E For All 2007: Hands-on Battalion Wars 2

Even though Battalion Wars for GameCube was a bit simplistic and lacked depth, we liked the game. It merged elements from multiple genres not limited to real-time strategy and anything war-based. However, honestly speaking, we didn’t expect a sequel to the game – at least not so soon. Sales of the title were decent, but hardly mind-blowing. And the same could be said for reviews of the title. Regardless, the moment we saw Battalion Wars 2 at what we like to call the watered-down, public version of E3, E For All 2007, we had to check it out.

Like the original, Battalion Wars might as well not carry the “Wars” name. This is not Advance Wars in 3D. Not at all. Outside of featuring a war theme, the two series are very unalike each other.

Nintendo opted to just demo the multiplayer mode of Battalion Wars 2 and would not let us play single-player. They even had a well-trained booth babe camping the general demo area, ensuring nobody accidentally entered the single-player mode, which seems to have been accessible from the title screen. It’s kind of odd, but we don’t care. The original game lacked a multiplayer mode, and it was something we complained about in our review. So, thankfully, this time around, we’re getting one.

For some dumb reason, we were only allowed to play one level of the six in the game; Melee, Exchange of Fire, Border Patrol, Sand Castles, Donatsu Island and Battle Stations. The match we played was set up over what appeared to be LAN or possibly even Nintendo WiFi Connection. Either way, lag was of no issue. The mode we played challenged two teams to compete by killing as many of each other’s soldiers as possible, each kill earning you points. By the time the game timer hit zero, the team with the highest score won.

If you’ve played Battalion Wars on GameCube, you already know how its sequel plays. That is because it runs on a very similar engine and plays, overall, the same way. You spend your time cycling between different units, some with assault rifles and others with bazookas, and ordering around your brigade. In at least on regard, Battalion Wars 2 reminds us of an RTS, because there is a fair amount of strategy involved. But unlike the model RTS, you actually control in real-time whatever unit-type you want. If you want to play as a bazooka-wielding solider, you can switch to one. Want to go with a close-range unit? You can do that, too.

The unfortunate truth about this Wii sequel is that, despite being on Wii, it doesn’t really take advantage of the Wii-mote in a revolutionary fashion. Everything, except for turning and, to a certain degree, aiming is mapped to button presses. We can think of many ways to utilize the Wii-mote in a game like this. For example, why not let us point and click the units we want to switch to? Or allow us to use the remote to point units in the direction we want them to move in? However, the game’s developer wasn’t thinking on the same lines. While a lock-on system is employed, you must control the reticule (Metroid Prime 3-style) on-screen within the lock-on box if you want to hit your opponent. Unfortunately, we struggled to accurately do this, as the sensitivity was quirky and the color of the reticule was difficult to see (just too light).

The demo we played didn’t feature them, but the full game will also introduce both air units and water units, which should result in awesomeosity. Yeah, we made that word up.

Our experience with Battalion Wars 2 wasn’t exactly negative, but we weren’t super impressed, either. For the same reasons we liked the original, deep within us, we feel compelled to like Battalion Wars 2. It’s hard to place your finger on it, but there’s something likable about the franchise. That said, our demo time with Battalion Wars 2 served as a stark reminder that the loud, chaotic environment of E3 – this time called E For All – is not the ideal environment to play video games in. We’d tell you what the game sounded like, but we could only hear the high-pitched Nintendo booth babe, serving as the Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament announcer, rambling about how hot Peach was during our playtime with Battalion Wars 2. Sorry.

Her lesbian tendencies were entertaining, though.