Advance Wars: Under Fire
Posted by: kmikeym | From: May 25, 2004
The latest Advance Wars game jumps to the Gamecube in 2005, and seems to be just another attempt to cash in on an existing brand. The lesson we see here is that when Nintendo changes the development company on a game series, it means they are ready to sacrifice quality for cheaper production. While Advance Wars on GBA was done by the Japanese company Intelligent Systems, Under Fire was developed by the euro Kuju.
Who is Kuju? Oh, you might remember Microsoft Train Simulator, a slew of crappy aerial combat games, and nothing else to get excited about. This is a second rate team at best, and it's sad that the game that made my GBA purchase worthwhile was kicked to their curb.
The people over at Intelligent Systems have a history! They developed for the Famicom and the Virtual Boy! They made the original Paper Mario!
Kuju stripped out the turn based element of the game and created another boring real-time strategic action shooter. IGN calls it "a strategic Call of Duty with cartoony army men" and mentions that you no longer have an Army to control, but only a small squad. It feels like Kuju had this in the pipe and adapted the concept to Advance Wars.
IGN sums up my feelings, "Advance Wars on GameCube is a great idea, but it's too bad that this isn't actually "Advance Wars" -- and instead is a spin-off."
"Kuju to bring Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure to mobile phones."
Oh, cool--I've been waiting for someone to take care of that void in my life.
Posted by: J_John at May 31, 2004 1:34 PM