A small problem

I ha?ve always had a bit of trouble playing old??er games.

This might not come as a surprise to some discerning Destructoid readers, who have, in the past, derided me for the recency bias seemingly on display in a handful of my ranked lists. It's true �I do tend to play?? more new releases than older ones, and I tend to enjoy them more, as well. Call it an occupational hazard (it's easier to write about new games when you're playing ??them on release), chalk it up to my age (I am, as you might imagine, younger than many readers), but the fact stands: I prefer more modern titles.

Of course, this i??sn't a moral failing, but it is a bit of a problem. See, I am the kind of person who takes a great interest in figuring out why things are the way they are. Anthropologically, I'm fascinated by older games. I like to see the seeds of a great franchise, and I like to chart design trends from their earliest inception. To that end, I really should like playing older games.

So what do I do about that?

Put a bow on 2022 �it's done. The new year is upon us, and it's time for resolutions. So here's mine: I will play a lot of games that I've passed over. Titles that I was too young for on release, titles that arrived before I was around to play them, titles that simply don't seem app?ealing. I will learn design languages that games have outpaced. I will find the fun, come hell or high water.

In some areas, this will be easy. Every year, I make a point of going through an older franchise with a new entry on the way. While the cynic in?? me wants to deride studios for coasting on successful ideas and properties instead of coming up with original concepts, this year, that particular strategy?? exposed me to a mess of games that I otherwise wouldn't have played.

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2022 was, for example, the year that I finally played the Souls games (I'm aware that I'm stretching the definition of "old" a bit, but Demon's Souls was 13 years ago). That's a truly excellent series, even better if you're willing to include a handful of structurally similar FromSoftware games under the umbrella. I also played the phenomenally funny The Secret of Monkey Island for the first time, and I gave the original Advance Wars a shot (whoops).

Where you come in

2023 will bring plenty of franchise entries. I imagine I'll spend a lot of time digging into the annals of Armored Core history, just to understand why my mecha-enthusiast friends are so damn pumped. Maybe I'll finally check out Diablo and Street Fighter. But I want to play the games I'm not thinking of.

And, obviously, it's tough to thi?nk of things that I'm n??ot thinking of.

That's where you, dear readers, come in. I want to play your favorite older games. Do you have fond memories of a game played in decades past? Please, tell me about them. Did you try any ancient titles for the first time in 2022? I'd love to play them. Are there any that you've been meaning to get to for ag??es? I wan??t to join you on that adventure. So please, let me know! Tell me the games that you view as foundational to the medium, or just the ones you really love. I'm looking forward to it.

The post To new beginnings in old games appeared first on Destructoid.

"We will announce the new date once it has been determined"

As you may recall, we reported six months ago that Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp (a remake of Advance Wars 1 and 2 with extra features on Switch) had been delayed due to recent world events. Since then we haven't heard an official statement from Nintendo; and even during the Nintendo Direct this week, the publisher remained silent on when it may see th??e light of day.

That silence has been broken via a statement from a Nintendo rep, who spoke to Stephen Totilo from Axios this week. Here's their full reply:

??"The release has been delayed. We will announce the new date once it has been determined."

Totilo had asked if the game had been fully canceled, which it doesn't seem to be at this time, given that it's "still delayed" as of this week. Beyond current events, Nintendo also has several considerations when it comes to determining the Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp launch date. The game is fully co??mpleted, and they can stick it into any schedule lull they so choose. They could also use the opportunity of an event or stream to "re-announce" it to the world.

With that in mind, given the bevy of strategy games we're going to see on the Switch based on the Nintendo Direct presentation alone, there's plenty of other things to play in the meantime, even if Advance Wars 1+2 continues to be delayed. Strategy game fans are s?eeing a renaissance of sorts, and the Switch is a great fit for many titles that would have previously been relegated? to handhelds.

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Sweaty men not included

I’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of Advance Wars 1+2 Re-boot Camp since its announcement. I’ve loved the series since I first played it on Game Boy Advance back in 2001. At the time, I had no idea that the games date back to the Famicom, and, for some reason, Advance Wars was just the first we got in? North America. When I start??ed collecting for the Famicom, it was one of the first games I looked for.

I wound up with Daisenryaku due to a strangely worded l?isting. The collector’s ma?rket was kind of weird back then.

I did eventually land what I was looking for. I had the privilege of trying it out with a friend of mine who also loves the series. As it turned out, there was some to be had. Nothing that hasn’t been antiquated by later games in the ??seri??es, but fun nonetheless.

I want to talk about the box art to Famicom Wars because it’s one of the strangest I’ve ever seen. Forget about bearded fellows playing the banjo or horrible Sega Master System covers, Famicom Wars decided to promote itself using a row of sweaty boot camp trainees screaming at the camera. I honestly cannot fat?hom the disc?ussions that went on around the use of it. Was Nintendo happy? Was the development team happy? Did the company that put this together ever find work again?

Those sweaty men don’t feature within the game. Instead, it’s the same bizarre light-hearted approach to war that we’re used to from the series. Okay, there’s no dialogue, so we don’t get COs patting each other on the back for the great battle that resulted in untold collateral damage and lives lots, but it’s still presented in an off-puttingly goofy?? fashion. Forget the horrors of w??ar, just focus on the strategy.

Perhaps predictably, Famicom Wars is the formula distilled down to its purest elements. You’ve got the Red Star and Blue Moon armies. They’re evenly matched, and the COs are just generic army dudes. However, the main gameplay elements are all here. Grid-based, units with strengths and weaknesses, terrain that offers defensive cover, and capturing cities for a better daily income. If you know how to pla?y Advance Wars, then you’re all set here. If you don’t, then just know it’s a simple take on the tactical war genre.

Many of the units that would be carried through the Game Boy Wars games and into Advance Wars existed here. Tanks and artillery in light and heavy flavors, infantry, bazooka infantry, battleships, and bombers. The big difference is that APCs and supply trucks are separate units. The supply trucks deserve special mention because they’re very unintuitive. When in a group of units, they always re?supply the unit closer to the enemy. They ?would also sometimes just refuse to resupply for reasons I couldn’t discern. Maybe if I had the instruction manual.

One feature that I wished was carried over to later games in the series is the persistent campaign. There’s no story mode, but there’s a series of islands to be taken over. If you’re playing a 2-player campaign, then you’re essentially fighting to see who can capture the most islan??ds. There’s a battery backup in the cartridge, which means that you can keep the campaign going over multiple play sessions. Unfortunately, the battery in my cartridge died. Have you ever tried opening a Nintendo-type Famicom cartridge? There are no screws, just plastic clips. Taking them apart without breaking those clips is a harrowing experience.

There are some drawbacks. The AI takes all the time to make its moves as a human player would, but without the conversation and smack talk. It’s not bad in early maps where there aren’t many units fielded, but in the bigger maps, I would literally walk away from the game and come back after a few minutes to find that they were still thinking about moving units. This was a problem with a lot of early turn-based strategy games. SD Gundam World, for example, or even Game Boy Wars.

It’s also a rather unbalanced game. I recall a match where I was being tr?ampled by a friend of mine in 1v1. I was on the ropes, but I turned the whole battle around because I was the first one to drop the money on a battleship. Those beasts hit anything; land, sea, air. They’re the ultimate artillery and I can’t think of a single strategy that could defeat a blockade of those things. Of course, I’m no, uh�Captain Picard. I’m drawing a blank here on actual military leaders.

I had to bring up that time I won because he was ?always better than me at strategy gam?es.

It’s somewhat important to note that, while both games are similar, Famicom Wars predated Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light by about two years. Both were designed by Intelligent Systems, or perhaps more accurately programmed by Toru Narihiro. While Fire Emblem is a much more advanced game with its narrative, persistent unit death, and RPG elements, there’s a lot of Famicom Wars DNA in t?here, and it’s unlikely it would exist without its predecessor.

It’s easy to say that Famicom Wars was made obsolete by later games in the series, but I think it’s more important to appreciate how fun it still is. Even back in 1988, the foundation of the ??series was pretty strong. I just wish we got it over here.

Nintendo did recently go to the effort of localizing the original Famicom version of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, though they only offered it for a limited amount of time and then, mystifyingly, pulled it from stores. However, they tend to have more respect for the Fire Emblem series since the western audience latched onto it and turned it into a million-seller. Maybe if Advance Wars 1+2 Re-boot Camp succeeds, we’ll finally see a localization. On the other hand, you could just use the map editor to remake all the Famicom Wars maps, so what do I know?

As for what’s there now, i?f you’re brave, you can poke around with the Japanese menus and try to figure things out. Otherwise, you need to know the language. There’s no story, but there are a lot of stats and unit types. Luckily, there is a fan translation available. Maybe check it out if you’d like to see where this series spawned.

Check out previous Famicom Fridays right here.

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Reconnaissance Mission

In one of the strangest stories from the weekend, it seems that WayForward's anticipated strategy release Advance Wars 1+2: ReBoot Camp was ??rendered fully playable... by one single Switch owner.

Twitter user "Rachael" (@killetheth) posted images pulled directly from the incoming release, which was seemingly available to launch?? live from their Switch Lite unit, (though they are unable to access the title, from the same account, on their "main" Nintendo Switch hardware). While some responders raised eyebrows at the authenticity of the story, Rachael followed up with screens pulled from the Advance Wars 1+2 tutorial mode, as well as its Mission Select scr??eens. It all looks pretty legitimate.

//twitter.com/killetheth/status/1512870820523167745?s=20&t=??teruh9QpraKD?dMOBsRBevQ

The remake was expected to launch in December of 2020, but was initially delayed to April 8 for further tweaking, before then having its launch postponed in the wake of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. As such, Advance Wars 1+2 is likely long-gone-gold and ready to launch �sitting on WayForward's servers and just waiting for the go-??ahead from Nintendo. Thus it is completely possible that some bizarre glitch in the matrix opened the door for Rachael to somehow access the title.

Advance Wars 1+2: ReBoot Camp will officially launch on Ninten??do Switch in 2022?.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7LTV2MJ3Zw

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GBA remakes featuring voiced COs, fast-forwarding, and a reset-turn option

Just a few short years ago, we were wondering "where the hell is Advance Wars?" Well, the tactical series is finally coming back soon after a delay pushed it out of Nintendo and WayForward's planned December 2021 launch. Per today's Nintendo Direct news drop, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is releasing for Nintendo Switch on April 8, 2022.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7LTV2MJ3Zw

The kind of clunky name gives it away, but Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is a bundled-up remake of Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, wh?ich originally released for the GBA in 2001 and 2003, respectively. If you're my age, you might've linked up! The new game has local and online multiplayer, the story campaigns, the War Room, the Design Room for custom map creations, and features like fast-forwarding (to speed up attack animations) and a reset-turn option (in case you botch things hard).

Intelligent Systems' vibrant, approachable, straightforward-but-deep strategy series was a big deal in the Game Boy Advance days �and truth be told, that's still my preferred way to play, even though tons of fans embraced the outings on Nintendo DS. That original vibe holds up well. Advance Wars 1 and 2 are classics, to the point where I have a Wii U hooked up to revisit them (and others, like Metroid Fusion) despite how jarring it can be to go back and forth between a chunky Wii U GamePad and the way-different-feeling Switch.

Maybe you were more of a Fire Emblem person? I liked both series a lot at the time, but something about the way the different military units interacted in Advance Wars spoke to me. There's this constant urge to figure out the best balance of capturing cities, building the right units ?at the right moment, an??d knowing when to be reserved or go all-in. Also, it's really fun to bait the AI with transport vehicles, opening them up to counterattacks.

While it's hard to say if Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp will be the resurgence that this series needs and deserves, the Nintendo Switch has worked wonders before with other beloved lapsed franchises. I'm hoping for a worthy remake out of WayForward that feels justified, and brings in enough sales to give Advance Wars in general a new lease on life.

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Taking some extra time to resupply

The handheld Nintendo wars won't be kicking off in time for the holidays this year. Nintendo announced today that Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is taking some extra time wit?h a? delay, and will now be launching in spring 2022.

These remakes, developed by WayForward, were originally set to launch on Dec. 3, 2021. According to Nintendo, the g??ame needs "a little bit more time for fine tuning." No firm date has been set in the spring window.

//twitter.com/nintendoam??erica/status/1451533822022066179

The old adage is that a delayed game can make for a better game, so hopefully this gives the developers at WayForward the runway they need. I was really looking forward to a December filled with reliving my Game Boy Advance glory days, but hey, this does at least provide a little bit more time for some other big Switch games and updates. And now Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp won't be competing for my time against the likes of Halo.

And hopefully, "spring" also means it's dodging the ever-growing flood of games that have been delayed into February 2022, too. Games like Horizon Forbidden West, Dying Light 2, and Elden Ring have all been set for February dates. And others, like the new Saints Row, have been targeting that month too.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=fftL_XeK2qU

As both a WayForward and Advance Wars fan, I'm very interested to see their take on the handheld classics. These are GBA ?all-timers, and hopefully the delay gives them the extra tune-up time they need, and also gets them clear of a slowly crowding winter season for video games.

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