You move squads of tanks, infantry, and planes across a grid map, taking turns with an opponent to capture bases and wear down their army. Each commanding officer has a unique power that can turn a losing battle around if used at the right moment. It is a slower, thinkier kind of strategy game, so it suits people patient enough to plan several moves ahead rather than those wanting fast action.
Gameplay video
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Screenshots & review notes
The verdict
Delayed by real-world events and worth the wait, this remake proves the old turn-based formula still has bite. It's a little old-fashioned in structure, but that's part of its appeal.
The mechanics
Commanding units around a grid, juggling fuel and terrain and CO powers, still demands the kind of careful thinking modern strategy games often smooth away. The AI can be merciless in later campaigns.
Presentation
The new toy-soldier art style is a big swing from the original's sprites, all glossy and diorama-like, and it mostly pays off even if purists grumbled at first glance.
Staying power
Two full campaigns and robust multiplayer give it real staying power for strategy fans. Newcomers might bounce off the difficulty curve, but veterans will feel right at home.
Frames captured from the gameplay video above; notes are our own take on the game.
What it's like to play
You command an army on a grid-based map, selecting infantry, tanks, and other units with simple cursor movement and button presses, then deciding each turn whether to attack, capture a city for income, or hold position. Everything is presented in a bright, toy-soldier art style, with cute character portraits called COs standing in for generals who each bring their own special power to the battlefield. Terrain matters a great deal, since forests hide your units from view and mountains slow enemy tanks down, so reading the map is just as important as picking the right unit type. The remake adds a rewind feature that lets you undo a mistaken move within limits, which softens the learning curve for a genre that can otherwise punish careless clicks.
Each mission plays out over a series of turns where you build new units from captured cities, position them carefully, and try to break through the enemy's lines before they break through yours, with a single battle often taking thirty minutes to over an hour depending on the map's size. Two full campaigns, originally from separate Game Boy Advance games, offer dozens of missions with steadily escalating scenarios and new unit types to learn. A map editor lets you build your own battlefields and share them, and local or online multiplayer lets you test your tactics against another actual commander. Difficulty options and the added fast-forward feature help keep slower AI turns from dragging on larger maps.
Session to session, this rewards careful planning over quick reflexes, and a single well-timed flanking maneuver can feel as satisfying as any action game combo. What might frustrate you is that AI turns can move slowly on bigger maps, and a handful of missions in the second campaign carry difficulty spikes untouched from the original decades-old design. It is a strong pick for anyone who enjoys turn-based strategy and wants a lovingly polished, toy-like version of a genre classic.