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Battalion Wars 2
A fun but unremarkable RTS-esque Wii game.
October 31, 2007 | 8:35 AM PSTAMN's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game's About
A nation has a super powered weapon. Or at least that's the rumor. Battalion Wars 2 is loosely connected to its predecessor and follows the drama of a World War-esque war amongst several lands. Like the title's cartoon visual style, the storyline is simple. Told through in-game dialogue and a number of full-motion videos, it's not exactly the star of the game. However, it serves as the backbone to the game's mission-based structure and gets the job done. Despite its name, Advanced Wars this is not. Imagine if the RTS and action genres had a baby out of wedlock. Battalion Wars 2 would be it. And we're not necessarily saying that's a bad thing.
What's Hot
The storyline in Battalion Wars 2, like the original, isn't mind-blowingly crafty or particularly impressive. It is, however, an advancement over the original game. Kuju's new FMVs look sharper and more detailed, nearly managing to overcome the low-def look that plagues the game. These power the title's most interesting storyline moments, along with collages of newspaper headlines, depicting world events within the Battalion Wars universe. The general art and story direction isn't the novelty it was back in 2005, but it's still likable.
The series has evolved in a number of ways – not just in storytelling. As a whole, Battalion Wars 2 just feels more polished, refined and thus a better game. Looking around with the Wii-mote is intuitive and works better than the old control scheme. Air units, specifically, are enhanced by the pointing controllers. A lot of third-person flying games struggle in regards to controls, but Battalion Wars 2 bests the challenge with a Wii-specific solution. The addition of new unit types and naval units is completely welcome – we love the latter, actually. Naval units round-out the unit variety. A good call on Kuju's part.
In one swoop, Kuju has introduced both multiplayer and online play to the franchise. The team has done some things better than others, but is still quite fun. Whether you're playing head-to-head modes or co-op challenges, it's fun. Impressively, the game suffers from next to no lag problems – it's completely smooth most of the time. Overall, online multiplayer is a great addition to the Battalion Wars series.
What's Not
We liked the original Battalion Wars, but we always felt there was something about it that kept it from excelling from a "good" game to a "great" one. Unfortunately, Battalion Wars 2 suffers the same problem. Again, it's hard to pin down what exactly it is that keeps the game from graduating into what we'd describe as a top-tier first-party Nintendo game. In truth, it seems to be a number of small issues.
The story here is okay at best. It just doesn't capture you – and ultimately, it's forgettable. Of course, you could argue Battalion Wars 2 isn't a story-focused game. It's about the gameplay. And we'd agree, which is the problem, because from a gameplay standpoint, Battalion Wars 2 doesn't bring any exceptional concepts to the table. As a result, it feels ordinary and generic a lot of the time. You select an enemy, run up to it and shoot it. It feels shallow, rarely fulfilling.
Disappointingly, Nintendo and Kuju missed a great opportunity to Wii-volutionize the franchise with the Wii controller, as well. The Wii-mote enhances the experience more than it detracts from it, but the control scheme here is about as typical as an Xbox 360 or PS3 title's. We thought that the pointing capabilities would be a no-brainer solution for managing troops – but Kuju didn't. You do it all with the D-pad, which is not only cumbersome but a challenge to overcome. It's just too difficult to manage your battalion at larger numbers, which results in your demise more often than not. There are some mechanical shortcomings, as well. The new reticule is too difficult to see, let alone control. It's too sensitive, making it nearly impossible to achieve precision.
While Battalion Wars 2 features online multiplayer, it doesn't support any local multiplayer options, which baffles. Online multiplayer is fun, but flawed in other ways. First off, you can assume friend codes suck, so we won't even write that they do (see what we did there?). The big problem is there's no way, whatsoever, to communicate with your opponent. This is particularly a problem in co-op, as you can't communicate with your team mate. The game constantly tells you to use teamwork and work together, but it's difficult with no way of communicating with your team mate, short of talking to each other over the phone. This kind of foundational shortcoming is hard to ignore.
Battalion Wars 2 looks better, graphically, than its predecessor, but in many ways the differences are undistinguishable. Textures have a decidedly low-res look, sometimes lacking so much in detail that they're ugly. Other times, the game looks fairly good. The inconsistency of good-looking and less-good-looking areas creates an uneven experience in regards to visuals.
Final Word
Despite what might seem like many complaints, we generally like Battalion Wars 2. In nearly all ways, it's an advancement over its predecessor, so if you liked the first game, we'd be surprised if you didn't like this too. Unfortunately, the title falls shorts of being a truly "great" Nintendo property. In the end, the formula is shallow and the experience marred by too many small problems. That said, it is a likable and fun Wii title that merges qualities from the action and RTS genres into a one hybrid genre.
A solid rental.
What the Game's About
A nation has a super powered weapon. Or at least that's the rumor. Battalion Wars 2 is loosely connected to its predecessor and follows the drama of a World War-esque war amongst several lands. Like the title's cartoon visual style, the storyline is simple. Told through in-game dialogue and a number of full-motion videos, it's not exactly the star of the game. However, it serves as the backbone to the game's mission-based structure and gets the job done. Despite its name, Advanced Wars this is not. Imagine if the RTS and action genres had a baby out of wedlock. Battalion Wars 2 would be it. And we're not necessarily saying that's a bad thing.
What's Hot
The storyline in Battalion Wars 2, like the original, isn't mind-blowingly crafty or particularly impressive. It is, however, an advancement over the original game. Kuju's new FMVs look sharper and more detailed, nearly managing to overcome the low-def look that plagues the game. These power the title's most interesting storyline moments, along with collages of newspaper headlines, depicting world events within the Battalion Wars universe. The general art and story direction isn't the novelty it was back in 2005, but it's still likable.
The series has evolved in a number of ways – not just in storytelling. As a whole, Battalion Wars 2 just feels more polished, refined and thus a better game. Looking around with the Wii-mote is intuitive and works better than the old control scheme. Air units, specifically, are enhanced by the pointing controllers. A lot of third-person flying games struggle in regards to controls, but Battalion Wars 2 bests the challenge with a Wii-specific solution. The addition of new unit types and naval units is completely welcome – we love the latter, actually. Naval units round-out the unit variety. A good call on Kuju's part.
In one swoop, Kuju has introduced both multiplayer and online play to the franchise. The team has done some things better than others, but is still quite fun. Whether you're playing head-to-head modes or co-op challenges, it's fun. Impressively, the game suffers from next to no lag problems – it's completely smooth most of the time. Overall, online multiplayer is a great addition to the Battalion Wars series.
What's Not
We liked the original Battalion Wars, but we always felt there was something about it that kept it from excelling from a "good" game to a "great" one. Unfortunately, Battalion Wars 2 suffers the same problem. Again, it's hard to pin down what exactly it is that keeps the game from graduating into what we'd describe as a top-tier first-party Nintendo game. In truth, it seems to be a number of small issues.
The story here is okay at best. It just doesn't capture you – and ultimately, it's forgettable. Of course, you could argue Battalion Wars 2 isn't a story-focused game. It's about the gameplay. And we'd agree, which is the problem, because from a gameplay standpoint, Battalion Wars 2 doesn't bring any exceptional concepts to the table. As a result, it feels ordinary and generic a lot of the time. You select an enemy, run up to it and shoot it. It feels shallow, rarely fulfilling.
Disappointingly, Nintendo and Kuju missed a great opportunity to Wii-volutionize the franchise with the Wii controller, as well. The Wii-mote enhances the experience more than it detracts from it, but the control scheme here is about as typical as an Xbox 360 or PS3 title's. We thought that the pointing capabilities would be a no-brainer solution for managing troops – but Kuju didn't. You do it all with the D-pad, which is not only cumbersome but a challenge to overcome. It's just too difficult to manage your battalion at larger numbers, which results in your demise more often than not. There are some mechanical shortcomings, as well. The new reticule is too difficult to see, let alone control. It's too sensitive, making it nearly impossible to achieve precision.
While Battalion Wars 2 features online multiplayer, it doesn't support any local multiplayer options, which baffles. Online multiplayer is fun, but flawed in other ways. First off, you can assume friend codes suck, so we won't even write that they do (see what we did there?). The big problem is there's no way, whatsoever, to communicate with your opponent. This is particularly a problem in co-op, as you can't communicate with your team mate. The game constantly tells you to use teamwork and work together, but it's difficult with no way of communicating with your team mate, short of talking to each other over the phone. This kind of foundational shortcoming is hard to ignore.
Battalion Wars 2 looks better, graphically, than its predecessor, but in many ways the differences are undistinguishable. Textures have a decidedly low-res look, sometimes lacking so much in detail that they're ugly. Other times, the game looks fairly good. The inconsistency of good-looking and less-good-looking areas creates an uneven experience in regards to visuals.
Final Word
Despite what might seem like many complaints, we generally like Battalion Wars 2. In nearly all ways, it's an advancement over its predecessor, so if you liked the first game, we'd be surprised if you didn't like this too. Unfortunately, the title falls shorts of being a truly "great" Nintendo property. In the end, the formula is shallow and the experience marred by too many small problems. That said, it is a likable and fun Wii title that merges qualities from the action and RTS genres into a one hybrid genre.
A solid rental.
November 20, 2009
