Advance Wars Return with Re-Boot Camp - E3 2021

More than a few people went into this Nintendo Direct assuming that we’d get a new Fire Emblem game out of it: after all, Three Houses was a big hit, and it has been two years since it was released. It was never an unreasonable assumption, but I myself was never of the opinion that we’d see it: after all, this stuff takes time, and I doubt Nintendo is over-eager to announce something too early like it did with Prime and BOTW2, only to have fans demand more information after every Direct.

So while I got that one prediction right, I can’t claim the gift of prophecy just yet: because I never would have guessed in a million years that instead of Fire Emblem, we’d be getting a 3D remake of friggen’ Advance Wars 1 and 2.



Much like Nintendo’s other remakes, rather than just polishing up some pixel graphics, they’re going with a stylized route this time: there are 3D models, sure, but they look very cartoonish and 2D when not in motion, which gives the commanders and the units an undeniable charm to them. The trailer also claims that it was “rebuilt and re-imagined from the ground up”, but what that means gameplay-wise is anyone’s guess.

Either way, this is bound to make some fans happy. Lord knows we haven’t seen this IP in ages.