Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp for Switch updates one of the greatest ever turn-based strategy games with 3D visuals and online multiplayer. While the revamped look won't be to everyone's tastes, developer WayForward has nailed its recreation of the original mechanics while adding plenty of quality-of-live improvements. It's addictive, challenging stuff, but is this everything an Advance Wars game could have been on Switch - and how does the remake compare to the Game Boy Advance original in terms of visuals and performance? We've been testing the game to find out.
If you had a Game Boy Advance in the early 2000s, chances are you played Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2, two nearly perfect titles that made excellent use of the hardware available. Every button served a function, every pixel on the screen was used for gorgeous 2D sprite work and local multiplayer was even possible via link-up cable. It's a pure, almost timeless top-down strategy game where every unit has a counter, from infantry and vehicles to aircraft and ships, and terrain types, weather and visibility are all crucial to victory. And while Advance Wars marks the zenith of the series, it began with Famicom Wars in 1988, explaining the strength and polish of the GBA titles that were the first to be released in the West.
22 years after that first GBA release, we have a complete remake for Switch in Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp. The new game includes the campaigns from both games, a complete map editor, a host of multiplayer modes and in-game shop to buy maps, music and more. Perhaps most eye-catching though is a beautiful opening animation, which replaces the sprite-based opener of the originals with flowing 24fps animation, like the game's cover art come to life. Likewise, cel-shaded avatars appear during the partially voiced dialogue and fully animated special moves play out in battle. These additions are a real highlight, an evolution of the series' original artwork - but this perhaps also sets an expectation for the visuals in gameplay that doesn't match what we actually get.