Perhaps Nintendo Remembers Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp?
It was the right move for Nintendo to indefinitely delay Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp for Switch earlier this year. The game was planned for release on April 8th, but Nintendo didn’t feel the time was right following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February. This wasn’t due to the game having a war theme, because there’s always some kind of skirmish happening in our hell world. It was specifically due to the game’s Blue Moon force, the nation and uniforms for whom are modeled after Russia’s during the Soviet Union’s reign. Considering it’s Russian president Vladimir Putin’s clear goal to rebuild the Soviet Union, and the other horrendous actions Russia has unleashed, Nintendo unsurprisingly wanted to hold the game back for a bit of time.
“A bit of time” has now passed, though. It’s been over eight months since Nintendo announced the delay, and they’ve said next-to-nothing about the package since. The battle between Russia and Ukraine has continued on for longer than estimates suggested, with the latter holding off the former thanks to aid from several allies with (largely) democratic governments despite the invading force flaunting several laws. But it’s hardly top news these days, with so many subjects competing for the public’s time that updates are relegated to the back half of evening news casts if the war is highlighted at all. It’s a good time for Nintendo to release the product.
This has all been an unfortunate fate for a title planned to be the long-awaited revival for the franchise. Re-Boot Camp wasn’t the brand-new title fans have desired for almost a decade-and-a-half now, the time since Advance Wars: Days of Ruin released for the Nintendo DS way, way back in January 2008. It’s also not handled by Intelligent Systems, instead primarily developed by WayForward, a studio that excels at sprite-based games and not 3D titles that use polygons. But it’s something dammit. The Soviet-era inspirations in the outfits for Blue Moon are clear, but not too overt, and Blue Moon doesn’t behave like the rogue real-world country.
There might be other reasons explaining why the game isn’t releasing in this particular season though. I don’t think Nintendo will seriously sit on this game until the war is over, though that might have been their original intention considering early estimates about how short the invasion and takeover would be (some suggested that Russia would capture Ukraine in three days).
Even if they feel the time is right to release it given coverage of the war, now is not the best time considering the current software lineup. It’s incredible that there are two strategy RPGs releasing for Switch just this month. One is today’s release of Tactics Ogre: Reborn the updated port of the remade PSP Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together installment, a Square Enix SRPG freed from their archives.
But the one I’m thinking of more here is Front Mission 1st: Remake, a, as implied, remake of the original Front Mission developed and published by MegaPixel Studio and Forever Entertainment, respectively, despite the original being a Squaresoft (Super Famicom)/Square Enix (Nintendo DS) game. I’m thinking more about this one because it’s also a mecha-based strategy title being released as a likely-timed exclusive for Switch. It’s coming on November 30th, and it wouldn’t be wise for two mecha-based strategy titles to fight for the same fanbase’s attraction.
The impending Front Mission release shouldn’t stop Nintendo from providing a timeframe for Re-Boot Camp at this moment. It’s unlikely that they’ll want to release it too close to Fire Emblem Engage, a fellow Intelligent Systems strategy title due for release on January 20th. The best idea would be to position it between Engage and the Front Mission 2: Remake due sometime in 2023.
I’m hoping these lengthy delays don’t end up hurting the game’s sales. Re-Boot Camp could be the start of a new lease on life for the Advance Wars series, with this release being followed up not only by potential remakes of Dual Strike and, perhaps, Days of Ruin, but a brand-new installment. The series has been sorely missed for the last 15 years, and it would be nice if Intelligent Systems and their development partners could make this a reliable franchise again.
This is a time to think about how Re-Boot Camp was originally planned for a December 2021 release, but was delayed until April 2022. There’s no reliable way to predict the future, but depending on how finished and polished the project was at the time, I wouldn’t be surprised if members of the development team and perhaps those at Nintendo wished they went ahead and released it on the original date and subtly patched any issues that arose later. But there’s little point in reflecting on what could have been for too long. Let’s just hope for a successful release after this entire fiasco.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
