Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp announced for Nintendo Switch, developed by WayForward, coming December 3rd (UPDATE: Delayed until Spring)

[etiira]

I'm mixed on the new art (saying that as a huge fan of Ryo Hirata's character art, I bought his book on drawing because of AW), but this franchise is my forgotten GOAT, so I'm there day 1 regardless.

Are these games as hard as Into the Breach?

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It's been 13 years since I last played AW, but I'd say they test different skills. Into the Breach hard mode doesn't feel very difficult to me, and all the AW games has stages that stumped me or that I ended up limping through, but I'm not sure that makes those games harder.

 

[cakely]

They actually retroactively gave it a 10 in 2013.

The ten amendments: we crown seven games from the last 20 years of Edge with a retrospective 10 | Features | Edge Online

We look back at 20 years of Edge to reward seven more games with a retrospective 10.

web.archive.org

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Totally a 10 in my book, along with AW 2: Black Hole Rising.

 

[Capra]

As someone who never played Advance Wars I think this looks great. I liked the toy look in Link's Awakening and I like it here. And the character animations look fantastic. I get why fans would be disappointed the great gba spritework is being abandoned but I think this is a good compromise.

 

[cubicle47b]

I'd like to point out it was IGN Pocket's Game of the Year in 2001 and probably the handheld game of the year in quite a few publications.

 

[Maple]

Don't know if this has been pointed out by anyone in the thread yet, but someone at Wayforward almost certainly approached Nintendo with a pitch to do an Advance Wars remake/sequel. Nintendo did not suddenly decide after over a decade to pull this out of the vault and hand it over to a developer on a roulette wheel.

Someone at Wayforward caring about Advance Wars and with enough clout with someone at Nintendo to get a pitch meeting is the only reason this project exists and the franchise isn't still lost and forgotten.

Also for the record, I like the remake's art style. I'm a sucker for the toy aesthetic though, so my opinion is probably worthless to some of you, lol.

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I don't know...it just kind seems like Nintendo can be very stubborn at times, along with being quite protective of their own IP. Having some super small third party dev approach them about remastering one of their own IPs....it just doesn't seem like the kind of thing Nintendo would even entertain.

 

[Xwing]

I don't know...it just kind seems like Nintendo can be very stubborn at times, along with being quite protective of their own IP. Having some super small third party dev approach them about remastering one of their own IPs....it just doesn't seem like the kind of thing Nintendo would even entertain.

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This is literally how MecurySteam got the job making Samus Returns. They approached Nintendo with a pitch to remake Fusion, Sakamoto said remake Metroid 2 instead.

 

[Maple]

This is literally how MecurySteam go the job making Samus Returns. They approached Nintendo with a pitch to remake Fusion, Sakamoto said remake Metroid 2 instead.

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I wasn't aware of that. Interesting.

Well, it led to a new game, so all I can ask for is that this remake does the same for Advance Wars.

And maybe someone could get around to asking Nintendo about a Golden Sun remake....

 

[cubicle47b]

This is literally how MecurySteam go the job making Samus Returns. They approached Nintendo with a pitch to remake Fusion, Sakamoto said remake Metroid 2 instead.

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I can't hate on the hustle. I just hope they make some improvements to the current graphics before release. Fix the infantry and the mountains/woods tiles. Add cel shading or something. Add some detail to the CO animations. That kind of thing.

 

[Tobor]

Being an Advance Wars fan is like dying of thirst in the desert. I'm not going to turn down a glass of water because it has a little sand in it.

I guess I'm saying I get the complaints, but we need to all buy it anyway. Lol.

 

[mugwhump]

Thread title tricked me I thought there was gonna be a public demo :(

 

[Leo]

I'm pretty sure that the game looks like that because of budget limitations rather than WayForward not being talented enough to make it look better.

AW has been dead for more than a decade, it's getting another shot with an external smaller studio, Nintendo wouldn't simply pour loads of money into that project.

If WayForward was interested in making the game in the first place is because they are fans of the series and I would expect them to treat it with a lot of love. I bet if this does well and they get a chance to make a new game, it will look miles better. The style they make the Shantae games would actually fit AW very well, and I think they look pretty.

 

[Mandos]

I don't know...it just kind seems like Nintendo can be very stubborn at times, along with being quite protective of their own IP. Having some super small third party dev approach them about remastering one of their own IPs....it just doesn't seem like the kind of thing Nintendo would even entertain.

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I mean it's happened, Nintendo's always been open to outsiders with ideas

This is literally how MecurySteam got the job making Samus Returns. They approached Nintendo with a pitch to remake Fusion, Sakamoto said remake Metroid 2 instead.

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It's not just that, then being open to talent is also how Mario + rabbids, or heck if we really want to go far back how the original Star Fox happened(the creator bypassed the Gameboy cartridge lock and got a 3D chip working on it)

 

[Firemind]

I wasn't aware of that. Interesting.

Well, it led to a new game, so all I can ask for is that this remake does the same for Advance Wars.

And maybe someone could get around to asking Nintendo about a Golden Sun remake....

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A lot of people are already giving this shit for its presentation. Imagine a Golden Sun 1+2 remake lol

 

[astro]

"We want advance wars on the Switch!"

{brings out a remake collection}

"I don't like the art style, I'll not buy this crap"

{Advance Wars officially dies}

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This isn't a very good take...

If a game looks unappealing, I'm not going to spend my limited time and money on it in the hope it /might/ end up with a game I prefer in future.

 

[Maple]

Nintendo wouldn't simply pour loads of money into that project.

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I wonder what the development cost would be for a game like this. $5-10 million maybe?

If this game can do 1+ million in sales that's 50+ million in profit for WayForward and Nintendo.

 

[Deleted member 13188]

A lot of people are already giving this shit for its presentation. Imagine a Golden Sun 1+2 remake lol

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Golden Sun never looked good. Fight me.

Seriously I always preferred shining force over it.

 

[Chie Satonaka91]

I don't know...it just kind seems like Nintendo can be very stubborn at times, along with being quite protective of their own IP. Having some super small third party dev approach them about remastering one of their own IPs....it just doesn't seem like the kind of thing Nintendo would even entertain.

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Not a remaster but Cadence of Hyrule was a Zelda spinoff made by a small indie dev.

 

[cubicle47b]

I wouldn't count on the game selling a million units. That would be a first for the series from what I can tell. I hope I'm pleasantly surprised, though.

 

[Leo]

I wouldn't count on the game selling a million units. That would be a first for the series from what I can tell. I hope I'm pleasantly surprised, though.

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I'm pretty confident it will sell 1 million. It would be quite hard for any Nintendo published game to sell less than that on the Switch.

 

[Firemind]

Golden Sun never looked good. Fight me.

Seriously I always preferred shining force over it.

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YOU TAKE THAT BACK

But seriously, Nintendo has poured gasoline on the turn-based RPG genre and set it on fire. Not even Mario RPGs have escaped. I think, in Nintendo's POV, Pokémon and Fire Emblem are enough to satiate demographics.

Which is why a remake of Advance Wars 1+2 is such a welcome surprise. With online play, this is going to be the ultimate AW game, shitty 3D models or not.

 

[Deleted member 13188]

YOU TAKE THAT BACK

But seriously, Nintendo has poured gasoline on the turn-based RPG genre and set it on fire. Not even Mario RPGs have escaped. I think, in Nintendo's POV, Pokémon and Fire Emblem are enough to satiate demographics.

Which is why a remake of Advance Wars 1+2 is such a welcome surprise. With online play, this is going to be the ultimate AW game, shitty 3D models or not.

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Your positive enthusiasm is invigorating me...

 

[RetroHippie]

This was the biggest surprise of the direct personally. A 2D Metroid was heavily rumored and Warioware wasn't out of left field. This is definitely a Day 1 purchase for me!

 

[Deleted member 7051]

Golden Sun never looked good. Fight me.

Seriously I always preferred shining force over it.

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I will find you and I will crush you. There will be no fight, only pain. YOU WILL SUFFER!!!! 😠

 

[mael]

People have a problem with the art style?
That's the most appealing part of the package!
I'll be frank I got Advance Wars 1 only because it was early GBA and there wasn't much to get back then.
I didn't bother with 2 and the 3rd one certainly tried something different enough for me to get it.
I don't know if I care enough about AW to get this one, I kind of prefer Battalion Wars myself.

It looks rather faithful to the original too or certainly like how I remember playing them on that old no backlight GBA.

Now if this was Golden Sun...

 

[The Adder]

You can see it in their uniforms. Stahlhelm (helmet) and the trench coats. You can also tell by the hat that the tank commanders are using. Furthermore, they are using Panzerfausts and whats looks like MP40s. Also Eagle's CO ability (Lightning Strike) is a play on words of Blitzkrieg, which means Lightning War. Green Earth is clearly inspired by the German army.

Black Hole are Space Nazis or something like that.

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Green Earth is just Europe, though their units are, indeed, mostly based on Germany. Eagle, Drake, and Javier are Germany, the UK, and Spain respectively. Dunno what Jess is supposed to be, though.

 

[Dekuman]

This isn't a very good take...

If a game looks unappealing, I'm not going to spend my limited time and money on it in the hope it /might/ end up with a game I prefer in future.

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It's the correct take though. I play strategy games like Civ and that franchise has had its look see saw between realistic, cartoony to table top style. There's always whiners and people who complain about every chance, I frankly don't consider them real fans if they let how units look in a strategy game prevent them from you know, playing a strategy game.

This isn't a movie game, where you could argue aesthetics matter.

 

[Merc]

It's outsourced and it's very easy to mess up with game balance in something like this, so they apparently just got the new developers to stick to the original game design. Also, AW is specifically an Intelligent Systems game, not just "Nintendo", but it's clear IS aren't interested in pushing the series, probably because it completely lost any relevancy in Japan (compare with Fire Emblem, which they always attempted to keep in production even during its weaker phases).

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It's not an excuse. I know Nintendo didn't make Advance Wars. Why doesn't Nintendo outsource a completely new Advance Wars just like they did with Advance Wars 1 and 2 on 3DS? I'm sorry but it just reinforces the strong perception Nintendo has of not providing enough quality games with the Wii U and Switch, and just sticking to remastering everything they got. Nintendo can outsource a completely new Advance Wars game that takes advantage of all the cool things about the Switch- table top mode, stylus support, etc. Why don't they do that?

The real reason is Nintendo doesn't want to spend the resources needed to make a brand new good Advance Wars. And it's crappy. They rather spend way less in their budget to remaster a 16 year old game instead of a brand new game.

It completely rubs me off the wrong way. On top of it, it looks like crap. I'll pass. And I love Advance Wars, but I wont be buying this. They got the perfect console, the Switch, to make a brand new modern Advance Wars game.

 

[Tobor]

Orange stars, blue moons, yellow comets, green earths, and black holes!

 

[fiendcode]

The visuals are serviceable. The game's still half a year away so hopefully Wayforward can take the criticism and tune them up. Personally I think models are fine and the overall presentation would be bumped up quite a bit with some work on rendering/materials to make everything appear more toy/diorama like. I think the cellshaded 3D portraits are quite good already tbh. I actually think the most lacking aspects visually are UI and am a little surprised to not see people talking about it more... instead it seems like everyone's more fixated on a hat.

What games from them would you place in your S, A or B tiers?

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S: Shantae, Contra 4
A: Aliens Infestation, Ducktales Remastered, DD Neon, Pirate's Curse, Bloodstained, River City Girls, Seven Sirens
B: Xtreme Sports, Mighty Flip Champs, Risky's Revenge, A Boy and his Blob, Batman TBAB, Bloodrayne Betrayal, Mighty Switch Force, Half-Genie Hero

 

[astro]

It's the correct take though. I play strategy games like Civ and that franchise has had its look see saw between realistic, cartoony to table top style. There's always whiners and people who complain about every chance, I frankly don't consider them real fans if they let how units look in a strategy game prevent them from you know, playing a strategy game.

This isn't a movie game, where you could argue aesthetics matter.

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This has to be some kind of satire, lol.

Has to be...

 

[The Adder]

I can't hate on the hustle. I just hope they make some improvements to the current graphics before release. Fix the infantry and the mountains/woods tiles. Add cel shading or something. Add some detail to the CO animations. That kind of thing.

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Honestly, I just think the COs need some stronger outlines

 

[Deleted member 13188]

It's not an excuse. I know Nintendo didn't make Advance Wars. Why doesn't Nintendo outsource a completely new Advance Wars just like they did with Advance Wars 1 and 2 on 3DS? I'm sorry but it just reinforces the strong perception Nintendo has of not providing enough quality games with the Wii U and Switch, and just sticking to remastering everything they got. Nintendo can outsource a completely new Advance Wars game that takes advantage of all the cool things about the Switch- table top mode, stylus support, etc. Why don't they do that?

The real reason is Nintendo doesn't want to spend the resources needed to make a brand new good Advance Wars. And it's crappy. They rather spend way less in their budget to remaster a 13 year old game instead of a brand new game.

It completely rubs me off the wrong way. On top of it, it looks like crap. I'll pass. And I love Advance Wars, but I wont be buying this. They got the perfect console, the Switch, to make a brand new modern Advance Wars game.

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This is what I was talking about. There are gonna be fans (like me) who don't like the implications of this. Now we will hopefully (most definitely actually) be in the minority and the game will succeed. That doesn't mean it's a toxic viewpoint. The product is not for us.

Now if it doesn't find an audience, well let's not get ahead of ourselves, but if it doesn't the autopsy will be open and shut. WF did it. Not a lot of risk carried by Nintendo there.

 

[MouldyK]

Well when you get a 9.9 from IGN back in the day, you are special.

EDIT: I see they reduced it to an 8.6 since then...Heresy!

 

[b3llydrum]

I'm just pointing out that people (like myself obviously) may be unhappy with more than just the art style, while bemoaning the art style. Like Nintendo handing off the development of a beloved franchise to a C-tier studio (harsh but fair view of WF IMO).

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Yeah, that's similar to how I feel about the Diamond/Pearl remakes.

 

[Catalyst]

It's not an excuse. I know Nintendo didn't make Advance Wars. Why doesn't Nintendo outsource a completely new Advance Wars just like they did with Advance Wars 1 and 2 on 3DS? I'm sorry but it just reinforces the strong perception Nintendo has of not providing enough quality games with the Wii U and Switch, and just sticking to remastering everything they got. Nintendo can outsource a completely new Advance Wars game that takes advantage of all the cool things about the Switch- table top mode, stylus support, etc. Why don't they do that?

The real reason is Nintendo doesn't want to spend the resources needed to make a brand new good Advance Wars. And it's crappy. They rather spend way less in their budget to remaster a 16 year old game instead of a brand new game.

It completely rubs me off the wrong way. On top of it, it looks like crap. I'll pass. And I love Advance Wars, but I wont be buying this. They got the perfect console, the Switch, to make a brand new modern Advance Wars game.

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WayForward is the one who pitched the idea of an Advance Wars remake. They wanted to do a remake, and Nintendo obliged. It makes perfect sense to test out an IP that hasn't sold well historically with a remake first before making a new game.

 

[fiendcode]

Well when you get a 9.9 from IGN back in the day, you are special.

EDIT: I see they reduced it to an 8.6 since then...Heresy!

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EGM went the opposite route, the original reviewed 7.5, 8.0 and (WTF) 6.5 and 2 years later they retroactively changed their official review to 10.0.

 

[JaggiBaggi]

It's not an excuse. I know Nintendo didn't make Advance Wars. Why doesn't Nintendo outsource a completely new Advance Wars just like they did with Advance Wars 1 and 2 on 3DS? I'm sorry but it just reinforces the strong perception Nintendo has of not providing enough quality games with the Wii U and Switch, and just sticking to remastering everything they got. Nintendo can outsource a completely new Advance Wars game that takes advantage of all the cool things about the Switch- table top mode, stylus support, etc. Why don't they do that?

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What.

 

[RocketDarkness]

Well when you get a 9.9 from IGN back in the day, you are special.

EDIT: I see they reduced it to an 8.6 since then...Heresy!

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ゴゴゴゴゴゴゴ

 

[Firemind]

This has to be some kind of satire, lol.

Has to be...

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Eh, at some point, you're going to get tired of seeing the same animations over and over again. YMMV.

 

[NeonZ]

It's not an excuse. I know Nintendo didn't make Advance Wars. Why doesn't Nintendo outsource a completely new Advance Wars just like they did with Advance Wars 1 and 2 on 3DS?

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What? AW 1 and 2 were for the GBA. Then there were two more games for the DS, a sequel and a reboot. The 3DS had no AW games. Anyway, the Famicom Wars series from the start was developed by Intelligent Systems. It was never handled fully in-house by Nintendo. The point is that outsourcing a series to a completely different developer can end up changing it greatly (just look at Mario Party when it changed developers), which is probably why they got WayForward to just recreate AW1 and 2 with 3d graphics rather than do their own thing with it.

 

[astro]

Ignore me, read that wrong. Need sleep!

 

[Merc]

What? AW 1 and 2 were for the GBA. Then there were two more games for the DS, a sequel and a reboot. The 3DS had no AW games. Anyway, the Famicom Wars series from the start was developed by Intelligent Systems. It was never handled fully in-house by Nintendo. The point is that outsourcing a series to a completely different developer can end up changing it greatly (just look at Mario Party when it changed developers), which is probably why they got WayForward to just recreate AW1 and 2 with 3d graphics rather than do their own thing with it.

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I respectfully do not think that is an excuse to not make a new Advance Wars that utilizes all the new capabilities of the Switch. Nintendo can outsource a new Advance Wars game. It is completely possible and wont be too expensive given the type of game it is. Nintendo's vision is just wrong here.

Oops I confused GBA with 3DS. I've played AW 1+2 and beat it numerous times. It goes to show you how long it's been.

This is what I was talking about. There are gonna be fans (like me) who don't like the implications of this. Now we will hopefully (most definitely actually) be in the minority and the game will succeed. That doesn't mean it's a toxic viewpoint. The product is not for us.

Now if it doesn't find an audience, well let's not get ahead of ourselves, but if it doesn't the autopsy will be open and shut. WF did it. Not a lot of risk carried by Nintendo there.

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Totally agree! Hope I don't get much stick from others just because my viewpoint is different. Hope the game succeeds!

 

[Kcannon]

It's not an excuse. I know Nintendo didn't make Advance Wars. Why doesn't Nintendo outsource a completely new Advance Wars just like they did with Advance Wars 1 and 2 on 3DS? I'm sorry but it just reinforces the strong perception Nintendo has of not providing enough quality games with the Wii U and Switch, and just sticking to remastering everything they got. Nintendo can outsource a completely new Advance Wars game that takes advantage of all the cool things about the Switch- table top mode, stylus support, etc. Why don't they do that?

The real reason is Nintendo doesn't want to spend the resources needed to make a brand new good Advance Wars. And it's crappy. They rather spend way less in their budget to remaster a 16 year old game instead of a brand new game.

It completely rubs me off the wrong way. On top of it, it looks like crap. I'll pass. And I love Advance Wars, but I wont be buying this. They got the perfect console, the Switch, to make a brand new modern Advance Wars game.

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You talk like AW is a big series that wasn't in hiatus for a decade and a half.

 

[Mandos]

You talk like AW is a big series that wasn't in hiatus for a decade and a half.

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And is completely dead in Japan. Heck the advance branch of wars was all special releases or late by multiple years

 

[blame space]

Orange stars, blue moons, yellow comets, green earths, and black holes!

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lucky looking straight up maniacal here. it's cereal bruh not the one ring.

 

[blame space]

also it looks fine you cranky geezers. can't wait to play these again.

 

[Leo]

And is completely dead in Japan. Heck the advance branch of wars was all special releases or late by multiple years

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This is still so crazy to think about. AW is such a wonderful series, I don't understand how it's not popular in Japan.

 

[EAD Ninja]

What? AW 1 and 2 were for the GBA. Then there were two more games for the DS, a sequel and a reboot. The 3DS had no AW games. Anyway, the Famicom Wars series from the start was developed by Intelligent Systems. It was never handled fully in-house by Nintendo.

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Correction. The original Famicom Wars and Gameboy Wars were more Nintendo products than they were IS products. IS just had a few programmers at the time and didn't expand into more of a co-development role until a few years later.

Granted that the Advance Wars series was a full IS game under Nintendo R&D1 production - the original 2 Wars games were quite different; Nintendo came up with the idea of the IP and did all the visuals and audio.

 

[Thug Larz]

I'm just happy to get to play one of my all-time favorite GBA games on Switch.

Understand why some are split on the art changes, but I can't argue with the value. Both games are stellar.

 

[entremet]

So what's up with Days of Ruin? Why was it so different art wise?