the game is very well-balanced. Every unit has strengths and weaknesses; the missions, while challenging, usually give you a good chance to succeed so long as you play your units right.

Mission objectives are represented on the game map as silver or gold stars. Silver are optional (often they give you advantages in the mission like extra units or time), and gold are required. Clever play is rewarded in that a player can find shortcuts in most maps that help them avoid ambushes, or get to the gold star objectives faster, resulting in a better time and score. This encourages players to explore a bit more, instead of rushing headlong into a nasty battle of attrition that action games tend to depend on.

For the most part, the controls are well-implemented. The third-person controls are simple and familiar, while the command menu is accessible using the yellow C-stick. This lets you order a group of units (a battalion) to attack, follow, guard, or perform special actions. Orders can be given when the game is paused, and players can easily jump from unit to unit at any time by using the menu or a quick button press. The only problem is how often you have to switch and how chaotic things can get. When the action gets hot and heavy, it can be very frustrating to jump around the battlefield, resulting in frequent pauses. PC versions of this type of game are less problematic because you can bind locations to quick-keys, but you can't do that here, and the game suffers a little.

The most frequent bug-a-boo in every third-person game of this type is the camera controls, and Battalion Wars doesn't escape these perils unscathed. While friendly units do turn transparent when you get close to them (allowing you to see beyond them), there are only two camera angles in the game: Overhead and over-the-shoulder. Being able to move the camera would be helpful during some of the missions.

Battalion Wars' artwork, storyline, and voice-acting all meld together to form a friendly, almost cute wargame that's never cloying, annoying, or childish. It's very... Nintendo. Friendly, colorful, solidly built, and bug-free. The music is orchestral and dramatic, but never overwhelms the ear or drowns out the sometimes hilarious notes your superiors insist on giving you all mission long. Picture the word balloons in Advance Wars, only spoken by talented actors who specialize in giving appropriately over-the-top performances.

Battalion Wars' only real flaw is that it's short. 20 missions plus bonuses contained in four campaigns is what you get. Split-screen multiplayer isn't an option even though the gameplay suits it perfectly, so that's disappointing. But if you're a strategy fan pining for the Advance Wars goodness on your big screen, then Battalion Wars' replay value, ease-of-play, charm, and novelty make it a must-have.