| E3 2004 Coverage > Advance Wars: Under Fire |
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| Advance Wars: Under Fire |
On the handheld front, it is hard to find a worthy match to the Game Boy Advance release(s) of Advance Wars. The series, once Japan-exclusive, landed on North American shores in September of 2001 for the very first time. Like Fire Emblem that followed it, it was a taste of what we had been missing out on for all these years.
What makes Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2 so engaging is not the story and perhaps not even the characters, but rather the impeccable game design that makes even the tired turn-based formula fun. Jump ahead three years to E3 2004. What has come to pass is not only that Advance Wars is setting up camp on GameCube, but that it has traded in the turn based formula for an exclusively real-time setup. What's more, master game designers Intelligent Systems are not behind the title. As was hinted at before the show, UK based Kuju Entertainment is spearheading the project. And by the looks of it, they've been working on the technology in this game for quite some time.
So what's hot and what's not? The entire affair was a display of hits and misses that subsequently created an overwhelming "no comment" response from myself and other editors. But before we take a look at what's still to come, we should dig deep into the demo that was on hand and see what works and what still needs fine-tuning.
The first thing you notice about Advance Wars: Under Fire is that certain aspects of the artwork have been retained while others have been changed outright. More specifically, the logo and even the character art for the game look very similar to the Intelligent Systems design. Beyond the hand drawn art though, the game looks to clash a little in terms of visual design. While the hand drawn art seems to look very cartoony, the scenery and even the character modeling for the units displayed in the game look slightly more realistic and gritty. The main factor that led to the grating feeling was probably that this editor in particular had been playing Advance Wars up to the day before the show. One of the advantages of the purely two-dimensional handheld version is in the consistent design. Since it does not have to draw 3D models and animate them with 60 frames per second with particle effects and a bevy of other bells and whistles, it has every element hand drawn (including the menus.) Unfortunately Under Fire cannot say the same for itself, as it looks to be a shell of a former title with an "Advance Wars" coat of paint on top of 3D models and menus.
In fact, the jarring feeling is reminiscent of Rare's Starfox Adventures which had the Starfox license added to it later in the development cycle, leaving the game feeling somewhat confused in terms of scenario. Since Kuju was rumored to be shopping around their game with technology and gameplay mechanics that were supposedly far along at the time, we can imagine that Nintendo is "pulling" another Starfox Adventures. This is not to say that the game feels completely out of place for an Advance Wars title though. In fact, some of the units, such as the tank shown in the E3 demonstration, were very close to the design of the Game Boy Advance counterpart.
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| Tank vs Flamethrower. A match made in heaven. |
But enough about the design of the game, right? Let's get to the meat and potatoes of this sucker. That is, how did the game play?
The demo started with a lengthy load after which you're kindly given a quick run-down of your mission from a woman resembling a cheerleader with a Cheshire cat grin. The evil commander Vlad of the Xylvanian army has captured a small squad of your troops and is keeping them behind wire and guard. It is your job, as both tactician and fighter, to rescue these troops and finally to stifle a full frontal attack from the opposing army.
One thing that works both for and against the game from the get-go is its inherent complexity. While the game offers many options and tools to help you, this also led to confusion amongst show goers and ultimately many players tuck-tailed it from the kiosks. We were pleased later to find that the game was all bark and no bite in terms of complexity.
First, you move your character with the left analog stick. The right analog stick is for moving the camera in and out of the action. The R button allows the player to aim freely both horizontally and vertically. From here, you get a couple of elements that were almost certainly inspired from Nintendo's own games. For instance, there is full implementation of the L-Targeting we've all come to know and love. With it you can target any enemy simply by placing your aimer on them (whereby you're given a handy little message near it letting you know what type of unit you're looking at) and click down L. Even regular infantry need to use the R button and left joystick to aim freely. Next, we are told how to call and dispatch troops; an ability that will no doubt be pivotal to the game's strategy later on. To do so you act like our favorite space captain Olimar, by calling your troops individually by tapping X or hold it down to create an expanding circle that calls all units contained inside.
Once units are under your command, they will follow you and be listed at the bottom of your screen. Like calling, you can send any of your units to either guard or attack by tapping the Y button or holding it down to create an expanding circle which will specify your attacking radius. So right away you're given a number of options on how you want to control your units.
Furthermore, you can even press left and right on the digital pad to select individual units (listed at the bottom) and send them out. For instance, when the tanks come over the ridge you will really want to quickly select your bazooka units and dispatch them while leaving others back. By pressing down on the digital pad, you create a calling circle right on the unit you are controlling, thereby rallying all nearby units to your side. Conversely, pressing up on the digital pad will dismiss said units while you go commando or find more suitable troops for your venture. Infantry can also jump to avoid incoming fire by pressing the B button, and all fire commands are triggered with the A button, regardless of unit. But one of the most exciting features is the ability to swap between allied units at any time with the Z button. Using the intuitive pointing system that is used with both the calling and sending buttons, you can also tap the Z button to take full control of a unit. By doing so, you can get into the fray with an infantry or even go manual with a transport helicopter flying above to get a bird's eye view of the action.
Controlling different vehicles obviously means getting access to different weapons and functions. So let's see what we had access to in the demo: Infantry had regular machine guns. Flamethrower units could spit giant flames out that were perfect for taking down huge groups of other ground troops. Bazooka units held just that; a bazooka. These guys are amazing for taking down armored units (much like the GBA game) but die by the hand of the other on-foot unit types. Tanks were all-around excellent units that could be entered and exited by jumping in or out of them. The control felt really nice and the power was pretty spot on in terms of balance and wow factor. When you shot at an area, the tank let out a giant blast and when the shell made impact, nearby ground units would literally fly through the air. It was here that the game really showed that Kuju could flex its muscle to keep the action intense and all the while keep the game moving at an amazingly fluid frame-rate.
Next up were the ground and air navigated armored personal carriers (APCs). Once again, these units could be controlled with the Z button. The units could carry a number of ground troops. Even the Xylvanians showed their impressive dirigibles that also looked to carry their troops from one place to another. Unlike the GBA game though, units like the transport helicopter had guns equipped and would fire at other nearby units (though in the E3 demo you could not manually take control of any on-board turrets.) All one needed to do in order to call units inside a carrying unit is to call them. Once inside, the units are protected from harm and can be safely transported to a designated location. Another type of unit was the gunship, which was loaded to the teeth with ammunition and could gracefully hover above while drilling men with a powerful Vulcan cannon. Not only were all these units fluid (if not intentionally exaggerated) in their animations, but made for some truly entertaining moments. And according to Nintendo, units that survive battles and are in the fray a lot will be rewarded with promotions on the fly to give them even more fire-power.
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| Various units, ready for action. |
Although you only had a handful of units at the beginning of the demo, you soon met up with some reinforcements that were ready to follow your tank into battle to help you break the prisoners out of their mock-prison. Using this small band of tanks and infantry, you had to work your way across a bridge and then navigate via on-screen radar to the area where the captives were situated. It's interesting to note that the beautiful environments were even semi-destructible, as you could shoot trees and tents along the way. The barbed wire that enclosed your mates could be simply crushed by running over it with a tank, ultimately making the Xylvanian army unleash their fury with tanks and air units. Thankfully your commanding officers know that you're in a pinch and send in reinforcements via all those nifty units listed above. If you could beat down the majority of the onslaught, commander Vlad came on the radio completely disgruntled, telling his troops to pull back. After the obligatory congratulations remarks from the scary cheerleader you are given the classic Advance Wars rating of speed, power, and technique. Like the GBA games, this aims to separate the men from the boys by awarding tactical leaders with a better score at the end of a level.
While the one level that was on hand at the show was simply a tutorial level, it did serve to give us a taste of what we can expect. The most important of which was the open-ended nature of combat that lead to entertaining scenarios. While traversing the shorelines of the tropical island, you could even fly over the water and shoot down enemy transport units. If you did, the enemies flew into the water and began swimming back to shore. Since you can't shoot and swim at the same time, all troops that fell into the water effectively became fish in a barrel. And a good time was had by all gunships flying above.
So we covered a few of the good and a few of the bad. What else is there to note? First, the game was completely lacking any sort of multiplayer mode in its current state. As anybody who has played the multiplayer mode in the GBA games could tell you: an Advance Wars game without multiplayer is like milk without chocolate. Err, wait.that doesn't work. Either way, you get the point. In fact, the way that the enemies have units that so closely mimic yours in terms of functionality is practically begging to be taken advantage of via a multiplayer mode. Even Starfox, a game which was classically a single player affair, was shown exclusively in multiplayer form, yet an Advance Wars title shows up lacking one of the most important aspects to its success? I think not. Until we hear official word on it, we'll just have to assume that somebody has the sand on either side of the Atlantic to sit up and take a stand on this. We're pretty confident it will be in the pipeline.
The game also had a couple short-comings in terms of interface. Even though you could select individual units by pressing left and right on the digital pad, it was a tad bit clumsy for a game that moves so quickly. Is this a trade-off for having so many options bestowed upon the player? It's quite possible.
In the end the demo was kind of funny in that it was really just a short tutorial level that will hardly be a blip on the radar in the full retail version. Yet even with such a short and insignificant demo we could see the potential of the full version. It is here where most of the excitement lies. Will there be a multiplayer mode? Will there be gigantic wars or medium-sized skirmishes like those found in the demo? This is truly a case of there being another question for every answer uncovered. Hopefully in the days and months to come we can shed more light on the situation and have a better understanding of what to expect for the 2005 release.