Strategy games can be enjoyed anywhere, Whether on your lap or on the big screen. Welcome to W.A.N.D. Project, Developed by The Knights of Unity and Published by Untold Tales. Let’s dive right in and experience the exciting spell-crafting world of Japan.

As the world is plunged into danger by an alien invasion, you must step up and carry the wands of destruction into battle to fight off the aliens protecting Tokyo’s futuristic lands and become the world’s greatest spell crafter.

Starting the game with a beautifully crafted intro showing you the aliens invading Japan, with your phone buzzing and Hiro guiding you through and with such an unknown origin for the magic wands, Yumi is unsure about everything happening. Still, she knows she can’t sit there and do nothing. As you start a new run, you can choose between three characters, which unlock as you progress through the game, the first being Yumi, a serious and confident teenager who has recently discovered her long-lost heritage of protecting Tokyo from alien invasions. Next up is Maki, a fun-loving and energetic teenager, and with her enthusiasm, anything is possible, giving her the upper hand in battle.

Finally, there is Rina, a thoughtful and introspective teenager battling with self-confidence but always holding her duty to protect her loved ones. Once you have picked your character, you move on to your wands, with four to choose from, which unlock as you progress through the game—starting with the basic wand, Ignacio second, Parappa third, Zordi and finally, Omni.

Each wand has different stats and abilities to help you on your playthroughs, making them very useful for various situations. Once you have selected your wand, you upgrade your wand or your spell crafting board to make some platforms easier to purchase, with special points awarded for each run.

Finally, you move onto your level/map selection with three maps, unlocking as you progress through the game. The first map is Shbuya Crossing, which is Tokyo’s central hub. Next up is Meiji Shrine, which is nestled in a tranquil forest of beauty. Third is the Metro Station, which is deep beneath the city and full of danger; aliens might not be the only danger.

Once you have selected all the requirements to start your run, you are dropped into the level with a small dialogue between your character, wand, and Hiro. Once the initial dialogue has ended, your run begins with the first wave of aliens being effortless with slow, weak enemies and with tutorials pausing the game and showing you a video of how to use your dash and attack enemies. Once you have completed your first wave, you are taken to the spell crafting board using Essence collected from aliens to choose new abilities and spells to add to your board.

It’s super cool to see the combos you can do with spells as you begin with a standard green card of a different attribute from Idle, where you only attack when you are standing still or cast with movement where you attack while moving and depending on your wand your standard cards can change drastically, once you have selected a damage spell to activate the green tile you can start adding new effects. For example, if you had ice spikes as your first attack and it hits an enemy, it can trigger spells attached to the initial spell, creating a massive combo.

I enjoyed spending my time creating new combos for massive effectiveness against enemies. As you progress through the waves, it becomes much more challenging, with 10 waves before you face off against the boss of the level. With aliens that dash at you to long-range fireball shooters with larger versions coming in the later rounds it makes it very challenging. One thing I found pretty annoying was multiple combos resulting in low fps, which degraded the game’s overall feel.

Controls felt very basic and easy to understand, with tutorials throughout the beginning of the game teaching you every button you need to master, with only a couple of buttons being used in the whole game as all attacks are auto. With settings, you can change your attacks to manual mode for an extra challenge.

Although the graphics aren’t very visually appealing, the distorted pixel art design gives a unique twist to standard pixel art games, making them stand out. The animations for spells and alien attacks were vibrant, with explosions filling the screen, giving off a great visual effect. Each level was well designed with strategy in mind, with breakable structures exploding when damaged by aliens, giving an airy and surreal feeling.

The sound was incredible, with each spell having its own unique sound and alternative sound once it is activated or hits an enemy. Even the killer soundtrack playing while you are blasting aliens sets the mood, with enemies having decent death animation sounds, giving good realism.

Overall W.A.N.D. Project is an enjoyable game with much to offer for content and strategy, building with many combos and making each run unique. Whether playing on your handheld or the TV, it is always a fun time for any situation. However, the low framerate due to high combo explosions and effects on the screen does take away from the overall experience.

Written by: TypicalCambieAU