A fun little RTS/3rd person shooter hybrid that "technically" belongs to Nintendo's "Famicom/Advance Wars" series.
The art style, story, music, and voice acting are straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, in a good way. I love the exaggerated marching of the grunts, it really captures the feeling of kids playing out big battles using any toys they have lying around :)
Gameplay-wise, things are fun and responsive. The shooting is loud and crunchy, and the strategy elements give you a lot of options without feeling too overwhelming. Keeping the battles "battalion-sized" and letting the player personally control units was a smart way of making the levels feel like sweeping military campaigns without losing the more immediate thrills of a shooter. It makes me wish more war games took this hybrid approach.
Mission settings and objectives are varied, and there are a decent amount of different units, including infantry, combat jeeps, tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets. Most of them control well, with the exception of the fighter jets, which can be awkward to fly.
The difficulty was mostly fair, at least for a dummy like me, and I was able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat a few times, which gave me a great sense of accomplishment...until I saw the post-mission rankings. There were a handful of frustrating missions, but nothing ever felt insurmountable.
I'm really glad I came back to this! The first time I played it was back when I was 9-10 and desperately wanted to play Halo, but lacked both an Xbox and the permission to play anything rated above E. I'm excited to check out the sequel!
The art style, story, music, and voice acting are straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, in a good way. I love the exaggerated marching of the grunts, it really captures the feeling of kids playing out big battles using any toys they have lying around :)
Gameplay-wise, things are fun and responsive. The shooting is loud and crunchy, and the strategy elements give you a lot of options without feeling too overwhelming. Keeping the battles "battalion-sized" and letting the player personally control units was a smart way of making the levels feel like sweeping military campaigns without losing the more immediate thrills of a shooter. It makes me wish more war games took this hybrid approach.
Mission settings and objectives are varied, and there are a decent amount of different units, including infantry, combat jeeps, tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets. Most of them control well, with the exception of the fighter jets, which can be awkward to fly.
The difficulty was mostly fair, at least for a dummy like me, and I was able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat a few times, which gave me a great sense of accomplishment...until I saw the post-mission rankings. There were a handful of frustrating missions, but nothing ever felt insurmountable.
I'm really glad I came back to this! The first time I played it was back when I was 9-10 and desperately wanted to play Halo, but lacked both an Xbox and the permission to play anything rated above E. I'm excited to check out the sequel!