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Alternative Names

Totsugeki!! Famicom Wars VS

突撃!! ファミコンウォーズVS

Developer

Kuju Entertainment

Genre

Strategy

Release Dates

10/29/07 Nintendo
05/15/08 Nintendo
02/15/08 Nintendo

Friend Code

Community Stats

Owners: 246
Favorite: 4
Tracked: 0
Wishlist: 9
Now Playing: 0
 
7.7

Avg Community Rating:

 

An interesting take on the RTS genre

11th Oct 2009 | 1,688 views 


Voltaire

User Score
7.2
                         

Presentation - 7.0
Gameplay - 7.0
Value - 7.5

Battalion Wars 2 (or BWII), has received above average reviews from the professional gaming media, and all in all i think they’ve got it right this time (miracle, i know). The game is hard to describe, because it’s not your typical war game (if the graphics already haven’t told you that), it’s not really a deep RTS, and it’s not turn-based. The basic play of the game is to reach a certain area (with or without a specific unit), destroy a specific enemy unit, or destroy a certain...thing. Each mission is pretty much described above, with slight variations of course. The story is actually really lame; the same goes for the VO (although I don’t think it’s as bad as everyone says it is). Where the game actually hook you is the overall gameplay.

 

You control a battalion of soldiers at any given moment, hence the namesake. What makes this game unique is that unlike your conventional RTS game, you take direct command over a specific unit, all the time. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. The good-you actually feel as if you’re doing a part of action, and its fun to do so. The bad-it limits control over your other units, and that lack of control could very easily be the difference between victory and defeat.

 

As you command your unit, you can lock onto a specific unit (be that enemy or otherwise), as do a variety of things. You yourself can directly attack it, send others from your battalion to attack it, or capture it (again, either directly or with other units). The overall mash-up of game ideas and gameplay styles means you’re not going to get bored easily. It does, however, make everything feel a lit loose and unpolished. BWII is a Jack of all trades, but a master of none.

 

One of the most important aspects of the game is online play. You can play either with/without a buddy, and the matches play out incredibly smooth (very little lag time). There are 3 modes. Assault (conventional 'kill everything' mode), Co-Op (play through missions with a friend), or Skirmish. The game has a neat little way of keeping track of your online progress, something that isn’t common in online Wii games, let alone early ones. After several matches, you can earn a score (out of stars), and everyone you play will see it. I don’t know if the game matches random players through rank, but I doubt it. Ive been matches with players far better than I, but it could be due to the lack of avalible players. Another cool online feature is the unlocking aspect. After playing a certain number of matches for a certain mode, you can unlock additional maps/missions.

 

However, all of the neat online features don’t stand out if the game isn’t enjoyable, and this a hard game to enjoy. BWII requires you to multi-task beyond belief, and when it works its great fun. Sometimes, however, the game will draw you in, and it becomes insanely difficult to command your entire battalion.

 

The camera is another faulty aspect of the game. You move it be moving the IR reticule, but it tends to get out of control whenever you lock on to fast moving targets. Sometimes it will simply refuse to obey your commands. For the most part the camera works fine, but the occasional misstep will cost you dearly, especially since it is practical useless for targeting airborne enemies in close range.

 

BWII is hard to recommend. Its an interesting strategy game, but it wont satisfy fans looking for a more fulfilling experience. It is a fun little romp though, and when it works, it works great. Unfortunately its not most of the time.


Sales History

Total Sales
0.08m
Japan
0.22m
NA
0.02m
Europe
0.02m
Others
0.34m
Total
1 n/a 19,679 n/a 3,473 23,152
2 n/a 7,891 n/a 1,393 9,284
3 n/a 5,996 n/a 1,058 7,054
4 n/a 7,319 n/a 1,292 8,611
5 n/a 4,042 n/a 713 4,755
6 n/a 3,154 n/a 557 3,711
7 n/a 2,788 n/a 491 3,279
8 n/a 3,797 n/a 670 4,467
9 n/a 2,438 n/a 430 2,868
10 n/a 1,466 n/a 259 1,725

Opinion (47)

Kresnik posted 21/06/2012, 11:29
Just started playing this - really, really surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. It reminds me very much of 'Hogs of War', which is a good thing :D

It has a few flaws - the motion controls aren't quite there, the camera angles can get a bit dodgy, but as a basic idea for a game it's an incredibly good one. I hope Nintendo contract Kuju to make a BW3 for Wii-U.
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sethnintendo posted 10/06/2011, 05:12
Yea the voice acting was pretty bad in this game. You can turn it off. Other than that I have no complaints about this game perhaps it is a little short. The only vehicles that I had a little difficutly controling were the planes but they weren't terrible. All other vehicles are easy to control.
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Daileon posted 27/02/2011, 06:30
I've bought this game last month and it is great indeed. A shame that no one looks into it, the only thing where it mess up is the voice acting (the japanese missions are played with the commander voices on mute, holy crap, how AWFUL). Even then, the game plays perfectly is artiscally very beautiful and have a nice replay value. =]
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Armads posted 02/05/2010, 03:40
@NeoStar9

Probably not well, it had no multiplayer and the controls were difficult before the wii-mote.

I loved this game and still occasionally pop on to try and get S rank on a mission or play online. I really hope we get a 3rd one where they can make even more improvements.

For one maybe make units gain extra Atk/Def when they land a kill, like ranking units in the Advance wars series as well as giving a CO area boost to nearby units.

Offline co-op, more missions, better online matchmaking setup, wii-speak functionality, leaderboards and such would all be great.
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jeffrey9999 posted 17/04/2010, 03:09
should have put it in others also
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jeffrey9999 posted 17/04/2010, 03:08
I pray we see another one............
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