Subscribe in a reader
Battalion Wars II
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 by Nick Maunders
Although Battalion Wars II came out over 3 months ago it is still a brilliant game. Exclusive to the Nintendo Wii this game takes full advantage of the Wii’s unique control movement which can be neutralised in most games. Battalion Wars II is part of the Nintendo Wars Series which boasts 12 games from 1988 with Famicon Wars.
Battalion Wars II (The Sequel to Battalion Wars – which was on the Nintendo Gamecube) is bigger and better than the previous game in many different ways. This game is by far a third person shooter game and a definite must by for all the strategist people out there. I myself love strategy games and this one has to be one of the best out there. If you new to the whole Nintendo Wars Series (like me) then you won’t have a clue what this game is about, except for the slight hint at the name suggesting its to do with a “war”.
For everyone who doesn’t know, and for a reminder for the people who do, this game is a all out strategy war game which you, the commanding officer, take control of your team and neutralise/defeat the other team in a series of attacks. This game is not like some war games (for example Battleships) where you take turns in attacking, no this game is a real time game so everything happens at the pace you would expect it to happen. A lot of real-time games are exceedingly difficult because you have to think of your feet and one decision could mean victory or certain defeat. Battalion Wars II is no different but it is for this reason why Battalion Wars II is such a great game!
I myself had never played this game before until a few days ago and I must admit that although the instruction booklet shows you the controls very well it is still difficult to understand them if you have never played the game before. So how can you learn how to play? Easy, a tutorial. In my opinion a game is a lot easier and better to play if it has a tutorial (with a few exceptions). So the first mission in the game and you moving around with a handy person telling you what to do and when to do it.
The game consists of 6 nations who are at war and you take it in turns to control each one. When I first bought this game I was entirely sure whether it would be great or not. A lot of strategy war games consist of you having a birds-eye view of the game and telling each person to do this and do that. With respect that is a good game to play and is enjoyable. However the most exciting type of game you can play is when you actually control a person and any person yourself. This is exactly what this game does, and it does it brilliantly.
So instead of telling your fighter planes to move this way you can actually control a fighter plane and dodge the incoming missiles by doing a barrel roll using the wii remote and nunchuk. This is the type of game that the Nintendo Wii really brings the best of as you can’t get as much into the action as this on another console. Would you rather swing the wii remote and nunchuk to dodge missiles or would you rather press a button to do it for you? I know which one I would prefer.
Anyway back to the game there are overall 22 units that you can control, unless there are any secret ones that I don’t know about. There are 6 infantry units, 6 ground vehicle units, 5 air units and 5 naval units. I will go more into the different types of units in a later review. Each unit has its strong points and its weak points. For example Anti-Air veterans are very effective against enemy aircraft while they are not very effective against ground targets. So your not going to use them to shoot at tanks you leave that to the Bazooka veterans.
This is really where the game using your strategy skills to the limit. One wrong move and your dead, you failed the mission. While landing the right move at the right turn will result in certain victory. At the end of each mission you will receive a grade. A “S” a “A” a “B” or a “C”. “S” being for Superb, meaning that you have “Extraordinary valour and strategic genius”. “A” means “You have demonstrated top flight commanding skills”. “B” is “Awarded for solid, respectable performance in the field”. While “C” is for “Success, but at what price? Consider using Tactics”.
To get these ranks there are 3 criteria which you get a mark out of 100 for. Those 3 are power, speed and technique. Power is how many enemies you have destroyed and how many secondary objectives you have completed. So if you did all of it you would get 100%. Speed is how swiftly you completed the mission objectives. Each mission has a certain time which you must beat to get 100% if you go over it you score will start to decrease, you might even get 0%! Technique is how well you protected/preserved your units. So if no-one on your team was killed you could get 100%.
After you have completed story mode the game is not over! There is an online play as well which means you can play with friends and other people in co-op games, assault games and skirmish games. Co-op games involve you with your friend/other person working together to complete objectives. Assault is when you have to complete objectives on your own, while skirmish is basically killing everything and everyone in sight! I expect most people will be favoured by that last option.
Overall this game is a must buy for …. anyone really! I rate this game 9.5!
For more reviews on Battalion Wars II visit Test Freaks
