Ready 2 Rumble Revolution (Wii) - Review by Chris

Introduction

Hailed as one of the best strategy game series available on handhelds. Advance Wars doesn't really need an introduction, unless you have been living in a hole for the past 4 years of your sad, deprived life. Advance Wars: Dual Strike is not a major upgrade to previous instalments, but it doesn't really need an upgrade since it's fine the way it is. The developers, Intelligent Systems have gone from strength to strength with their strategy games, starting out with Famicom Wars on the NES (only in Japan) and continually making sequels that get better each time. They also made this little gem called Fire Emblem.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Advance Wars has never really changed - build & destroy. Similar to other Turn Based Strategy games out there, but extracts the boring bits and injects big hefty doses of fun. If you've ever played any other Advance Wars games, you know what to expect. If you haven't, then go out and buy Advance Wars: Dual strike this minute. Bought it? Good.

Well there are a few upgrades to Advance Wars: Dual Strike, most noticeably is the Dual CO missions. Where you can pick from 2 CO's and power them both up. You can then use the "Tag Power", which allows you to execute both CO's Special Powers and control your units two times in one turn. Pretty nifty. Another noticeable upgrade is the unique use of two screens. In some Dual CO missions the CPU controlled CO will be on the top screen, usually with planes and fighter jets in the air. You can send units up to help your ally and defeat the enemy. This is just the story mode, there is also War Mode, Map Creation, Versus and even a Real Time Combat mode.

In Combat mode, you choose 8 or so characters with your limited funds and control one with the D-Pad and move around and fire Real Time. Although this takes away the point of Advance Wars, it's still fun for a "pick up and play" session.

Controls

Previous instalments of Advance Wars required you to use the D-Pad, and this control was perfect and well suited for it. Advance Wars: Dual Strike adds the functionality of the Touch Screen to control your units. Which, does feel more natural, but I'm not even sure it speeds up the process. Map Maker makes very good use of the Touch Screen, and after playing with the Map Maker with the Touch Screen, you'll wonder how you ever managed without it.

Graphics

Ditching what made the original good in many places, here at least the graphics are decent. Character models are details and show semblances to their real life counterparts and they show real time damage through the bumps and bruises you dish out. But while the characters are well done, they've lost the charm and humour of the original because the developers have gone for the use of 'celebrities'. Even throwing in some of the series' classic and best known characters would have helped. They've also tried to move the sport into the big time, similar to wrestling. You'll see entrances from the characters on crude stages which really don't have much place in the game or the sport. It doesn't feel like an evolution of the game. It feels more of a devolution of the original formula.

Sound

The music is largely forgettable as you'll never really notice it because you'll be so frustrated with the game and its controls. The sound clips of the crowd or from the characters themselves are looped but they are well done for the most part. Just not very original and the sounds from the characters aren't as humorous as you'd want them given the series' history in providing humour.

Final comments

The last time we saw Ready 2 Rumble was 2000 and it was great game then. Having changed hands since then, the series really didn't need much of a reboot, just a brush up for the modern generation of consoles and yet Atari have gone out of their way to reinvent the wheel so to speak and have all but ruined the game. Horrible controls make playing problematic and frustrating to the point you'll stop playing after a couple of minutes. Even Boxing in Wii Sport, with its basic skills, plays out better than this. You can have all the content in the world, something this title does well, but if the controls aren't in place then there's no point in playing.

Pro: Large amount of content to suffice everyone
Con: Problematic controls ruin the experience, returning characters have been ditched for horrible 'celebrity' caricatures, all humour and good gameplay has been lost displayed on the top screen for easy viewing.
Final score: 4

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