The ''Wars'' series, also known as and is a series of military-themed
turn-based strategy
A turn-based strategy (TBS) game is a Strategy video game, strategy game (usually some type of wargaming, wargame, especially a wargaming#Unit or map scale, strategic-level wargame) where players take Time-keeping systems in games, turns when pla ...
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s, usually developed by
Intelligent Systems
is a Japanese video game developer best known for developing games with Nintendo and the ''Fire Emblem'', ''Paper Mario (series), Paper Mario'', ''WarioWare'', and ''Wars (series), Wars'' video game series. Originally, the company was headqua ...
and published by
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
. The series debuted in Japan in August of 1988 with the original ''
Famicom Wars
is a wargame developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Famicom. It was released on August 12, 1988 in Japan. It was later re-released on Virtual Console. It is the first game in the ''Wars'' series.
Gamepl ...
'', followed by sequels on the Super Famicom and Game Boy. These early installments were released exclusively in Japan, with ''
Advance Wars
''Advance Wars'' is a turn-based strategy video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It was released in North America on September 10, 2001. The game's release in Japan and Europe was delayed, ...
'' (2001) being the first to reach the North American and European markets. ''Advance Wars'' was released in the United States on September 10, 2001, but put on hold in Japan and Europe due to the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
. Although released in Europe in January 2002, neither Game Boy Advance game was released in Japan until the ''Game Boy Wars Advance 1+2'' compilation, which released for the Game Boy Advance on November 25, 2004. The success of ''Advance Wars'' in the West is frequently credited as a driving force for Nintendo bringing another Intelligent Systems franchise, ''
Fire Emblem
is a fantasy tactical role-playing game franchise developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. First produced and published for the Famicom in 1990, the series currently consists of sixteen core entries and five spinoffs. Game ...
'', outside of Japan, as both series share a similar tactical gameplay style.
In 2005, ''
Advance Wars: Dual Strike'' was released on the
Nintendo DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
family of systems, which followed and expanded on the basic format of its predecessors. That same year ''
Battalion Wars
''Battalion Wars'', released as in Japan, is a 2005 real-time tactics game developed by Kuju London and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. The player controls a vast array of units ranging from infantry, armoured divisions and aircraft, co ...
'', developed by
Kuju Entertainment
Kuju Entertainment Ltd. is a British video game developer. The original company was Simis, formed in 1989 and purchased by Eidos Interactive in 1995. Kuju was formed in 1998 in Shalford, Surrey, England, after a management buyout of Simis from Ei ...
, was released for the
GameCube
The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...
in Japan under the title ''Totsugeki!! Famicom Wars'', where it is considered a spin-off from the main series. ''Battalion Wars'' is a
3D action
real-time strategy
Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, turn ...
game, as opposed to the turn-based strategy of the main series. An expanded sequel for the
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
, ''
Battalion Wars 2'' was released two years later. The last major title in the franchise, ''
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin'', was released internationally for the DS in 2008 and notably departed from the series's lighthearted tone. Like the two Game Boy Advance titles preceding it, the game was canceled in Japan following a series of delays until it finally released as a downloadable game in 2013. At
E3 2021
The Electronic Entertainment Experience 2021 (E3 2021) was the 26th E3, during which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products. The event, organized by the Entert ...
, over a decade after the release of ''Days of Ruin'', a collection of remakes of both ''Advance Wars'' games, titled ''
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp'', was announced for the
Nintendo Switch
The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
, with a planned release date of December 2021. A release date of 8 April 2022 was later announced, however on 9 March 2022 it was announced that due to the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
the game was being delayed until further notice.
These remakes were developed in collaboration with
WayForward Technologies
WayForward Technologies, Inc. is an American independent video game developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Valencia, California. Founded in March 1990 by technology entrepreneur Voldi Way, WayForward started by developing games ...
.
Gameplay
The player takes the role of a
Commanding Officer
The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitu ...
(CO) in an army, usually of a country called Red Star (changed to Orange Star following international releases). In the most recent title,
''Days of Ruin'', it is replaced by a nation called Rubinelle (Laurentia in the European release). In the single-player campaign of the ''Advance Wars'' games, each level consists of a new map and opposing CO to defeat. Victory is achieved when all the opponent's units have been destroyed, their
HQ is captured, or another victory condition has been met. COs take turns recruiting and commanding units on grid-based maps. Units available include
infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...
,
tank
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...
s,
artillery
Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
,
bomber
A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...
s, and many other
military unit
Military organization or military organisation is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer such military capability as a national defense policy may require. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a nation' ...
s. Each turn, a unit may move around and/or perform an action, such as attacking or capturing a property. Certain actions, such as capturing, diving, or loading may only be performed at certain instances throughout the game.
The original ''
Famicom Wars
is a wargame developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Famicom. It was released on August 12, 1988 in Japan. It was later re-released on Virtual Console. It is the first game in the ''Wars'' series.
Gamepl ...
'' game consists of two armies, Red Star (which became Orange Star in later international versions, possibly to avoid associations with
Communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
) and Blue Moon fighting over square grid-based maps. The two armies could either be controlled by human players, or a human player could play against an AI opponent.
The original ''
Game Boy Wars
is a wargame developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy in Japan only in 1991. It is a portable follow-up to the 1988 Family Computer wargame ''Famicom Wars'', making it the second game in Nintendo's ...
'' games featured a system similar to ''Famicom Wars'', except the grid was changed so that the grid squares acted more like
hexagons
In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°.
Regular hexagon
A '' regular hexagon'' has ...
; each square is adjacent to six other squares, instead of four. ''Game Boy Wars'' also features a different opposing army called White Moon. Otherwise, the rules remain identical, and only in ''
Game Boy Wars 3'' were unit levels and a new resource introduced.
''Super Famicom Wars'', the sequel to ''Famicom Wars'', introduced Yellow Comet and Green Earth, bringing the number of armies playable at once to four. It returned to the basic square grid-based map style of the original game.
The ''Advance Wars'' games introduced several new elements. The most notable is that COs now have special abilities called
CO Powers that can affect the battle in different ways, giving the CO a temporary advantage over the other COs, such as providing allied units with increased firepower or causing damage to opposing units. ''Black Hole Rising'' introduced
Super CO Powers, and ''Dual Strike'' introduced
Tag CO Powers.
Conditions such as
fog of war
The fog of war (german: links=no, Nebel des Krieges) is the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations. The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, ...
, rain, and snow affect the abilities of units to reveal the map and move around.
''Days of Ruin'' removed many of the features added to previous ''Advance Wars'' games, greatly weakening CO Powers and reintroducing a unit level system.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer mode is an important part of the ''Nintendo Wars'' series. This allows players to compete against friends, each choosing a Commanding Officer to play and country to represent. The ''Advance Wars'' series of games, along with the far lesser known ''
Game Boy Wars 3'', include
map editors, giving them increased replayability. In the original ''Famicom Wars'', two players were allowed to play; in ''Game Boy Wars'', players could play
hotseat multiplayer games.
Currently the only release to lack hotseat multiplayer is ''Game Boy Wars Turbo''. The ''Advance Wars'' series on the
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...
allowed link-play using
link cables.
Online
In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" or ...
multiplayer was originally planned for ''Dual Strike'', but was only later implemented in ''Days of Ruin''.
''
Battalion Wars 2'' introduced online multiplayer over the
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
's Wi-Fi connection. The game had 3 modes and 16 maps to play on. The multiplayer section was well-received but was criticized for not supporting
voice chat
Voice chat is telecommunication via voice over IP technologies—especially when those technologies are used among players in multiplayer online games.
Users might use either a VoIP engine system that is built into the game, or a separate pro ...
.
Games
Notes
References
{{Main franchises by Nintendo
Intelligent Systems
War video games
Turn-based tactics video games by series
Nintendo franchises
Video game franchises introduced in 1988