Nintendo’s Advance Wars franchise actually got its beginning all the way back in 1988 as ‘Famicom Wars’ on the original Famicom, with future instalments being named after the console they appear on. The games were also all exclusive to Japan until 2001, with ‘Advance Wars’ released worldwide on the Game Boy Advance quickly becoming a console seller.

The same goes for its sequel, ‘Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising’ released in 2003. The series saw three more games on GameCube, Wii, and DS, but hadn’t seen a new instalment since 2008. Finally, after 15 long years and various delays due to real-world events, Advance Wars is back, with ‘Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp’ exclusive to Nintendo Switch and developed by WayForward.

As the title indicates, ‘Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp’ includes both ‘Advance Wars’ and ‘Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising’, but with upgraded graphics. Both games play identically to their Game Boy Advance counterparts, bringing back all the turn-based strategy mayhem and explosive action. Players will have a wide range of soldiers, tanks, choppers, ships, and other vehicles in their arsenal to battle on land, air, and sea, with Commanding Officers Andy, Max, and Sami leading them into battle. Both games include a single-player campaign with various scenarios, offering about a total of 40 hours of warfare fun.

Players will need to strategise their plan of attack, by moving each of their units, gaining a tactical advantage, and gaining territory to claim victory by either eliminating the opposing army or capturing their main base. There are several unit types at your disposal such as soldiers on foot, armed with rifles or bazookas, tanks with different-sized cannons, choppers that can travel anywhere, warships and submarines, supply vehicles to refill ammo for the other units, and even transport soldiers across longer distances, and much more.

Each unit has its advantages and disadvantages with power, defence, attack range, the distance they can cover, and the terrain they can travel on. When attacks are performed, short animated sequences will play and show the outcome, by using an RNG system and calculating the units’ stats.

The gameplay in any mode is no doubt the game’s greatest feature, offering hours of fun with no two matches being the same. The helpful tutorials and simple, easy-to-pick-up and play mechanics, make it easily accessible to anyone to just jump in and get in on the action. Even just watching someone else play, new players can get right in on the action and learn on the go. This game will also appeal to fans of tabletop wargaming.

Multiplayer is also available for up to four players. Each player can either play on one Switch console with their own controllers or take turns with a single controller, or play on their own Switches via the local wireless connection. Playing against friends offers even more fun and even more hours of explosive action, making it the perfect party game.

Online multiplayer is also available for the first time, but only against players in your friends’ list. This means you can’t pair up against random opponents or create/join lobbies, making this a real missed opportunity. This severely limits the online matches available, having to rely on online friends to have their own copy of the game. Advance Wars would be the perfect online game, so it’s a wonder why Nintendo restricted it to friends only, while their other exclusive games allow random matchmaking. It’s because of this, I wasn’t even able to test the online play and see how it functions. Hopefully, random matchmaking will be included in a future patch update.

Players can even create their own maps in Design Room and even share them online for other players to download and take on new challenges. There is already plenty to do in the game, and Design Room offers even more hours and variety to create or play on new maps. War Room offers even more single-player missions, but without the story, allowing players to get straight into the action and aim for a high score.

The overall design sticks to the bright and colourful cartoony presentation from the original games on Game Boy Advance, but now with a 3D look. The soldiers and vehicles in 3D do look more like toys, but this is part of the game’s charm, fitting in with everything else, and they look just as good in both docked and handheld mode. All the characters look like they were taken straight from an anime and have so much personality, which can be seen in the opening anime-style intro and fully voiced cutscenes. The soundtrack has a very upbeat feel with a military touch that perfectly suits the game’s cartoony style and presentation.

With two fantastic Game Boy Advance classics in one, ‘Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp’ is an excellent upgrade for longtime fans and newcomers to enjoy. Being easy to pick up and play, fun, and absolutely addictive, will give players hours upon hours of fun with both single-player and with friends. Hopefully soon the online will allow for random matchmaking, but there is still so much to do regardless.

There may only be a few game modes available, but what’s in each mode offers an incredible amount of variety and endless fun. With a history that dates all the way back to 1988, perhaps Nintendo may be inspired to bring the other games in the franchise to the modern era. ‘Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp’ is an absolute blast to play, a reminder as to why they are classics on the Game Boy Advance, and a must-own for Nintendo Switch players.

Written by: Sammy Hanson