Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising -- Campaign Mission 1: Cleanup
2You know of course that this means war!
twitter.com/yuugijoou
discord.gg/bKT9pRW
---
Dang, Nintendo! You're finally doing a thing that manages to make even my glacial pace seem too slow... I thought for sure I had an unlimited length of time to deal with this at my leisure!
...wait, WayForward, you say? ... ... ...those guys are really hitting it out of the park right now... they're probably using this as a way of showing how upset they're getting with my slowness showing my appreciation for their other games, too... yikes!
But, yes! I love this series. Possibly in a more visceral way than I do Fire Emblem... but it's a tough call. And I have a funny way of showing it, because it's a format not always easily consumed in static sequential video format...
... ... ...I still haven't figured out how I want to tackle the War Room content, but I think I'd be best served just jumping straight in and making it happen...
But now's not the time for that! They've called my bluff! I have to get to the gusto, because this is my first and favorite game in the series. The game where it really came into its own. Without later going weirdly overboard in some strange ways. Or deciding to make some strange inclusions that I'm not sure really serve the balance, despite the overall game becoming more interesting and balanced as a result of systemic changes...
How will I feel about it now, after all this time? How much more will I play when it's given a crazy facelift in multiple dimensions?! (Will they be able to make the first game's campaign actually tolerable?!)
... ... ...
None of that matters right now! We're going to war! Again! Because... um... bad guys! Or something! What even IS an airport, you guys?!
---
So anyway, to recap... there's a world. It's seemingly founded exclusively on and constantly geared up for war. Wars World! If they had a family computer, I'm sure they'd go to war on it, too!
There's also some not-nice guys. Led by a giant Darth Snifit guy. But he's not a Snifit anymore! And he's not alone. There's some variously sinister-looking people working with/for him. And now it's time to go to war once more!
...honestly, having played the first one much later, and now coming back to this... ... ... there's not actually a ton that you miss out on by not playing the first one.
Sure, you don't know any of these people.. but about a third of all the heroic characters are new... and there's a sudden leap of 400% more bad guys to play with, too! You know, since... every other nation on the planet isn't your immediate enemy... gotta have designated villains for that!
If anything, the need for an excuse plot makes the first game's contributions kinda makes it weird that there was even apparently any kind of reason in the first place. You could've just had some sinister dudes from who knows where attacking because they wanted to. Or something.
But I can appreciate that this is as much a sequel as it is a refinement of formula, and the evolution of design in all possible ways is quite welcome. Having a fully-rounded package really lets you feel the love. And war. Mostly the war.
---
Campaign
Mission 1: Cleanup
One thing they did here was decide to ditch the overly long boot camp and throw you straight to the wolves with the campaign. Basically, it's a learn-as-you-go affair, because all the important details of what's an airport and how do I shot trooper are covered in a much more natural and free-flowing fashion.
Not to mention more compact. I don't know about anyone else, but as much as I enjoy a good long-winded explanation covering all the aspects I could ever want to know about and then some... that one went on a little bit to the exhaustive end of things.
Of course, that also means that our poor opponents in this first round of sorties will indeed be involuntary punching bags. We thank you in advance for your contributions!
That said, while the explanations will be pretty thorough and tenacious in their unwillingness to let us simply play the game... once they've had their fill, we'll basically be permitted to do whatever we want thereafter, so it'll be more of an open-ended battle than a complete setup where Olaf gets to help us learn how to beat him up later.
It also has the handy side effect of making the main game content feel more substantial... who ever thinks of the tutorial as part of the main game?!
I'm just glad to be back.
I'm just glad that the game's going to be back!
(And I didn't even have to marry a tank. Or pet its face. Or play a freemium-mechanic gacha game.)