Returning from the depths of Nintendo's back catalog, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp has arrived on the Nintendo Switch. Fully remade for the modern Nintendo console, the game features both the first Advance Wars and its sequel Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising. Originally announced at Nintendo's 2021 E3 Direct and due to be released later that year, it was eventually delayed into 2022 before being delayed indefinitely due to the war in Ukraine. This game and its developers have braved a long road to get here, and it's great to see their work finally come together.
Much of Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp will be familiar to anyone who played the original games back in their heyday. It's a turn-based strategy game with players taking the role of an advisor in the Orange Star Army, issuing their orders to units on the battlefield to defeat the enemy army across dozens of missions. While the game's art design and overall presentation suggest a more approachable strategy game than others on the market, it still poses a strong challenge, and plenty of easily-avoidable mistakes can derail a mission for new players.
10 Not Using The Environment
Terrain affects everything in combat. Where units are placed both in terms of their surroundings and in terms of their relation to other units will play a role in how much damage they can do and how vulnerable they are to attacks themselves. Units on top of mountains will see further in foggy conditions, units in cities are less vulnerable to damage, and so on.
When players are considering an enemy to attack, hovering over them will display their stats and a damage percentage. That percentage considers terrain effects, but it's important to know what is affecting that number and how it will change as the unit moves across the map, which will allow the player to punish any mistakes they make.
9 Staying Zoomed In
There is nothing more important in a strategy game than being able to see the whole map. Otherwise, it's easy for the enemy to sneak up and catch the player and their disorganized units unawares. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp defaults to a camera view that is a bit zoomed in, so players can more clearly see their units, but there is a way to get a better view of the battlefield.
Tilting the Switch's right thumbstick back will zoom the camera out and allow the player to see the whole fight. Then, tilting that same thumbstick forward again will zoom the camera back in on a specific unit. Utilizing this zoom feature is the best way to see the map from all angles.
8 Waiting To Attack
On the surface, combat seems to always start on an even playing field, with specific units having advantages over others and terrain playing a role in the battle's outcome. However, even from the outset, there are advantages that are given to the attacking units that allow them to deal more damage.
Initiating an attack is almost always better than being on the defensive. It's not impossible to win a battle as the defending unit, but it is a disadvantage that players should be aware of. The game rewards aggressive play, so waiting to attack is never advisable. Players should always be seeking to make the first strike.
7 Hoarding Units
Resources are limited in battle, and units cost resources to build. As such, it's very easy for players to fall into the trap of trying to protect all of their units and retreating any time they might be destroyed. However, units can be useful as cannon fodder just as easily as they can be useful by directly winning fights themselves.
For example, players can use their cheaper units to protect the more expensive ones or to hold down a captured outpost. Similarly, if a cheap unit is able to take out a more powerful enemy unit, it's always advisable to do so, even if that cheap unit will be destroyed the next turn.
6 Settling For A Bad Turn
Even with all the tips in the world, players are going to have turns that go badly. Sometimes it's the result of the game's fog of war mechanic causing their units to wander into an ambush, and sometimes it's just a missed button press or a brain lapse. Whatever the case, players don't need to accept their mistakes as being irreversible.
There is an option hidden away in the game's pause menu that allows players to reset their turn. There is no tutorial that tells the player about this, but it can be an invaluable tool for undoing an otherwise devastating mistake without having to restart the entire mission to try again.
5 Not Learning Through Surrender
Following that same line of thinking, there will be times when a mission goes awry just like in any strategy game, and there is simply no saving it. When that happens, players can surrender to restart the mission. The idea of surrender may be unappealing, but there are benefits that can make the player's next attempt go more smoothly.
Upon surrendering, a helpful advisor named Nell will appear on the screen and share a few tips about the current mission. These tips are excellent for pointing players in the right direction to eventually win the battle, so be sure to not mash A right after surrendering, because a lot of important information will be missed.
4 Ignoring Enemy Stats
Hovering over an enemy unit will display its basic stats, as we mentioned earlier. However, there's more information to be gained if players wish to dig a little deeper, and doing so on an unfamiliar enemy unit can reveal an otherwise unexpected weakness that makes defeating them a cakewalk.
Pressing ZR while hovering over an enemy unit will display information like their equipped weapons and their remaining fuel. Alternatively, pressing B while hovering over them will reveal their attack range. The latter is virtually essential, especially in the late-game, because it helps the player avoid accidentally sending their units to be destroyed.
3 Getting Frustrated By Animations
Every combat instance in Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is played out via an endearing animation in place of any real-time combat. These animations are fun and particularly nostalgic for players familiar with the original games, but they can become tedious after hours and hours of watching them play out.
A new addition to the remakes of these classic games is that players now have the option to turn off these animations in the pause menu. While it does make the game less enjoyable visually, it really helps the flow of gameplay, and players may be surprised at how much faster missions play out without the constant pausing.
2 Forgetting To Scout
Earlier we mentioned the game's fog of war mechanic, which is only featured in specific missions. It behaves as one might expect, shrouding the battlefield in darkness and only revealing the terrain as players move their units through it. Naturally, this opens up a lot of opportunities for the enemy to ambush the player's units.
With the addition of the ability to reset a bad turn, players now have the option to scout ahead into the fog of war without facing severe consequences for unknowingly making a bad decision. While it does neuter some of the challenges posed by these missions, it makes them feel a lot fairer if players at least have the option of spotting an ambush ahead of time, something that few other strategy games offer.
1 Ignoring Factories
Among the enemy's many resources are factories: facilities where the enemy will build new units to send into battle. As long as these factories are operational, the enemy will continue to build units, so they are important to deal with. This is where the willingness to sacrifice units can be crucial.
After capturing a factory, players can place a unit on that terrain and the factory will be unable to build new units. Leaving the terrain unguarded, however, will allow the factory to start back up. It's easy to see why this would be a bad thing, so having a dispensable unit ready to hold down a captured factory is a good habit to build.
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp was released on April 21st, 2023, and is available on Nintendo Switch.