Thursday, October 25, 2007

Battalion Wars 2



For some baffling, perplexing reason, Nintendo refused to let journalists on hand at its recent Media Summit event play the single-player mode of Battalion Wars 2.

In Battalion Wars 2, you can play against friends or in random matches against opponents. There's also a cooperative mode, although its specifics are still guarded.

When you enter Wi-Fi Connection, you will see your profile, which details your total wins in the three different gameplay types, including assault, skirmish and cooperative mode. It also details your losses for the three modes. In addition, it lists your friend code -- yes, another game that clings to these codes. Finally, your profile shows you how to unlock the next assault, skirmish and cooperative missions. For example, you might need to simply play assault two more times to open the next area.

After you choose to play against a friend, it shows the status of your buddy online. After you connect, you're able to choose the play type (again, assault, skirmish or cooperative) and select a level. In the demo we were shown, we could only play skirmish and we could only choose one level, but there were six available, including Melee, Exchange of Fire, Border Patrol, Sand Castles, Donatsu Island and Battle Stations. Finally, we could select to play as the Solar Empire, Iron Legion or, if you just don't care, "whichever."

In skirmish, the goal is simply to kill as many enemies as you can, for which you earn more and more points. The person with the most points when a timer runs out wins. The stage takes place in a war-torn environment that, like the first level from the single-player affair, looks like the aftermath of a major battle. There are dead trees blanketing the landscape, a fire-streaked sky, and browned grass (individual blades in a few spots), all surrounded by giant stone mountains. The visual style looks altogether a little more realistic and grittier than the original game. It's all presented in progressive-scan and 16:9 widescreen, and the action moves along at 30 frames per second.

Otherwise, it plays like the original Battalion Wars with a new controller. If you've never played the series before, it's very well done and a lot of fun. You take control of a full military unit, organizing and deploying different groups within, but unlike your traditional real-time strategy game, you're still able to exact individual control of characters. Thus, you can command your heavy tanks to take down the enemy, but you can also personally man a grunt, firing off his automatic weapon and circle strafing around opponents.

The Wii remote doesn't revolutionize the experience. You select different units, located as icons on the bottom of the screen, with the D-Pad, and then tap the A button to send them into action. You could point and aim at on-screen targets with the Wii remote, but it's much easier to simply lock-on to them the traditional way and then deploy your armies.

As gamers who loved and highly recommended the original Battalion Wars, can safely state that Nintendo's multiplayer mode does the franchise little justice, as you're forced to engage in a last-man-standing battle with your Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection opponent -- usually a war devoid of strategy.

In terms of completely new Wii controls, you're able to jump by flicking the nunchuk up and you can dodge left or right by motioning in the same direction with the attachment. These additions don't really up the immersion factor or enhance the experience in any way, but they are functional.

Battalion Wars 2 looks a little better and, with the addition of naval units and a full-blown multiplayer component, is sure to best its predecessor in every way.


Posted by wii-play at 7:32 AM
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