Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp

We now have a date of April 8th for this re-boot of the these two classic GBA games, peeps keen and what do we think about it having VO now?

I've never played the originals. I got on well enough with Wargroove and by all accounts that didn't quite capture the magic of Advance Wars, so I suppose it's time I see what the one true king has to offer.

I played and adored the two GBA ones and the two DS ones, which now that I think about it may have been all we got in the West? Very much up for this. While I love the stories and characters in a Fire Emblem, there;s a lot of fuss between battles. AW has none of that- it's just gameplay all the time.

I had a dodgy pirated version of Black Hole Rising and I had the edgy DS one - but I didn't really get into either of them. I think the genre felt too much like work and not enough like fun to me, at that age at least. But a few years ago I played through and loved Fire Emblem Awakening and I really want to like Re-Boot Camp, so I think I might take the plunge with the genre again!

I can see the similarities between AW and FE, but they are different genres, which I do like both.

I mean, they're both turn-based strategy games, surely...?

Ones turn-based strategy the other is a tactical rpg, I can see Buska rolling his eyes with this genre talk.

The battles in FE still include choosing where your unit's going on a grid, just like in AW. That core bit of gameplay seems fundamentally the same to me...!

The key difference between the turn-based strategy and strategic RPG sub-genres is this: Balla's faintly interested in the latter.

...except I wouldn't be in this thread if I wasn't a little bit interested. Still, my experience is similar to Rum's. I've only tried Black Hole Rising but I wasn't clever enough to play it well, and after a bit of being slapped with low grades because of my attritional yet effective approach, I quit. I'm faintly intrigued about this, and I think it looks really nice: I just reckon I'll be bobbins at it again. The thing about strategic RPGs is you can grind up to the point where being rubbish at strategy no longer prevents you from enjoying the game.

I was planning to get this but I've spent too much money on other things lately so it's a maybe at this point.

Have loved all the games. I used to hold this in much higher esteem than Fire Emblem, but over the years I gravitated towards the latter because FE ultimately has a lot more replayability and variety in gameplay. That said, I can't say I've come close to beating all the war room maps on any of the games (apart from Dark Conflict), and replaying maps with different COs is a lot of fun (especially on AWDS with all the custom stuff). Of course, both series are also pretty different from each other.

I guess my main issue is: I've already played these games before. The new graphics are nice - love the plasticine-looking units especially - but apart from that and the online mode there's nothing here that makes this purchase seem essential to me. Voice acting is nice too but again, not a deal sealer.

I hope this does well enough to justify a new game, anyway.

If you can play custom maps online then that's the selling point over the originals for me