WiiWare: Swords and Soldiers Review

Real-time strategies are games that haven’t worked well on consoles. There are a number of factors that contribute to that, controls being one of them. So Dutch developer Ronimo Games decided to create a new, somewhat unique, take on the genre. Take overly complex controls, and toss them out the window. Remove the isometric views common with those games and turn them on their side, literally. Swords & Soldiers is the latest attempt to bring real-time strategies to the console market and they succeed where many have failed.

There are three races available to choose from; the Vikings, the Chinese Empire, or the Aztecs. Each race has a campaign that features ten levels for them to complete. Only the Viking Mission appears to be available from the start, but any campaign can be selected and played at any time. The missions are varied slightly, though each is essentially based around defeating the enemy’s base. There are a few other mission types that revolve around different objectives, such as defeating the enemy with limited resources or men, but these missions are few and spread out through each campaign. The campaigns should take approximately two hours to complete giving you about six hours of play total in the main game. There are three challenge missions that are available, one for each race that is based upon their various talents. The Vikings challenge mission is a berserker run where you get one berserker and a limit of mana to cast spells and the object is to see how far you can travel before you are killed. The Aztecs challenge mission is inspired by the Indiana Jones movie and you see if you can defeat a number of enemies on a map without killing your units littered between those enemies. The Chinese challenge mission is a survival mode where you see how long you can last before you are finally defeated.

Gone are complex systems of trying to select multiple units and move them around on a huge battlefield. Swords & Soldiersuses a two dimensional, side-scrolling map and simple controls to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Units are selected by simply pointing at an icon on the top of the screen. Resource gathering units will travel back and forth to the gold mines to refill your coffers. Mana, the only other resource in the game slowly regenerates on its own. Fighting units, once created, will travel towards the enemy only stopping when they’ve encountered something that can be fought. If they win, they continue to the next objective until they’ve completed their objective or they die. You can augment units with a small number of spells that are available to each army, though they will not greatly enhance them. Knowing what unit to build and the proper time to build them is critical to success in each of the missions. Ranged units need support of fighters, but single fighting units, also, cannot win the battle alone.

Every army has units that are unique to their respective race. There are basic fighting units, ranged units, and more powerful units. The Vikings have the best basic fighter, the Berserker who can kill any other unit single handedly, and the Aztecs win on sheer numbers due to the ability to raise slain warriors to fight again for their army. Each army also has a gold farmer who can do nothing but mine resources. If they are attacked they will die. The spells available to each race also vary wildly. The Vikings can cause units to go into a rage which will move them to the battle more quickly, and they can heal units that have been damaged. The Aztecs can rain arrows from the sky and poison enemy units. The Chinese can cause a unit to become temporarily invulnerable. There is also one extremely powerful spell available to you. It costs a large amount of your available mana, but has the ability to destroy a large number of units at a time.

Real-time strategy games survive on the strength of their multi-player and Swords & Soldiers is no different. Online multi-player is not available, but there is a split screen local multi-player option. This divides the screen in half lengthways. This option limits the amount of secrecy that you can do when creating your army and sending them to fight, but if players are equally matched the game can last for hours at a time. You have the ability to see what your opponent is doing and counter them in real time. There are a number of maps to choose from that vary in size and complexity. A few have multiple paths that can be chosen to increase the depth of the strategy available. All three races are available in this mode and can be selected by either player.

The game is quite stunning visually. The developers decided to use a cartoon style that is reminiscent of comic books that are popular in Europe. Each battle is preceded by a Batman like logo flash where the logo zooms in towards you and quickly disappears in the background. The armies are all colorful and vary greatly in appearance. Each map if full of small details and you’ll see something new every time you play. The individual units are all very distinct from each other and it makes it easy to see what you’re up against and form your strategy accordingly. Ronimo has done a brilliant job bringing a wonderful visual style to Wii. Battle animations are comical, things like tongues hanging out when units have been stunned, and gas clouds signaling when units have been poisoned will cause chuckles to erupt from your mouth. Ninja monkeys vanish and reappear on the opposite sides of units they’ve stunned.

Brilliant voice work highlights the enjoyable audio experience of the game. Units have a number of phrases that they utter once created and sent into the battle. Sword clashes, arrows flying through the air and explosions are in constant supply, but never overwhelm you. It’s very easy to know when you’ve been attacked because units will call for help. The only downside to this is that the in between battle sequences were not voiced, because the voice work that is present is brilliantly done. Its stereotypical sounds, walk the line of offensiveness and retreat back at the proper time. The music is appropriately action packed with percussion beats that get you in the mood for battle.

If you’re looking for a strategy game that hasn’t been done often, then look no further than Swords & Soldiers. Irreverent humor, catchy music and comedy are all brought to the fore. Nonsensical scenarios are the hallmark of the game. Vikings go to war to obtain giant peppers for their barbecues. The Chinese emperor sends his soldiers out in search of bigger and better toys. They’re all wildly odd scenarios to send soldiers to fight, but they fit perfectly into the context of this world, and suck you in. Insane unit choices, a great single player campaign mixed with solid multiplayer and a large number of options make for a game that shouldn’t be missed.

Final Score: 4/5

Review copy of the game provided by Ronimo Games.