Game Boy Wars
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During the 1990s, Nintendo released a series of Nintendo Wars games onto its Game Boy handheld system. These differed from Famicom Wars in that Famicom Wars was played on a square grid while Game Boy Wars was on a hexagonal grid. The Game Boy Wars subseries differs from the Intelligent Systems-developed games, including (Famicom Wars and the subsequent Advance Wars series), showing signs of being influenced by a similar strategy game, Military Madness, developed by Hudson Soft (the company behind Game Boy Wars TURBO, Game Boy Wars 2 and Game Boy Wars 3). These similarities including its use of a hexagonal (instead of square) grid, and greater emphasis on rock-paper-scissors-like gameplay (where unit A defeats unit B, unit B defeats unit C, and unit C defeats unit A).
There is also a greater emphasis on control of territory in addition to head-to-head unit matchups. Each unit has a "Zone of Control" extending to the six adjacent spaces, and in this zone the attacks of allies are incrementally more powerful and the attacks of enemies are incrementally less powerful. (Certain units, including the Bomber, have attacks that affect all of the enemies in their zone of control; these attacks, known as Anti-Land weapons, represent saturation or suppression attacks instead of direct fire.) Units also have "Initiative" ratings: instead of the attacker always striking first, the unit with the higher initiative rating strikes first, often granting the advantage to the defender, which also encourages movement in groups and control of territory.
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[edit] Gameplay
Two countries, Red Star and White Moon, are warring against each other. The player takes control of the forces of one of the two countries, usually Red Star in single-player, on maps with square tiles. As the commander, the player must direct his or her forces to either destroy all of the enemy forces or capture the enemy's capital city. In pursuit of this goal, the player attempts to take control of the cities, factories, airports, and harbors on each map.
The player and the CPU player (or the 2 players in multiplayer) take turns (or phases) in moving their army, which can have up to 50 units. Each of the units can be given an order, such as attacking. Units can be land, sea, or air units, and can be built from near the player's capital using gold and materials obtained from any of the player's properties. Constructors and Supply Trucks must be deployed from factories but can also use the player's capital for repairs or resupply. Land units can be sent out from cities or factories, air units from airports, and vessels from harbors.
[edit] Game Boy Wars
| Game Boy Wars | |
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| Developer(s) | Intelligent Systems |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Distributor(s) | Nintendo |
| Series | Nintendo Wars |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy |
| Release date(s) | JP May 21, 1991 |
| Genre(s) | turn-based tactics |
| Mode(s) | 1-player, 2-player |
| Media | 2-megabit cartridge |
Game Boy Wars (ゲームボーイウォーズ Gēmu Bōi Wōzu) is the second installment of the Nintendo Wars series, and was released by Nintendo on May 21, 1991, for the Game Boy in Japan. It was the first Nintendo Wars series installment on the handheld in Japan, where Famicom Wars was popular.
[edit] Game Boy Wars TURBO
| Game Boy Wars TURBO | |
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| Developer(s) | Hudson Soft |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Distributor(s) | Nintendo |
| Series | Nintendo Wars |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy |
| Release date(s) | JP June 24, 1997 |
| Genre(s) | turn-based tactics |
| Mode(s) | 1-player |
| Media | 4-megabit cartridge |
Game Boy Wars TURBO was released on June 24, 1997. It features different maps, better hardware usage, and a different AI. This game was developed by Hudson Soft instead of Intelligent Systems.
[edit] Game Boy Wars 2
| Game Boy Wars 2 | |
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| Developer(s) | Hudson Soft |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Distributor(s) | Nintendo |
| Series | Nintendo Wars |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Color |
| Release date(s) | JP November 20, 1998 |
| Genre(s) | turn-based tactics |
| Mode(s) | 1-player |
| Media | 8-megabit cartridge |
Game Boy Wars 2 was released on November 20, 1998 and featured similar gameplay to Game Boy Wars. Like TURBO, it featured different maps, an altered AI, and a better and faster use of the hardware. This game also removed the Artillery B unit for unknown reasons.
[edit] Game Boy Wars 3
| Game Boy Wars 3 | |
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| Developer(s) | Hudson Soft |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Series | Nintendo Wars |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Color |
| Release date(s) | JP August 30, 2001 |
| Genre(s) | Turn-based tactics |
| Mode(s) | Single player and Multiplayer |
| Media | 8-megabit cartridge |
Game Boy Wars 3 (ゲームボーイウォーズ3 Gēmu Bōi Wōzu Surī) was released in Japan in late August 2001, and features an improved map design mode, an improved unit information window, and a new interface for issuing orders to units. It was released only half a month before the North American release of Advance Wars, but because of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, it would be the last Japanese Nintendo Wars game until the Japanese release of Game Boy Wars Advance 1+2, a compilation of Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2. It would be the last game in the Nintendo Wars series not to be released in North America and Europe. It was initially referred to as Game Boy Wars Pocket Tactics while it was under development by Intelligent Systems, but it was later renamed to Game Boy Wars 3 when development was passed to Hudson.[1]
Game Boy Wars 3 is unique in the Nintendo Wars series but similar to real-time strategy games such as Warcraft in that it has a second resource the player must manage in addition to money, called "materials." Both money and materials are required to build new units; more-powerful units require great deals of money, but materials costs are instead more of a cap on the number of total units that can be built.
[edit] Campaign Mode
GBW3's Campaign Mode is unique in the Nintendo Wars series (to date), although it actually parallels Fire Emblem's gameplay to an extent. Barring the obvious, the first thing that the player may notice is that he/she gets to redeploy units that had survived, sending them out at no material cost for deployment. This is part of the Arrangement system. Each surviving unit can be sent out from any property that can be used for building the unit to join the battle, by going to the Unit List (top choice on the Map Menu), selecting a unit marked with a Kanji on the lower-right corner of its portrait, selecting the first choice (Arrangement), and then choosing the property where it is to be sent out from. The property that is used for Arrangement is clogged up for the remainder of the phase, making it impossible to Arrange more units than available properties. Surviving units retain experience amounts while having their HP, Fuel, and Ammo restored when the map is cleared.
When a unit that is able to Promote reaches S Rank, it will be ready to Promote the next time it waits for Arrangement. Most of the time, the Promoted unit is better, though key changes may require strategies to be changed accordingly or even make the unpromoted form preferable (since Promotion changes are permanent). Promotion will also reset the unit's experience amount, making it Rank D (the lowest Rank Level for a unit).
[edit] References
[edit] Japanese fansites
- Kensama's GBW3 Page - has basic information on GBW3
- Game Boy Wars series page - information on the GBW series as well as Game Boy Wars Advance 1+2 and Famicom Wars DS
- optical illusion - a page dedicated to GBW3. Information on Campaign and a few other things.
- Game Boy Wars Network's GBW3 page - has maps of every level in the game and other useful information
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